Showing posts with label small cakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label small cakes. Show all posts
Cherry Topped Fairy Cakes. How can you not fall in love with something called a Fairy Cake? And when they are topped with glace cherries, so much the more!
A fairy cake is the name given to small buttery cakes in the UK. They are generally much smaller than a cup cake and rather than a buttercream icing will have a simple thick sugar and water glaze.
They are delightfully simple to make and are a great way to introduce children to the art of baking. Simple and very forgiving, and yes, very delicious!
You just have to love the names that they give to their baked goods in the UK. I used to love reading Enid Blyton stories when I was a child and a huge part of the appeal was the name of the food that the children ate in the books.
Cherry Cakes, Crumpets, lashings of Ginger Beer, boiled sweeties, etc. it all sounded very exotic to me. I wanted to experience all of it. Midnight feasts, picnics, tuck boxes and adventures. Sign me up!!
This fairy cake recipe that I am sharing with you today comes from the cookery book entitled Vintage Cakes, tremendously good cakes for sharing an giving, by Jane Brocket. There are over 90 recipes in the book and I have enjoyed every one that I have baked thus far.
These fairy cakes were deemed good enough to be portrayed on the cover. As you can see mine did not look all that different from the ones in the book! That's one of mine sitting there on the cover just above the plate of cakes, covering the Victoria Sponge.
The photographs in the book are beautiful and the recipes are really well written. They are written by weight, which is a much more accurate method of baking in my opinion. I started baking by weight when I first moved to the UK.
All recipes over there are done by weight. I had to sink or swim and so I bought a set of scales and just got stuck in to doing it. I still bake by weight, even though I am back in Canada. As I said, it is much more accurate. The potential for error is very small.
For instance cup sizes can vary greatly. Have you spooned your dry ingredients into the cup and leveled it off? Or have you scooped the cup down into them. Those two things alone can make a huge difference, whereas a gram is always a gram is a gram.
Not all cups are created equally either. I have found differences in different kinds of measuring cups, etc. So now I weigh everything. I have, however, provided cup measures for this recipe, as I do all my recipes. I try to make everything easier for all of my readers on both sides of the pond!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE CHERRY TOPPED FAIRY CAKES
Simple baking cupboard ingredients. Wherever possible I have endeavored to provide adequate substitutions for anything that might be difficult to find.
For the cakes:
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tsp (125g) butter, softened
- 2/3 cup (125g) fine granulated sugar
- 2 large free range eggs
- 1 cup (125g) self raising flour
- few drops vanilla extract
- 1 -2 TBS milk
For the finish:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- 2 1/2 TBS water (as needed)
- 6 glace cherries, washed, dried and halved
The original recipe called for caster sugar, which is a fine granulated sugar. You can use regular granulated sugar so long as it is not really coarse. If it is coarse, it will be helpful to blitz it for a few seconds in a food processor to make it finer.
Self rising flour is an ingredient that is very commonly asked for in British recipes. Self rising flour is a flour that has leavening already added to it.
It is very easy to make your own self rising flour. I make my own, 3 or 4 cups worth a a time. For every cup (140g) of flour, whisk in 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp of salt. Easy peasy.
If you cannot get glace cherries (which are candied cherries) you can use maraschino cherries. Just rinse them and dry them really well before using.
HOW TO MAKE CHERRY TOPPED FAIRY CAKES
These are some of the easiest cakes to make. That is why they are such a good thing to make which children. Children love to bake and this is a very forgiving recipe.
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Line a 12 cup medium muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. If it starts to curdle you can add a spoonful of the flour, but its not really necessary.
Stir in the flour, folding it in with a metal spoon until well combined. Stir in the vanilla and enough milk, as needed to give a soft dropping consistency.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling no more than 2/3 full.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until well risen and golden brown on top. The tops should spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Remove to a wire rack and cool slightly before removing from the tin completely.
Once they are cold you can make the icing. Sift the sugar into a bowl. Whisk in the water a bit at a time until you have a smooth thick spreadable type of icing. Spread some on top of each fairy cake and top each with 1/2 cherry.
Leave to set the icing before serving. Delicious! Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
You can use orange juice or lemon juice instead of water when making the icing to add a different depth of flavor to it. You may need to use a bit more icing sugar in that case and it may tint the icing a tiny bit so that it isn't pure white.
Sugared flowers are really pretty on top of these and make them a beautiful addition for a tea party or a special picnic. Children love cake sprinkles and candies when used to decorate the cakes.
These are best eaten on the day, but will keep for a day or two in an airtight container in a dark cool place. They are great for children's parties, or picnics, and properly decorated, they are a beautiful addition to an afternoon tea party.
With their buttery fluffy sponge texture and that lovely hint of sweet to the tops, they are fabulous when served with hot cups of tea, or glasses of milk, or cold glasses of lemonade!
The next time you are invited to a get-together bake a plate of these and watch everyone's eyes light up when you bring them in. They delight children and adults alike!
Some other small traditional bakes here in The English Kitchen that you might enjoy are:
QUEEN CAKES - These lovely little cakes are traditionally baked for Mothering Sunday in March and were said to be a favorite of Queen Victoria. They are rich and buttery and studded with plenty of dried currants. You can also use chopped raisins if you can't get currants. A dusting of icing sugar is the only adornment needed.
SCOTTISH SNOWBALL CAKES - How can you not love something called a snowball cake! Its impossible. Two buttery small cakes, sandwiched together with some jam. The filled caked are then rolled in glace icing and coconut. They look like little snowballs. Delightfully delicious!
CUPCAKE MADELEINES - These English Madeleine cakes are very different from their French counterpart. These buttery little cupcakes are brushed with warm jam and rolled in coconut. A glace cherry half decorates the top of each. They are the perfect teatime treat!
Yield: 12 small cakes
Cherry Topped Fairy Cakes
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 30 Min
Ingredients
For the cakes:
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tsp (125g) butter, softened
- 2/3 cup (125g) fine granulated sugar
- 2 large free range eggs
- 1 cup (125g) self raising flour
- few drops vanilla extract
- 1 -2 TBS milk
For the finish:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- 2 1/2 TBS water (as needed)
- 6 glace cherries, washed, dried and halved
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Line a 12 cup medium muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. If it starts to curdle you can add a spoonful of the flour, but its not really necessary.
- Stir in the flour, folding it in with a metal spoon until well combined. Stir in the vanilla and enough milk, as needed to give a soft dropping consistency.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling no more than 2/3 full.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until well risen and golden brown on top. The tops should spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Remove to a wire rack and cool slightly before removing from the tin completely.
- Once they are cold you can make the icing. Sift the sugar into a bowl. Whisk in the water a bit at a time until you have a smooth thick spreadable type of icing. Spread some on top of each fairy cake and top each with 1/2 cherry.
- Leave to set the icing before serving. Delicious!
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My oldest daughter is coming for a sleepover tonight. I am really looking forward to it. This is something we have been talking about for quite a while now. I am happy that we have finally gotten to a point with this virus that we can do that.
Before I moved back to Canada, Eileen had saved enough money to fly over to the UK to visit me. She had bought tickets for both her and her brother to come over in April of 2020 but alas Covid happened and the trip did not.
And then I returned to Canada later that year for good and Covid was still raging, so we were still limited in the contact that we could have with each other as she was not considered to be a part of my family bubble which included my father, sister and brother in law.
We have had a few get togethers but not many over this past year. Its sad really but I know most families have been in the same position.
Admittedly I am nervous about her coming here overnight when I really think about it. I am hoping we will be okay. We've both been vaccinated and boostered, but still, there is that niggling doubt as to whether we will truly be safe or not. I am working really hard to overcome those feelings. Things are opening up a great deal now and so we should be safe-ish.
I wanted to make us something special to celebrate this time we are going to spend together and we had always talked about having a tea party. I won't be able to do that today, but I was able to make some Butterfly Cakes.
The recipe comes from a cookbook I have entitled The Official Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea Cookbook. I thought it quite fitting, and we will probably enjoy a hot cuppa with one or two of these after she gets here!
I am sure you are asking yourself, what is a Butterfly Cake when its not at home? To put it simply, it is the posh British cousin of the American Cupcake!
Small individual cakes topped with a buttercream or whipped cream and a dab of jam, with some cut cake placed on top in a way as to duplicate a butterfly's wings. I will tell you exactly how to do this!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE BUTTERFLY CAKES
I can assure you, no butterflies were hurt in the making of these delicious cakes or will be hurt in the eating of them!!
- 1 2/3 cups(215g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (115g) butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 2 large free range eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
To top:
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whipping beaten until stiff with 1 TBS of icing sugar OR 1 cup of vanilla buttercream icing
- 1 TBS of strawberry or raspberry jam
- additional icing sugar to dust
You can use unsalted butter if you wish, but it was not specified in the recipe. I basically only keep lightly salted butter in my home. If you are worried about the salt content, by all means cut back on the amount of salt required in the recipe.
You can use either stiffly whipped sweetened cream to decorate these cakes, or vanilla buttercream frosting. Either homemade or readymade.
I used a small pot of strawberry jam. One small pot was enough to decorate all the cakes. Bonne Maman. I love this jam.
HOW TO MAKE BUTTERFLY CAKES
You might be tempted to think that making these lovely little cakes is a bit complicated, but I can tell you right now that nothing could be easier.
So cute and then so easy to do. Trust me on this. You will begin by mixing and baking the cakes. You will need a medium muffin tin for this.
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Line 12 medium muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
Beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the sugar at medium high until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, at medium speed, one at a time, stopping to scrape the bowl occasionally. Add the vanilla with the final egg. Beat until well combined.
Add the flour, half at a time, alternating with the milk on low speed, just until blended evenly. Divide between the lined muffin cups.
Bake for 17 to 19 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave to cool in the muffin tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then lift out of the tin and onto the wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare your whipped cream or buttercream.
Using a serrated knife cut off the domed top of each cupcake. Cut the domed top in half crosswise to form two half moons.
Spoon or pipe some of the whipped cream or butter cream onto the center of each cupcake. Put a small dollop of jam onto the center of the whipped cream or buttercream.
Gently push "wings" cut side down and at a slight angle into the cream/buttercream, positioning them on either side of the jam. Lightly dust the tops with icing sugar if desired.
And that's it! Your Butterfly Cakes are ready to serve. If you use whipped cream on them, obviously they will only be good on the day and best put together just prior to serving.
The use of buttercream means that you can make them a bit ahead of time and any that are not eaten can be safely stored in an airtight container.
I love that they are delicious and yet so simple to make! I think you will too!
Butterfly Cakes
Yield: 12 small cakes
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 17 MinTotal time: 32 Min
The Posher British cousin of the North American Cupcake. How can you not love something called a Butterfly Cake!
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups(215g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (115g) butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 2 large free range eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
To top:
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whipping beaten until stiff with 1 TBS of icing sugar OR 1 cup of vanilla buttercream icing
- 1 TBS of strawberry or raspberry jam
- additional icing sugar to dust
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Line 12 medium muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the sugar at medium high until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, at medium speed, one at a time, stopping to scrape the bowl occasionally. Add the vanilla with the final egg. Beat until well combined.
- Add the flour, half at a time, alternating with the milk on low speed, just until blended evenly. Divide between the lined muffin cups.
- Bake for 17 to 19 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave to cool in the muffin tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then lift out of the tin and onto the wire rack to cool completely.
- Prepare your whipped cream or buttercream.
- Using a serrated knife cut off the domed top of each cupcake. Cut the domed top in half crosswise to form two half moons.
- Spoon or pipe some of the whipped cream or butter cream onto the center of each cupcake. Put a small dollop of jam onto the center of the whipped cream or buttercream.
- Gently push "wings" cut side down and at a slight angle into the cream/buttercream, positioning them on either side of the jam.
- Lightly dust the tops with icing sugar if desired.
This content, written and photography, is the sole property of The English Kitchen (Marie Rayner). Any posting or misuse without prior permission is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it as such to mariealicejoan at aol dot com Much appreciated.
Thank you for visiting! Do come again!
This is the time of year that we all start wanting to enjoy everything apple, spiced and yes, even pumpkin. These Apple Cider Donut Whoopie Pies are a real favourite around here!
No surprise there. The cakes are lovely and light and moist with beautiful spicy flavours. Cinnamon and nutmeg for the most part, but a touch of cloves and ground ginger.
Once baked they are coated with melted butter. They are then rolled in a spiced sugar to give them a lovely crunchy coating.
Again the spices are nutmeg and cinnamon. Very nice I have to say.
I chose to fill them with a cream cheese frosting. You don't need a filling that is overly sweet when you have all that sugar on the outsides.
You want something which is rich and luxurious, but not too sugary. This fits the bill perfectly.
I used my whoopie pie pan to bake these. I have to say I am not always very happy with the way they come out using this pan.
I always end up having to trim the edges. They look alright, but not quite as they would just baked on parchment paper on a baking sheet.
I ended up having to bake these twice. I was much happier with my first set of photos. I thought I had taken them off the camera onto my photo editing program.
I am pretty sure I had, because I then deleted them from off my camera card. So today when I went to edit them, uh oh . . . no photos.
And so I had to bake them all over again today! Not a hardship really. These are so good. In fact they are amazingly delicious!
And so today I now have more to give them away. I don't think my next door neighbour will mind. She is usually the recipient of my baked things.
She doesn't mind one bit. Happy to say. She has been very good to us over this lockdown. Always bringing us over bread and milk and she would bring us anything else we needed as well. I try not to ask her for anything because I don't like putting her out.
But I do share my baked goodies with her as a thank you. She is always very happy when I sent a plate of something over. She will get these today. My friend Tina got them yesterday.
I can tell you nobody has ever complained! They are always very happy when I bring them a treat.
They say joy shared is doubled. I have to say that baking shared is joy shared. Its a simple thing and means a lot to people to know you care enough to share with them little treats like these.
Back in the 1990's when my kids were growing up I used to make them Chocolate Whoopie Pies. They loved them.
One year I entered them in the county fair where I lived. My sister also entered the same recipe in her local county fair.
Believe it or not, we both won blue Ribbons. Mine in Meaford, Ontario. My sister in West Lorne. We were both quite proud of our ribbons I have to say.
And the best part was that we had won them the same year at the same time with the same recipe. I just love it when my sister and I have a shared experience like that. Like I said a joy shared is a joy doubled!
Anyways, I do hope that you will bake these and then enjoy them. They really are very good. Scrumdiddlyumptious I have to say.
Scrumpdiddlyumptious and incredibly moreish! Trust me. Have I ever lied before? 👍👍👍
Apple Cider Donut Whoopie Pies
Yield: 12 Pies
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 40 Min
Tis the season for all things apple and spice! These are truly lush despite my poor photography!
Ingredients
For the cakes:
- 2 cups (480ml) sweet apple cider or cloudy apple juice
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose (plain) flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- pinch each powdered cloves and ginger
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter
- 1 cup (200g) soft light brown sugar packed
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk
For the cream cheese filling:
- 2 1/2 TBS butter, at room temperature
- 4 TBS full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- few drops vanilla
- 1 cup (130g) sifted icing sugar to give you the right consistency
You will also need:
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 TBS ground cinnamon
- 1 TBS ground nutmeg
- 4 TBS melted butter
Instructions
- You will need to reduce the apple juice before beginning. Put it into a very large beaker and cook it on high in the microwave for 15 minutes until it reduces to 1/2 cup (120ml). (Alternately you can do this in a saucepan on the stove, boiling it for abou 10 minutes.) Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4. Line two baking sheets with baking paper, or spray two non-stick whoopie pie pans really well with baking spray. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt together in a bowl.
- Cream the butter and brown sugar together in another bowl until light and well combined. Beat in the egg ad vanilla. Mix on low speed with an eletric mixer while alternately adding the buttermilk, flour and reduced apple juice. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Spoon heaping dessert-spoonfuls (about 1/4 cup) of the batter into the holes of your whoopie pie tins or roughly 3 inches apart on your lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. A toothpick inserted in the centre of one should come out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Mix the granulated sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a bowl. Brush the top of each whoopie pie cake with some melted butter and then roll it in the sugar mixture to coat. Set aside until all are done.
- Beat all of the icing ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Sandwich two sugar coated cakes together with some of the icing, spreading it on the flat side of one and topping with the flat side of the other.
- Store in an airtight container until ready to serve. You can wrap each one individually in plastic cling film if you wish.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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