FAIRY CAKES BBC RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line 2 x 12-hole fairy cake tins with paper cases.
• Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, and stir in the vanilla extract.
• Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon. Add a little milk until the mixture is a soft dropping consistency and spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.
• Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
• For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir in enough water to create a smooth mixture. Stir in the food colouring.
• To ice the fairy cakes, drizzle the icing over the cakes, sprinkle with decorations and set aside until the icing hardens.

Steps:

• Ask a grown-up helper to turn the oven on to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put a paper case in hole of a 12-hole bun tin.
• Put the sugar and butter (it must be soft or you won’t be able to mix it properly) in a bowl and mix it together. Sift in the flour.
• Break the eggs into a separate bowl (spoon out any bits of shell that fall in) and add them to the bowl with the vanilla. Mix everything together.
• Divide between the cases using a spoon, scraping it off with a knife. Ask a grown-up helper to put the tray in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Mix the butter and icing sugar to make a creamy icing. Add colouring, if you like. Push an icing nozzle into an icing bag, then scoop in the icing.
• Let the cakes cool completely in the tray. Pipe icing onto each cake and decorate with marshmallows or sprinkles, or whatever you like.