Fairy cakes

Happy Monday everyone!

The sun is shining, could summer really be on its way?

Anyway, today my theme is fairy cakes. Yum yum yum. I just love them.

Whenever I have a bad day at work and fancy chilling out at home, I tend to pop into the supermarket on the way home, grab some eggs, flour, sugar, butter and icing sugar and enjoy a couple of relaxing hours mixing (by hand!) and decorating pretty little fairy cakes.

I know cupcakes are the 'in-thing' but I just love fairy cakes. They're bite size, well, just, and they tend to cook better, for me anyway.

I've also been experimenting with using oil instead of butter, or sometimes half butter, half oil and the results are amazing - the cakes are so much lighter...and the mixing is so much easier.

And as I had a day off last Monday (thank you bank holidays!), I enjoyed a few relaxing hours in the kitchen whilst the Other Half shouted obscenities at his PS3, or whatever.

I'm sure you'e done at least some baking, so I won't pretend that I have THE best cake recipe and that you should do as I do - I'm sure you have some awesome mothers who all have their own superb recipes. But, here's what I do - in not too much detail - I wouldn't want to bore you.

To make 24 fairy cakes:

8oz self raising flour
8oz sugar
8oz butter (or 4oz oil and 4oz butter)
4 eggs
1/2 tablespoon of baking powder

I mix the butter (and oil if using) with the sugar until all the lumps are gone. I add half the eggs and half the flour, mix, then add the rest of the eggs, the rest of the flour and some baking powder. You should end up with a silky smooth batter. 

I spoon a good amount of the mixture in each case and bake for approximately 15 minutes - checking all the time. I tend to use the finger test to see when they're ready - if you press the cake lightly with your finger and the cake bounces back up - they're done.

I tend to decorate my cakes with butter icing - oh so naughty but oh so good.

To decorate 24 fairy cakes, generously:

18oz sieved icing sugar
9oz butter (not the low fat version or it will be too runny)
1 teaspoon of good quality vanilla essence (I used to buy the cheap version thinking it was the same - trust me, it's not)

And basically - you mix it all together - as easy as that.

Using a spatula, place all the icing in a piping bag - I used to use the syringe type decorator but have since found that those disposable bags are sooo much easier and give a better finish. Anyone else fill theirs using a vase? Just place the bag in a large vase, spoon the mix into the bag and then take the bag out of the vase. No mess.

It's not necessary, but it does makes life a lot easier. And please don't go spending on one of these, a vase will do the job just fine.

And then it's up to you - go nuts and do whatever you like. Here are a few ideas to get you started - I'm by no stretch of the imagination the best decorator in the world, but as long as they taste good, who cares ay?

Piping bag photo from chefmommy-brandao blog.