After seeing a friend get caught up in an online "debate" about the price of shop bought cupcakes and whether or not they were value for money I felt that there was only one thing that I could take round the next time we met for tea and cakes – good old fashioned homemade fairy cakes! As a child I don't think anyone here in the UK had quite invented cupcakes like we have them now with huge towers of fattening icing or elaborate decorations. Instead fairy cakes, or if the event was very special butterfly buns, often appeared on the plate at tea time along side scones and sandwiches.
These really are so, so simple to make and I even managed a batch this morning whilst Mr C went out for a run.
Ingredients (to make 12 buns)
100g butter or margarine – softened
100g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
100g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1 – 2 tablespoons milk
A few drops of vanilla essence
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Cream together the margarine (or butter) and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
Gradually mix in the eggs and flour alternately and also add the pinch of salt.
Add the milk and vanilla essence and mix to make a soft mixture.
Spoon into bun-cases and bake for 15-20 minutes until well risen and springy to the touch.
To decorate
I topped my cakes with some simple icing (110g icing sugar and a couple of tablespoons of cold water mixed together until smooth) and some of the lovely Dr Oetker Polka Dots that I saw mentioned on Attic 24's blog last month. I love the bright colours of these and also the fact that they don't go all over the place in the same way that hundreds and thousands do.
These really do make a lovely simple tea-time treat and have no where near as many calories in them as a shop bought cupcake either. Little Miss C loves them so much that when she asked if she could have one after her lunch today and I told her that she had to wait until after her nap she instantly took herself upstairs to bed! If that's not a recommendation from a toddler then I don't know what is.
Toddler bribery, now that’s good.
The funny thing is that I wasnt even trying to bribe her at the time, she just interpreted it that way!
I do agree. I just don’t understand the cupcake thing – on the rare occasions I have one, I have taken one mouthful of the pile of fatty sugar on the top and scraped it off – but fairy cakes are a godsend. They can have lemon, raisins, choc chips in them, little butterflies, hundreds and thousands, or any other variation you care to try, yet what you eat is good, honest cake. My recipe is from a lady who died years ago and is in ounces, but it is basically the same. Now, my grandsons get fairy cake trains and boats when they visit.
I am so completely in agreement with you!