Fairy Cakes....

Ishtar

zippychick wrote: »

Hello, oh surprise to see i posted on this last lol.

I am planning on making fairy cakes today.My 2 eggs weigh 160g, and i only have 140g of butter. Trying to be MSE and all, im trying to avoid going to the shop. Would i be better to use 20g of flora light or just to downscale my other ingredients and add *most* of the egg and 140g of flour and sugar, or just go with the slightly less amount of butter? Thanks in advance. I've missed this place.

Use the flora light - it's not a huge amount, so would probably not make a big difference to the final outcome. Personally, I'd probably go with the 4oz of flour, butter, sugar and then add the two eggs. I do the all in one method so would add a level teaspoon of baking powder if I had any to hand - just to give it a bit of a lift!

HTH
D.

djdymond

just out of curiosity... i plan to make muffins for my hubby as i think theyd be a bit more filling for him than fairy cakes although reading this thread i like the idea of decorating lil cakes etc. one question though.. if there any difference in how to make muffins from fairy cakes, or are muffins just a larger version?

also silly question, to make coloured icing, im guessing you just add a few drops of colouring to icing sugar and water?

and then if i wanted to, say ice letters on cakes to spell happy birthday or what ever, do i make up the same stuff but thicker but then have to use a pipe? is there an easier way?

thanks everyone!! loving all the ideas so far! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

powershopper

Fairy cakes........ the most expensive I found was £8.50 PER BUN. oh, plus delivery of course.... Think I'm in the wrong job here

Ishtar

djdymond wrote: »

just out of curiosity... i plan to make muffins for my hubby as i think theyd be a bit more filling for him than fairy cakes although reading this thread i like the idea of decorating lil cakes etc. one question though.. if there any difference in how to make muffins from fairy cakes, or are muffins just a larger version?

also silly question, to make coloured icing, im guessing you just add a few drops of colouring to icing sugar and water?

and then if i wanted to, say ice letters on cakes to spell happy birthday or what ever, do i make up the same stuff but thicker but then have to use a pipe? is there an easier way?

thanks everyone!! loving all the ideas so far! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Muffins and fairy cakes are made using a different method, so they aren't strictly the same. I've been using muffin cases and my muffin tin with a fairy cake mix - a standard 4 oz flour, butter, sugar, 2 eggs mix - which makes slightly larger cupcakes. This amount makes 12 cupcakes, which I usually ice with a simple water icing, or use buttercream.

You could make the icing thicker, but would then have to pipe it - personally I'd use royal icing mix to make the icing for this as I find it holds its shape better.

Don't be fooled by the bigger cakes = fuller husband theory...my cakes always seem to disappear almost quicker than I can make them....:rolleyes:

HTH
D

mrs_baggins

have decided i am going to make cupcakes for gd birthday instead of one big cake. Know its a silly question but when filling the cases how full do they need to be? and what type of icing would be best for 2 year old?

caitybabes

Hello Mrs Baggins

When filling the cases they'd need to be about 1/2 to 2/3 full. For a 2 year old, I'd probably go with a bit of 'runny' icing and a smartie (but that's probably just because I remember eating little fairy cakes with smarties on top when I was a young-un and they always went down a treat). They always pick the smartie off first...

Sometimes it's a nice idea to use the cupcakes to spell out a message. For example, I made some cupcakes for a colleague's leaving do and wrote one letter on each cupcake to spell out, when put together, "We'll miss you". Or you could put the number 2 on some.

Have fun!

Cait x

floyd

I would agree with Caity about the runny icing (icing sugar, drop of hot water and a dot of natural food colouring if you fancy it).
As kids we always had them topped with smarties, crystalized lemon or orange slices or hundreds and thousands or half a glace cherry. The easiest way to do the hundreds and thousands is to make a stiff-ish water icing, put a heaped blob about the size of a 50p on the cake then turn the cake upside down into a saucer of hundreds and thousands, perfect finish and none on the floor!
Buttercream is probably too rich and messy for 2 year olds, plus it can b expensive to do

owtfornowt_2

You could also use freshly squeezed lemon juice to make your icing up instead of warm water, or some diluting juice. You could also try some edible glitter to decorate.

I agree with caity - about 2/3rds full of the cake mixture into cake cases. You could also try adding some choc chips (roll in flour before adding them, apparently it stops them sinking to the bottom), sultanas, cherries, coconut......

mrs_baggins

thanks all! great thought about the choc drops!

elf06

I did square cupcakes for DS birthday just last week (he was 4) and I went with a fairly thick fondnt icing and sued colours and sparkles to make them fun