Written by Annalisa

* 250g soft unsalted butter
* 250g golden caster sugar
* 4 large eggs
* 250g self raising flour
* 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
* 5-6 tablespoons of milk
*

* Fondant icing sugar
* Water
* Food colouring of choice

This recipe makes 12 fairy cakes made in muffin cases (ie quite big cases not those teeny weeny ones); if you use actual fairy cake cases, they are smaller so this would make 24. I shall talk as if making 12 bigger ones.

So you need a 12 hole muffin case and 12 muffin cases, you can get pretty ones in silver and with fairies on, but being a purist I stick with white muffin cases that I get from www.lakelandlimited.co.uk

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6 or four logs if you have an open fire LOL.

Put everything into a food processor except for the milk and pulse until smooth - don’t over mix it as you’ll whack all the air out but equally it needs to all be properly incorporated. Add the milk down the funnel until you’ve got a mixture that will drop easily off the spoon. Divide equally between the bun cases and cook in the oven for 15-20 mins until the little cakies are springy and golden.

Leave to cool for three or so minutes in the tin, on a wire rack, then take out of the tin (but obviously leave in their paper cases) and put on a wire rack to cool completely.

If you are going to ice them it is really important you level off the top. This is a bit of an art, I find. But using a sharp knife you need to be quite brual and cut off the pointy top so that you have a flat surface to ice.

You can nibble on the cut off bits or use as the basis for a sundae or trifle (yum).

For the icing all you do is pour some fondant icing sugar into a bowl and add a tiny bit of water at a time, mix until it’s quite thick, but pourable. One whole packet probably makes enough for 12, which is a horrifying thought (this is why I don’t let R eat the icing) but if making for a party or other potentially stressy event, I always make sure I have two packets in. Make the icing in batches, ie don’t make all at once until you know exactly how much you need. If you want to colour it then add a few drops of colouring at a time. I tend to do white icing and then pipe icing in a colour.

Pour/spoon over each fairy cake. To get good coverage you need a thick layer. Then leave to set overnight (put in fridge if you can). If you want to eat as is then they are ready to go, but if you want to ice an initial on then you need to make some more icing as above, and add whatever colour you want. I use pink for R. Fill an icing nozzle with appropriate nozzle and ice away! If you’ve never done before then practise. You can also just sprinkel on smarties or chocolate buttons or ready bought iced roses or whatever. I tend to ice the initial and then put one of those tooth-busting silver balls on as a bit of a flourish.

That’s it. I warn you these are impossibly good and at R’s christening all of them went. I think my brother in law ate four.