Friday 30 March 2012

Basic Vanilla Fairy Cakes

I make vanilla fairy cakes a lot because I really like them, and so do most people I bake them for.  I figured since a lot of my planned decoration experiments will use my vanilla cakes as a base I should dedicate a blog entry to the recipe so people can refer back to it.  It also means I have something to link people to whenever I get asked for my recipe in future (I've already written it out twice for people at my former workplace).

I make my cakes by hand since I don't have a mixer and because it's how I've done it since I was a child.  Feels extra home made if you put all the extra work in.

Ingredients - Makes 12 cakes

  • 4oz/110g caster sugar
  • 4oz/100g unsalted butter (I recommend Stork) at room temperature (makes it easier to mix)
  • 2 eggs at room temperature (cold eggs are more likely to curdle the batter)
  • 1-2 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 4oz/110g self raising flour 
Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a cake tray with 12 cake cases.  It doesn't matter too much if you don't have a proper tray with holes in.  I used to just put my cases on a tray.  The only problem is they might end up a bit misshapen, so it's probably worth investing in a holed tray, or silicone cupcake moulds.
  2. Put the sugar and butter in a large bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon.  You want to do this until the mixture is 'light and fluffy'.  Basically you want the mixture to be as pale a yellow as possible since that means the sugar is properly worked into the butter.  (Stork butter starts out really bright yellow so it's easy to tell when it's gone pale).  This is usually about 5-10 minutes of mixing.
  3. In a separate, small bowl or jug beat the eggs with a whisk.  A fork works too but the whisk gets more air into the eggs, which will help the cake rise.
  4. Add a little bit of the egg and mix into the butter/sugar mixture until it disappears.  Repeat until all the egg is gone.
  5. Add the vanilla extract and mix.
  6. Sift the flour into the bowl with the rest of the batter and then fold it in.  DON'T MIX!  And if doing this with a mixer, I suggest doing this bit by hand.  Folding is a bit tricky to explain so I'll let the BBC do it instead (the light mixture they refer to would be the flour and the heavy would be the batter).  Keep folding until you can't see any more flour.
  7. Spoon the mixture into the cases, trying to spread it evenly.  I usually do it a spoonful at a time.  So put one spoonful in each case and then go back to the start and do another spoonful until all the mixture is gone.  If you really wanted to, you could weigh them.
  8. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes.  You may have to turn the tray half way through cooking so they get an even bake.  Keep an eye on them in the last couple of minutes and use a skewer (or toothpick or pointed, thin end of a teaspoon) to test if they are cooked.  When inserted into the centre and pulled out, if it comes out clean then it's done.
  9. When baked, removed from oven and leave to cool on a rack.
  10. Decorate as you please. 

Thursday 29 March 2012

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

For the past six months I have been working at the W H Smith in Glenrothes but have now finished as I was only covering someone's maternity leave.  Saturday night was the staff night out, a treat paid for with the prize we earned selling Kobos over Christmas.  At the end of the meal I was presented with a bag of gifts, the majority of which were related to baking.  I made cakes and biscuits for the staff at Christmas and they clearly went down well.  So I figured I would something to say thank you and thus, more cakes!


The recipe for these cakes came from Cupcakes & Muffins, which is the book I was given as one of my presents.  It was quite different from the cakes I've made before.  There are no eggs in this recipe and I had to make a sugar and butter syrup.  I have not tried one myself since I'm not actually a fan of chocolate cake (or almost anything chocolate flavoured).  However, my boyfriend had one with the white chocolate topping and he said it was nice and moist, with the white chocolate adding a nice sweet contrast to the rich taste of the cake.


The recipe is apparently for 20 cakes but I ended up with 20 very tiny cakes.  I do not know if it's the cases I chose that make them look deceptively small or if I didn't get enough air into the recipe so they didn't rise very well or if they're meant to be that way.  Whatever the reason I would probably spread the mixture over fewer cases next time.  Maybe 12 or so.  I also found the amount of topping I ended up making was just a little bit insufficient.  So that would benefit from there being fewer cakes too.

Recipe, adapted from Cupcakes & Muffins:


The fudge cakes:
  • 200ml water
  • 85g/3oz butter
  • 85g/3oz caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 225g/8oz plain flour
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder 
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
  2. Set out your paper cases in a cake tray.  I recommend 12 rather than 20.
  3. Put the water, butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan on a gentle heat.  You're supposed to stir until the sugar dissolves but I did not know when this was.  I got it to a boil though and kept it like that for about 5 to 10 minutes, which is close to what the recipe asks for.  I figured as long as it wasn't burnt it would be fine.
  4. In a small jug, mix the milk, vanilla and bicarbonate of soda until the bicarbonate of soda has dissolved.
  5. In another bowl put the flour and the cocoa (sifting optional), add the cool syrup mixture and the milk and then beat until smooth.
  6. Spoon into the cases.  When making 20 I got about 2 soup spoon's worth per case.  You can probably get 3 (or 4 at a push) with 12 cases.  Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until a skewer (or thin end of a teaspoon or toothpick) inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.


White chocolate topping - covers half the cakes:
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 50g/1.75oz white chocolate
  • 175g/6oz icing sugar
  • 25g/ 0.8oz butter
Dark chocolate topping - covers half the cakes:
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 50g/1.75oz dark chocolate
  • 175g/6oz icing sugar
  • 25g/ 0.8oz butter
  1. Put butter, white chocolate and water in a heat proof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water, mixing it together.
  2. Do the same for the dark chocolate in another bowl.
  3. When fully melted,add the sugar to each and mix until smooth and thick.
  4. Top half the cakes with each type.
Decoration wise you could do what you want.  The book suggests 100g/3.5oz of shavings of each type of chocolate.  I grated chocolate onto mine (dark onto the white icing and white onto the dark) and also made little chocolate hearts by melting some spare chocolate and putting them in a mould.  Since the hearts are so small they only took about 10 minutes to set in the fridge.  I would suggest making them before you do the icing though so the icing hasn't completely hardened by the time they come out the fridge.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Introduction

I have been baking since I was a little girl but it's only the last couple of years that I came to truly enjoy it.  I never had much inclination to bake when at home with my family in Kent.  Except on my birthday.  I always made my own birthday cake since I was not fond of the store bought kind.  Now I live with my boyfriend and his family in Markinch and they really enjoy the things I make, which is the perfect excuse to bake.  And if they don't want them then the teachers at the local primary school usually do so there's always someone to eat them and nothing is wasted.

This blog is something to keep me amused.  I like baking very much and now feel the need to keep a record of what I bake.  I usually resort to the Internet when I'm stuck on something, and even for some recipes.  So I figure I can both show off my bakes and provide some sort of commentary.  By no means am I a professional baker.  Not at all.  This is for fun but if anyone out there finds it interesting or helpful then that's even better.

It should also be noted that I may occasionally post about non-baked recipes since I am quite fond of making ice cream too.