Nana’s Fairy Cakes

Nana's Fairy Cakes

Nana’s Fairy Cakes

Izzy tells me that I can’t have a proper recipe website without a recipe for fairy cakes and as she is going to visit an old folks home tomorrow, we made these ones this evening for her to take along.  This is Nana Peach’s recipe.  She was a fabulous cake maker.  At some point I really ought to write up her recipes for shortbread and her apple pie and custard too.  Her apple pie was legendary.  I know it’s selfish of me but I have a bit of an emotional block to the idea of sharing!  I will get over it – I promise…..soon.

I’m afraid I still don’t have any scales so these were made by eye!  They taste the same as usual so I must have got it more or less right.

Store them in an airtight box or tin with a couple of sugar cubes.  My grandmother always did that and I think it keeps the cakes fresh.

Ingredients

75g butter (at room temperature)

75g margarine

150g caster sugar

3 medium eggs

150g self-raising flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Icing

150g icing sugar

1 tablespoon warm water

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

1.  Pre-heat oven to 200C and line cupcake tins with 18 cupcake/fairy cake cases.

2.  Whisk together the eggs and sugar with an electric whist until they reach a fluffy creamy consistency.

3.  Add the butter and margarine and whisk until well blended then add the vanilla and milk and whisk that in too.

4.  Sift in the flour and baking powder (this will be the second sifting of the flour – it apparently adds air and makes them lighter and Nana Peach’s were always lovely and fluffy).  Fold in gently until fully combined but don’t over mix or the batter will become tough.

5.  Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into each of the cases, they should be about half full and then bake for 15 minutes when they should be lightly golden and a cocktail stick in the middle should come out clean.  Remove from the oven onto a rack and leave to cool completely.

6.  Once the cakes have cooled, mix the icing sugar with the warm water and the lemon juice to form a smooth paste and then using a knife dipped in a mug of hot water spread the icing over each of the cakes.  Keep re-dipping the knife into the hot water and this will keep the icing soft enough to work with.

 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.