Cupcakes or fairy cakes – large or small confections of sponge and buttercream. Here’s how to make this tasty treat.
Making Cakes with Grandma
Like everyone of her generation, my grandma was a lovely cook. Even with her coal fired oven she could bake the lightest cakes and pastries you can imagine.
From being a little girl I helped her to make a mess – the kitchen looked like a bomb had dropped! At the same time I learnt her recipes and picked up her love of baking – when the mood comes over me!
You can use this sponge cake recipe and adapt it for many things. Cook it in a dish while the oven is on and serve it with pureed stewed fruit and custard as a desert. Make fairy cakes, or slightly larger cupcakes – as the mood takes you. Add coffee and walnuts, chocolate or strawberries to make a gateau. Put a surprise filling inside!
It flies a bit in the tradition of the recipe books, both in terms of the ratio of ingredients and the lack of gentle folding of the flour. But this is how she always made it, and this is how I’ve always made it. See what you think.
Ingredients for Cupcakes or Fairy Cakes
For the cakes:
4oz margarine
6oz sugar
2 eggs
8oz flour
milk
for the buttercream icing:
2oz butter
enough icing sugar to make a thick paste, about 4oz
splash of milk
Make Cupcakes or Fairy Cakes
Put the margarine and sugar in a bowl and mix with an electric whisk – or use elbow grease if you haven’t got an electric version! You’re aiming for a light and well mixed mixture. Add the eggs. Break them into a cup if you struggle with bits of shell – and then whisk again.
Add half of the flour and whisk. At this stage you’ll need some milk to loosen it up. Add the rest of the flour and whisk again. The mixture should be thick dropping consistency.
Use a bun baking tray, lined with bun cases. Cupcake baking trays have a few large spaces, trays with more smaller holes are for fairy cakes. There’s no need to grease the tray or the cases.
Spoon the mixture out, making sure there’s plenty of mixture in each case. Or they’ll be underfilled when cooked and look stingy. You can then lick the bowl out if you like!
Bake at 180C for about 25-30 minutes or until springy to the touch. Small fairy cakes/cupcakes cook through quickly.
If you use this recipe to make a sponge cake, test the centre to make sure it’s cooked. Poke a knife or skewer into the centre. When it comes out clean without bits of wet mixture stuck to it, your cake is finished. DON’T open the oven door until they look ready! If you open it while they’re rising, your cakes will collapse!
Allow to cool, and then decorate.
Decorating your Cupcakes or Fairy Cakes
This is where it’s easy to flap icing sugar all over the kitchen!
Put the butter in a mixing bowl and give it a whisk first to soften it. Start to carefully add the icing sugar, while continuing to whisk. The butter will be almost enough moisture to mix it with – you’ll only need a tiny splash of milk to loosen it up so don’t go mad.
I always make buttercream by taste rather than by weight of ingredients. When you’ve finished it should be reasonably stiff and you should be able to taste the butter through the sweetness of the sugar.
Now you can pipe onto your buns, or spoon on as required. Decoration is limited only by your imagination!
You can cut the tops off the cakes, put the buttercream in the hole and pop the top back on. Cut the top in half to make butterfly buns. With a tea strainer, dust a little icing sugar on top to decorate. You can stick a decoration or glace cherry onto your lid with a blob of plain icing sugar.
Maybe colour your buttercream with food colouring. The list of possibilities is endless!
Store in an airtight container.
Other sweet and cheap recipes to try:
Why don’t you check out Trevors Foodservice – it’s the large, back-stage business that’s quietly feeding the Fylde Coast! They’re Blackpool’s number one wholesaler of chilled, frozen and ambient foods. And also sell cleaning materials, catering disposables and equipment.
The family firm was first established in Blackpool in 1962. It sells branded products and their Country Range, specially made for the 12-member buying group which Trevors is part of.
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