Bases
Beat the egg whites, gradually adding in the sugar. Beat until the mixture thickens.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks then fold them into the beaten whites. Into the mixture sieve in the flour, a little at the time, gently stirring to combine. Add in enough flour until the mixture resembles a pikelet mix.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Liberally grease two baking trays with butter. Carefully spoon the mixture onto one tray, one dessert spoon at a time. Keep them far enough appart to prevent them sticking to each other as they cook, as they will spread - about nine to a tray should do.

Place the tray into the oven and cook until the edges start to brown, about 5 minutes depending on how hot your oven is. The trick here is to get the timing right - too long in the oven and the edges crisp up, especially if your mixture is quite thin, and this makes them hard to shape. Not enough time in the oven and they can become sticky and difficult to remove from the trays. But don't worry, there is plenty of mixture to practise with!

About a minute before it is time to remove the tray from the oven you can start to spoon the mixture out onto the second tray. This way you get a bit of a production line going.

Remove the tray from the oven and using a sharp edged knife, carefully prize the bases off the tray. Pinch together one end on each one to form a very open cone or petal shape. Set aside to cool on a wire cake rack.

Repeat the cooking and shaping process until all the mixture has gone.

Filling
In a saucepan, add the flour, sugar and egg yolk and beat together to form a stiff paste. Gradually stir in the milk, ensuring no lumps form.

Place the mixture over a gentle heat and continue stirring until the it thickens to a custard or heavy cream consistency. If it remain runny, make a paste from a bit more flour, say one tablespoon, and some of the runny filling, then stir into the mix ensuring no lumps form. Cook further until thickened.

Turn off the heat and stir in the butter until melted. Set aside to cool.

Assembly
Spoon a little of the filling into each petal cake and arrange them into a flower shape on a round serving plate.

In the middle of each petal, place a small dot of your favourite red jam, jelly or berry. A slightly sour jam or berry makes a nice foil for the sweetness of the cakes.

Dust with icing sugar.

Serving
Serve and watch them disappear off the plate!