HAPPY NEW YEAR #2

Dearest cupcake lovers

Happy New Year again to everyone! To celebrate the evening we are having friends over and I have made a batch of (wait for it) lemon & red raspberry MUFFINS!!! I know I know, but it's NEW YEAR so I thought I would bake something NEW!! So here they are!

Love & best wishes to all, enjoy your baking & don't forget to try something new every once in a while!

Muffin Fairy (for tonite only) xx

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dearest cupcake lovers

Having blown Xmas resolutions of trying to be good (had 2 delish carrot cupcakes on Crimbo day - made by hubbie no less!!) I am going to bake some low-fat-but-still-delish-recipes this week. Don't know which ones yet....

Here is a piccie of Fairy Betty's daughter Strawberry Shortcake's Crimbo cupcakes! Aren't they fab?!!

Chat later
Cake Fairy xx

Christmas Cupcake Challenge

Dearest Cupcake lovers

My good friend Fairy Betty has thrown down the baking gauntlet & challenged me to come up with some Crimbo cupcakes. I shall take the challenge and create some x-tremely delish festive goodies. For starters I will make chocolate cupcakes with a peppermint buttercream icing, we'll call them Minty Hohoho's. Next I shall make a red velvet cake topped with a vanill creamcheese hat, called Santa's. What else??? If you come up with a Crimbo themed cake, let me know & we'll post them on the site.
Piccies will follow my friends. Call that a challenge??? I don't think so.....
Until next time
Christmas Cake Fairy xxx

Butterfly Cake Emergency!

Dearest cupcake lovers
Well, Crimbo is nearly here and it's been a long time since my last blog! My good friend Fairy Betty flapped her sparkly wings and landed over the pond to stay with me last week, and we have had a jolly good time! (No baking though!!)
Anyhoo, I have had a question about butterfly cakes from Victoria Sponges' daughter, Sherry Trifle. I love making butterfly cakes, and this is how I do it!
Just use the original fairy cake recipe, make them whatever colour you want, then make some delish butter cream. When the cakes have cooled take a small bladed knife (pairing knife for example) and make a round cut in the top of the cake, taking off the "lid" (for want of a better word). Fill the hole with cream, then cut the lid in two halves. Stick the 2 pieces in cut side down at an angle, et voila! Butterfly wings! Add a few sprinkles for extra fairyness to the delish cakes. Sherry Trifle - I hope you enjoy them!

Chat soon

Cake Fairy xx

Halloween Treats & Tricks

Dearest Cupcake Lovers
Really got into the "spirit" of the evening today and made a delish batch of vanilla buttercream cupcakes a la spookiness!!
Enjoy your spooky treats tonite!
Chat soon
Cupcke Witch (for tonite only!)

Long Time, No Cake

Dear Cupcake Lovers
Well, the Bake sale was a success ! I made - in the end- the Bananadramas, brownies and a big vanilla bundt! I have posted a pic of a bananadrama all wrapped up Halloween-ish for the sale.
This week my fairy helpers & I divulged in a little donut therapy. Had a great time making the dough, rolling, cutting it out, frying them etc. The girls liked the cinnamon sugar ones in particular, whereas I liked the "holes" with icing sugar. Mmmmm....we also used the new TollHouse Swirls morsels in choc & caramel, melted them in the microwave and dunked the donuts in. V delish!
Fairy Betty is flapping her wings over the pond to visit the Cafe soon, so she will be updating you on all the yummy cakes we will bake together!
Chat soon
Cake Fairy xx

Banana-Dramas

Dear Cupcake lovers

Actually no drama as the title would suggest, I made these today for the bake sale and they are delish! Make them now!

Banana-Dramas

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup veg oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 325 F. Use cupcake liners or grease your muffin pans. (I use PAM with flour).
Makes 22-ish.

In a bowl beat eggs, sugar, oil & vanilla together.
In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients together.
In yet another bowl mash the bananas.
Mix everything together until all the flour is incorporated.
Fill liners/tins 3/4s way full. Bake 25 mins or until tester comes out clean.
Let cool before frosting. Freeze immediatley when cooled (if desired) in an airtight zippy-bag.

Yummy frosting
4oz butter at room temp
4oz soft cream cheese at room temp
8oz confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix altogther and spread generously on bananadramas. Enjoy!!

School Bake Sale - (not for the faint-hearted).

Dear cupcake lovers

In an attempt to get my cupcake business known about town, and become the one baker everybody talks about and would kill for her cakes, next saturday I will be donating a few dozen cakes in my favorite recipes to my daughters' annual school bake sale. Easy you say? Oh no no no! One dozen vanilla, one dozen choc, one dozen lemon, one dozen coconut, one dozen peanut butter. All INDIVIDUALLY wrapped. So as it is for "Fall Fun Day" they're all going to have orange icing and purple sprinkles. So there.

Send sympathy wishes to ......

Chat soon

Cake Fairy xx

How old is that cake?

Dear cupcake lovers

Again, my good friend Fairy Betty stumps me with a q that requires a little research. Well, Fairy Betty, the Oxford English Dictionary people can trace the word "cake" back to the 13th Century, where it was derived from the Norse (vikings etc) word "kaka". No-one really knows who baked the first cake, but it was probably someone in Europe mixing yeast, flour, sugar & eggs to make a biscuity-cakey type of food. Cakes became very popular in the Victorian/Georgian era (hence Victoria Spongs after Queen Victoria) and afternoon tea became the thing to do amongst high society ladies to chat & gossip over. Cup of tea and a slice of cake. Which is why we all love a slab of cake (or a cupcake) in the afternoon!

As for my baking, I am a little behind schedule, but plan to do the peanut butter ones this week and maybe the coconut cupcakes too. Pictures will follow with recipes.

Hope this history lesson helped!

Chat soon

Cake Fairy xx

Lemon Cakes

So here are the lemon cakes I told you about...mmmm.....if you want to bake them, use the Fairy Cake recipe already posted, and add 2 tsp lemon flavoring plus 1 tsp lemon juice to the batter, then add 1 or 2 tsp lemon juice to buttercream icing. Woohoo!

Banana Cake

I shall make a banana cake in honor of my mate Fairy Betty. Here's to another 90 years!!!!!! (We will be very old and wobbly!)

Cake Fairy xx

Share & Share Alike

I've had a great response to the q's I posted earlier. Of course you can share your recipes Fairy Betty, the more the merrier.
As for your q, I think it could be the oven, but more often than not it's probably human error - just make sure you beat the mix till your arms hurt, then fold the flour in using a "figure of 8" motion (this also adds air to the batter). Give it a try. Let me know how they rise.

PS Tinkersam does not know Lulu (apparently).

Cake Fairy xx

Vanilla or carrot? To rise or not to rise?

Two very interseting q's floated my way today, from Tinkersam (who I know VERY well, Lulu) and Victoria Sponge.

Carrot for a cupcake? yes of course. I love carrot cake, but I enjoy it more as a big slab with cream cheese frosting. With pecans. If I make cupcakes, I always eat at least 3, so why not make a BIG cake and have bigger pieces? Good either way, better as a whole cake.

The rising issue has always been a bakers' problem. I measure a tsp of baking powder, and throw a pinch in for "good luck." I fill the cases/liners about 2/3rds of the way up, this way they should rise above the tops and be quite even. Always bake your cakes for at least 20 mins BEFORE opening the oven door, and make sure your cakes are baked in the middle of the oven, not the top or near the bottom. You can also try giving your butter & sugar an extra mixing, until the batter is really pale in color and forms peaks. Doing this makes the mix extra light which will help with the rising. If you are still having probs Victoria Sponge, let me know and we'll try something else...don't know what though....!!!

Send your questions & queries to me, Doctor Cake Fairy....

Chat soon

Cake Fairy xx

Ultimate British Cupcake

My good friend Fairy Betty has asked me what I would consider the "Ultimate" British Cupcake. I would have to say that it is probably just a vanilla cake with royal icing, basically the recipe I have posted for you all. This is the cupcake I have always made & loved, my girls love them, it reminds me of England and makes me feel good when I bake them. I think everyone has their own version of the cupcake they know & love, we Brits tend to stick to vanilla, and not be very experimental. I have defiantely enjoyed experimenting with different concoctions but I have to say I do love a lemon cupcake too....If we're talking cakes though, I would say without a shadow of a doubt that a Victoria Sponge is the Ultimate Brit Cake....hmm, jam & butter icing...say no more....

Origin of Fairy Cake Cafe

Dearest cupcake lovers

I was thinking yesterday that some of you are probably wondering why "fairy cake" instead of "cupcake." I am English born and raised and now dwell in Pennsylvania, (where I have discovered many many wonderful new baking recipes that I had never heard of eg bearclaws/monkey bread/etc) and for as long as I can remember, Mommies, Grandmommies, Aunts in the UK introduce their kids to baking by making fairy cakes with them. A fairy cake is just a classic vanilla cupcake but with royal icing, not cream cheese or butter cream icing. I used to make them with my Nan & Mom, and now I make them with my girls who love to lick the icing off the spoons afterwards! Fairy cakes are a staple at birthday parties, coffee mornings, get-togethers and now of course brides all over are reminiscing back to childhood by having fairy cakes in layers at their weddings! So when I was thinking of a name for the cafe, I had to bring a little bit of my British childhood to my little space in America, so "The Fairy Cake Cafe" was born.

Here is the recipe for English Fairy Cakes ( the measurements are in ounces, so sorry to everyone for having to convert to cups!)

Chat soon

Cake Fairy xx


Fairy Cakes
Makes 20-24

Preheat oven 350 degrees
Line cupcake pans with liners

8oz Self rising flour
8oz fine granulated sugar
8oz butter (at room temp)
4 eggs
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
(food coloring optional)

Royal icing:
Confectioners sugar
warm water
a few drops of food coloring

I have always made these by hand, but you can use an electric mixer if you wish.
Cream together the butter & sugar until light in color and fluffy. Add the eggs & vanilla, and beat to mix. Add flour & salt & powder and mix using a figure of 8 stroke. Add food coloring if you want. Fill liners 2/3rds full, and bake for 20/22 mins until light golden brown. Let cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, put about 2 cups of confectioners sugar in a bowl, and add warm water a teaspoon at a time to make a thick-ish paste. If it's too runny it will not sit on the cake. Add food coloring and decorate to your hearts content! Add sprinkles/jemmies etc. Enjoy!

Cupcake books a plenty!

Dearest cupcake lovers

Have just returned from another trip to B&N...last week I was able to get the 2 Magnolia books, and I have just purchased Hey There Cupcake for inspiration. I seem to be buying all the cupcake books available ( I like the pictures) and not spending enough time in the kitchen actually creating! I must remedy this....But I do love to sit down with a cup of coffee and a cake and peruse the pages. I find that I have sparks of imagination for names, flavors, decorations when I read... Anyway, am planning on a peanut butter cake soon, well it's actually a choc cake with pb cream cheese icing...mmmm...yumm.......so I will let you know how they turn out. I've bought some lovely mixing bowls, pink, lemon & blue...they will look nice on a shelf in the cafe.

Anyhoo

Chat soon

Cake Fairy xx

THE FAIRY CAKE CAFE

Dear Cupcake lovers everywhere!

Welcome to my blog about me & my search for the perfect cupcake on the way to opening my cafe "The Fairy Cake Cafe!"

I aim to tell you all about the cakes I am trying out- made a killer batch of lemon bonbon cupcakes last week, (didn' last long.....) & please feel free to comment on recipes/pics/ideas etc.

I am in awe of bakers everywhere and hope to follow in their footsteps with all the wonderful things they create.

Hope you enjoy my blog!

Chat soon

Cake Fairy xxx