Little Miss Baker: Filled Fairy Cakes

I have the baking bug! It really chills me out and work is crazy at the moment so my boyfriend is going to get fat! Today I decided to try and make some filled fairy cakes but went with the easy option and filled them after I’d cooked them. I topped them with a simple icing made from butter, cream cheese and icing sugar. My fairy cake recipe was taken from my first ever Baked and Delicious magazine (Baked and Delicious) and is a basic sponge recipe which I adapted for the second batch of mint chocolate flavour.

For approximately 8 fairy cakes:

60 g (2 oz) softened butter

60 g (2 oz) caster sugar

1 egg

60 g (2 oz) self raising flour (I took out 1 tbsp and replaced with 1 tbsp of cocoa powder in the second batch)

1 tbsp milk

½ tsp vanilla extract (I substituted this for peppermint essence in the second batch)

Heat oven to 190^oC (375^oF)

Beat butter and sugar together. Gradually add a little of the egg whilst still beating to prevent the mixture from curdling. Generally if my mix does curdle it doesn’t affect the outcome but I do get a satisfaction from preventing it! Add a little of the flour if it does. Fold in the remaining flour, extract and milk with a metal spoon. Divide evenly into cake cases and bake for 10-15 minutes. I always check mine are cooked by using a cocktail stick and checking that it comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

I made fruity fairy cakes with the basic vanilla mix by taking out a little of the middle of the fairy cakes. I used the end of a teaspoon to make a small hole and filled with Morrison’s Best Mango and Passion fruit jam. I mixed the jam up a bit to make it easier to use.

For the mint chocolate cupcakes I made a very basic ganache with some left over sour cream from the doughnuts I made earlier in the week! I just melted 50 g milk chocolate and beat in 1 ½ tbsp of the sour cream. Again I made some small holes in the top of the chocolate fairy cakes and filled with the ganache.

For the icing I used 25 g cream cheese, 25 g butter and about 200 g icing sugar with ½ tsp of lemon essence for one lot and ½ tsp peppermint essence for the other. I piped the lemon icing onto the fruity cakes and spooned the peppermint icing onto the mint chocolate cakes. For each batch I finished off with some pretty sprinkles on the top.

And now for the results!