Bakes & More   +  recipe

I can't believe that I'm the only person whose earliest memories of baking involve a packet mix and some rice paper?

Although our cupboards never usually contained flour, you could often find a box of cartoon character themed fairy cake mix somewhere at the back, ready for my brother and I to pounce upon when we'd got bored of holiday television. All you needed to do was add the wet ingredients, bake up your fairy cakes and then decorate with a blob of icing and a pressed out picture from a sheet of rice paper.

Fairy cakes are what we ate in the UK before the Sex and the City introduced us all to the cupcake.

Traditional fairy cakes are smaller and lighter than cupcakes, made from a basic sponge recipe with a splash of milk. Rather than a mound of frosting, they tend to be decorated with a simple icing made from icing/powdered sugar and boiling water. Sprinkles are just about acceptable decorations but ideally you want something more austere; maybe just a single smartie (or M&M) on top?

Fairy cakes are a mainstay of children's parties and school bake sales. The smell - the vanilla cake, the very particular sweetness of the icing - conjures up a wave of nostalgia and transports me straight back to childhood.

It seemed quite fitting therefore that these fairy cakes were the result of my first kitchen excursion for a while. I stood in my kitchen on Saturday morning, creaming together butter and sugar with a wooden spoon, and I began to feel, for the first time in a while, that all was right in the world.

~
Fairy cakes
Yield: 12 cakes*

Ingredients

• 110g unsalted butter, softened
• 110g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 110g plain/AP flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 150g icing/powdered sugar
• 25ml boiling water
• Sprinkles to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a cupcake tray with paper cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar by hand or with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding the vanilla with the last egg.
3. Fold in the flour, baking powder and the milk.
4. Spoon into paper cases and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
6. When cool, make the icing by mixing together the icing sugar and the boiling water until you have a thick paste. Spoon the icing onto the cakes and add sprinkles.