Fairy cakes like mountains!

lindens

I love making (and eating:o) fairy cakes and sometimes make butterfly cakes (OH fave) but sometimes just want to ice them The problem is the top is not flat its shaped like a mountain, which is good for butterfly cakes but not for icing.
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong please?

vanilla

Your not doing anything wrong, mine be the same so i cut the mountain off and that leaves it flat to put icing on.

Yummy fairy cakes.:rotfl:

pavlovs_dog

when you put the mix into the cake case, do you level it off or just spoon it in? leveling off with a palette knife or back of a spoon (as you would with a full size cake) may well be the answer

twink

cut off the mountain tops and sandwich together with jam, cover with water icing and roll in coconut, fairy cakes and snowballs too

sharon59

can you lot stop bragging about your fairy cakes!!!! Mine are lovely for icing-flat as bloomin pancakes -cant get them to rise!!!!always look like poor rlations to everyones-follow recipes to the letter!!in my early married days my MIL insisted l must be doing something wrong-so stood and supervised my every move and they were still the same!!!!!

lindens

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

when you put the mix into the cake case, do you level it off or just spoon it in? leveling off with a palette knife or back of a spoon (as you would with a full size cake) may well be the answer

I just tried that funnily enough but the mix is too thick and gooey, couldnt be done!

Also, when they are cooked and cooling the paper cases are coming off?????

System

Do you make them the traditional creamed way or chuck it all in way,sometimes i've found the chuck it all in way don't rise as much?

Also when i want them flatter i don't fill them quite as full and try the lower shelf,where it might be a bit cooler so you haven't quite got the initial burst?

lindens

toomuchmess wrote: »

Do you make them the traditional creamed way or chuck it all in way,sometimes i've found the chuck it all in way don't rise as much?

Also when i want them flatter i don't fill them quite as full and try the lower shelf,where it might be a bit cooler so you haven't quite got the initial burst?

I do the 4 4 4 2 method, and cream the butter and sugar first, then add eggs and some flour to stop curdling and then add the rest of the flour. All done with a hand mixer.

I wonder if its something to do with the oven as about half way through the cooking they are lovely and flat, its something to do with the second half of the cooking. I could try the bottom of the oven.

Angelraesunshine

lindens wrote: »

I do the 4 4 4 2 method, and cream the butter and sugar first, then add eggs and some flour to stop curdling and then add the rest of the flour. All done with a hand mixer.

I wonder if its something to do with the oven as about half way through the cooking they are lovely and flat, its something to do with the second half of the cooking. I could try the bottom of the oven.

thats how i make mine but in a bowl with a fork then spoon, but then i add about a tablespoon of milk in to it too and if i want flatter cakes i put slightly less in and dent the middle with the back of a wet spoon so that it does not rise as much in the middle

Olliebeak

My original Mrs Beetons cookery book gave '4-4-4-2' (or '6-6-6-3' - depending on the size of the sandwich cake tins) as the recipe for a Victoria Sandwich cake. But for fairy cakes the '4-4-4-2 recipe' was changed to 5ozs flour-4ozs caster sugar-4ozs margarine-2eggs. Was never sure why it was different - but I always followed that. If you were adding sultanas/cherries etc it did seem to hold them a bit better where they would sink in the 4442 mix. Probably the extra flour made them a bit firmer.

patchwork_cat

Lindens - you are not doing anything wrong - you are doing it right!! I am jealous! My advice would be to ice the mountain! What sort of icing where you thinking of? Just let all icings be nearly set before putting them on ( it is a fine calsulation as too late and it will be a lumpy mass!)