A really easy recipe for Fairy Cakes made from a simple sponge and topped with water icing and sweets. Perfect for children's parties or a sweet treat. A brilliant opportunity for you to do some easy baking with the kids!
Simple store cupboard ingredients
Just 6 store cupboard ingredients are needed to make fairy cakes. The bun ingredients can all be mixed together in one bowl and they only take 15 minutes to bake in the oven.
The difference between Fairy Cakes and Butterfly Cakes
When thinking about fairy cakes, some people will envision a small cake with butterfly wings on top. But for me, fairy cakes were the buns we had as kids - made from the simplest ingredients and topped with water icing and not one, not two but THREE dolly mixture sweets.
In my mind butterfly cakes are made from a vanilla sponge, with the middle scooped out and replaced by a dollop of jam. They are topped with buttercream and the middle is cut in half and placed on top as two butterfly wings.
If you'd like one, here's a lovely recipe for Butterfly Cakes over on the BBC Good Food Website.
Or for a really easy alternative, check out my Victoria Sponge Cupcakes a miniature version of an English classic!
Easy recipe for children
When the children are home, what better way to practice fun maths by getting them to weigh and measure the ingredients for fairy cakes.
Not only are children learning the maths and science of baking they're also working on problem-solving as well as valuable fine motor skills.
And best of all, children can have loads of fun in the kitchen AND the whole family get an iced fairy cake as a treat at the end!
What you need
- A 12 hole bun tin lined with fairy cake cases
- Butter
- Caster sugar
- Eggs
- Self-raising flour
- Baking powder
- Icing sugar
- Warm water
- Sweets to decorate
Substitutions
- Use half a cup/100ml of vegetable oil or olive oil in place of the butter. You can also swap butter for the same amount of coconut oil.
- Swap caster sugar for granulated white sugar, light brown caster sugar, demerara or brown sugar.
- Use 1 mashed banana or 1 cored apple cut into pieces and stewed on the hob or in the microwave in place of the eggs.
- You can swap self-raising flour for plain flour. Just add half a teaspoon of baking soda to it.
- Substitute baking powder with half a teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar together with half a teaspoon of baking soda. If you don't have any baking soda you can use 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar.
Notes
If you are making a number of substitutions comment below or email me and we will work out a recipe for you!
Recipe Variations
- Chocolate Fairy Cakes by Mary Berry
- Lemon Fairy Cakes by Olive Magazine
- Orange Fairy Cakes by Asda Good Living
- Currant Fairy Cakes by All Recipes
- Microwave Fairy Cakes by Coffee and Vanilla
You can freeze fairy cakes without icing or decoration for up to one month.
This is a recipe for a simple plain vanilla sponge. You can add one teaspoon of vanilla extract if you want to.
You might have added to much raising agent (baking powder) this can cause the cakes to rapidly rise and then sink in the middle as they cool.
Sunken cakes can also be caused because of underbaking. Baked sponge should be golden brown and will spring back when touched in the middle.
My best advice is to follow the recipe, carefully measure ingredients and don't over mix.
This is usually caused by an oven that's too hot and the outside has cooked quicker than the middle.
Or you might have overfilled the bun cases. Aim to fill the cases only ¾ full.
Again, this is probably because your oven is too hot. Just cut off any cracked or burnt bits and cover the buns with icing!
They are probably slightly underbaked and your oven might not have been hot enough.
When I use the all-in-one method I always add a little baking powder to self-raising flour. If you don't cream the butter and sugar together first it can sometimes stop the sponge from rising. The addition of baking powder ensures the buns get a good even rise.
More Easy Tempting Recipes
- Easy Chocolate Biscuits
- Fruit Scones
- Gingerbread Biscuits
- Vanilla Biscuits
- Jammie Dodger Blondies
- Easy Apple Crumble
- No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake
- Easy Lemon Cheesecake
Really Easy Fairy Cakes
A really easy recipe for Fairy Cakes made from a simple sponge and topped with water icing and sweets. Perfect for children's parties or a sweet treat. A brilliant opportunity for you to do some easy baking with the kids!
Ingredients
Fairy Cakes
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 100 g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs, (or 3 medium eggs)
- 100 g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
Water Icing
- 225 g icing sugar, sifted
- 3 tbsp warm water
- sweets to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC / 180ºC Fan / Gas 6 / 390ºF. Line a 12 hole-bun tin with fairy cake cases.
- Add all the fairy cake ingredients to a large mixing bowl and beat for 2-3 minutes with a hand held electric whisk or 5 minutes by hand.
- Divide the mixture between the fairy cake cases and bake for 15 minutes or until the fairy cakes are golden brown and spring back when touched in the middle. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Put the icing sugar into a bowl and gradually stir in the warm water until you have smooth icing. It should be the consitency of toothpaste.
- Spoon the icing on top of the fairy cakes and decorate with sweets.
Notes
Substitutions
- Use half a cup/100ml of vegetable oil or olive oil in place of the butter. You can also swap butter for the same amount of coconut oil.
- Swap caster sugar for granulated white sugar, light brown caster sugar, demerara or brown sugar.
- Use 1 mashed banana or 1 cored apple cut into pieces and stewed on the hob or in the microwave in place of the eggs.
- You can swap self-raising flour for plain flour. Just add half a teaspoon of baking soda to it.
- Substitute baking powder with half a teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar together with half a teaspoon of baking soda. If you don't have any baking soda you can use 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar.
Storage: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Fairy cakes can be frozen (undecorated) for up to 1 month.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 204Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 49mgSodium: 3mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 1gSugar: 27gProtein: 2g
Tricia
Good to its word this recipe ! I will pass it on. Cakes were very nice and light and lovely to eat .many thanks
Amy Treasure
So pleased you enjoyed them, Tricia! Thank you for the amazing feedback.