We don’t have cupcakes in our house, we have fairy buns. I’ve loved this name ever since I was little and had to kneel on a kitchen stool to help cream the butter and sugar with a huge wooden spoon. I never questioned why we called these small, iced cakes ‘fairy’ buns, but I did wonder just how large the fairies were who ate them. (To be honest, I’ve never believed in fairies, but scepticism never prevented anyone from enjoying fairy culture.)
Nowadays, my buns are more burlesque fairy than Tolkein faerie. They are the buxom, brash, baking equivalent of Angela Carter’s Fevvers in Nights at the Circus, rather than the pale, elfin Shakespearean Cobwebs and Peaseblossoms of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It may have something to do with the fact that I’m not of fairy proportions myself, or perhaps I was deprived of glittery wings and pink tutus as a child.
Fairy buns are a magical way to enter the kingdom of baking. They are quick and easy to make and are a great collaborative activity, bringing old and young and their friends together in the wave of a wand.
Makes 12
125g/4oz butter (at room temperature)
125g/4oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
125g/4oz self-raising flour
Few drops vanilla essence (optional)
- Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/gas mark 6. Place 12 individual cake cases in a muffin/cake tin.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Add the eggs (and vanilla if using) and beat well to incorporate.
- Sieve in the flour and fold in gently with large metal spoon (you don’t want to knock out the air in the mix).
- Divide the mix between the cake cases.
- Bake for 15-20 minutess until golden and firm on top.
- Leave to cool slightly on rack before taking the buns out of the tray.
The fairy buns must be completely cool before you begin icing otherwise the icing will melt and slip off. Not a good look. Sometimes I cut the peaks off the buns so that the tops are flatter and therefore support more icing.
Fairy bun icing
I have had many emails asking me how I make my icing so bright/thick/glossy/garish/unsubtle/worryingly neon. I can’t say there is any secret, unless it’s the fact that I can’t be bothered with runny, wishy-washy icing which gives only the thinnest veneer of covering. My fairy buns are well and truly iced. The key is to make thick icing using more icing sugar and less liquid than you may ever have contemplated, and then to slather it on generously.
As for the colour, do not bother with liquid dyes. They make the icing runnier and give meagre colours. Even if it’s the palest, pastel shade you are after, paste is the only way to go. Pastes are relatively dry and highly concentrated, and produce wonderful results at any depth. I use pastes made by Squires or Sugarflair and a little goes a long, long way.
Icing
Makes enough to ice 12 fairy buns
230-280g/8-10oz icing sugar/confectioners sugar
Juice of approx 2 lemons (water is fine but tasteless)
Food colour paste
- Start by sieving approx 230g/8oz of icing sugar into a bowl.
- Add the juice of half a lemon or a small amount of water and add an ‘itchling’ of paste (as Alice would say) on the end of a wooden cocktail stick which can then be thrown away. (I use this method as I don’t like to put a utensil covered with icing back into the paste jar.)
- Mix well using a sturdy knife.
- Now add more liquid and/or colour until you happy with the consistency and colour. You are aiming for a thick, glossy, evenly coloured icing which is spreadable but which won’t slide off the buns.
- Apply generously in a swirling movement with a palette knife. You don’t need to go right up to the edge as the icing will spread out a little.
- All you need to do now is decorate tastefully/outrageously and arrange on a plate. And wait for the fairies to arrive.
