Fairy Cakes
Small, light vanilla sponge cakes baked in paper cases and topped with a thin glacé icing.
Photograph credit: Chocolate chip fairy cakes (13972224702) by James Petts from London, England · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Flour, butter, sugar, eggs: four things you already own, and about 35 minutes. Fairy cakes are the small, plain cousins of cupcakes, with a lighter sponge and a thin icing instead of a tall swirl of buttercream.
The method is the classic creaming of butter and sugar. Beat them for a full 3 minutes until pale and fluffy, because the air trapped in that mixture makes the cakes rise. Use butter at room temperature. Cold butter does not cream, and melted butter does not hold air.
Add the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of flour, which stops the mix curdling. Fold in the rest of the flour gently.
Fill the paper cases only two thirds full. Bake until golden and springy, then cool completely before icing, or the icing slides off. Use up the eggs and butter in your fridge and keep icing simple with a few drops of food colouring. Children enjoy decorating them with sprinkles.
What People Ask
How long does Fairy Cakes take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 18 minutes of cooking, so at least 33 minutes. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 12.
The Method for Fairy Cakes
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Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F (160°C / 320°F fan) and line a 12-hole bun tin with paper cases.
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Beat the butter and caster sugar for 3 minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of the flour each.
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Fold in the remaining flour, vanilla and milk.
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Divide between the cases and bake for 18 minutes until golden and springy. Cool completely on a wire rack.
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Mix the icing sugar with the water until smooth and spoon a little onto each cake.
A Few Pointers
- Cream the butter and sugar until pale.
- Add the eggs slowly to avoid curdling.
- If your oven runs hot, check at 15 minutes.
- Cool the cakes fully before icing.
If You're Missing Something
- No self-raising flour to hand? The common home substitute is the same weight of plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder for every 150 g, sifted together well; the rise may not be identical to a bought self-raising flour.
What to Serve With It
Tea · Sprinkles · Jam · Fresh strawberries
Leftovers and Storage
Keeps in an airtight tin for 3 days. Ice on the day you serve them.
Fairy Cakes Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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