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Original poster

Pardon my stupidity, but what is a fairy cake?

43 replies

colinsmommy · 10/05/2004 22:12

Sorry for my stupidity, this is your friendly U.S. participant here, wondering what are these fairy cakes everyone is talking about? They sound absolutely wonderful, and I want one. Of course, they probably sound better than what they are. Please don't dissappoint me by teling me they are brown sludgy oatmeal or something like that.

OP posts:
tamum · 10/05/2004 22:15

I guess they would be cupcakes, so not as exciting as they sound, sorry

MadameButterfly · 10/05/2004 22:15

They are little sponge cakes with the top cut off. It is then replaced on top of buttercream having been cut in half to look like wings

ponygirl · 10/05/2004 22:17

Small cake in a paper case made of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. There's a whole thread of recipes here . Bit like a muffin but smaller and not so dense.

cuppy · 10/05/2004 22:17

They are lush lush sponge cakes and noone makes them quite like your mum!
Seem to be following you around colinsmummy - how you liking mn

ks · 10/05/2004 22:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

cuppy · 10/05/2004 22:19

rofl

expatkat · 10/05/2004 22:22

Snap, collinsmommy! My son played that game on the cbeebies website which culminates in a fairy cake recipe--and then of course demanded I make them! But I had no idea what on earth I was making! So I just made cupcakes with buttercream icing, like the recipe said. I still can't envision this business of cutting the top off. I have a very bad sense of spatial relations and envisioning shapes and so forth so I'm afraid I still don't get it. I'd need to see a picture, or see them served at a party or something. But thanks,tamum & madamebutterfly, for attempting to solve the mystery for us Americans!

tamum · 10/05/2004 22:26

Here you go , expatkat! You need to scroll down a bit. I have to say, I call them butterfly cakes, and fairy cakes just the sort with icing, but I think I'm in a minority

wobblyknicks · 10/05/2004 22:28

Tamum - you beat me to it, I was just about to post this (its the middle pic)

tamum · 10/05/2004 22:30

It would appear that there's just the one lot of cakes being photographed for the whole of the web then, wobblyknicks?

Original poster
colinsmommy · 10/05/2004 22:30

Wow, thank you all. I didn't think I would have so many posts already. They sound absolutely wonderful to me, nothing is as good as cake + buttercream frosting. Thank you so much for taking your time for a not-so-important question. Thank you for the thread, ponygirl. Cuppy, I am loving mn. I am learning all about fairies and their cakes. Seriously, though, I have looked around different message board and chat sites, and none have inspired me to join. I love the stories and insights from all, and the sense of humor. Plus I really go for the virtual bar, because I think it would be a lot of fun to be a virtual lush after so many months of not drinking.

OP posts:
expatkat · 10/05/2004 22:39

Eureka, I've got it! Thanks for the pix. --Expat

wobblyknicks · 10/05/2004 22:40

tamum - certainly looks like it doesn't it? Maybe there's only one plate of buttterfly cakes in the whole world and they miraculously reappear after someone's eaten them and someone else needs them!!

Original poster
colinsmommy · 11/05/2004 00:32

Please make them appear my way, I need them. Didn't realize what I had gotten myself into. When I finally read the recipe, my butter doesn't come in grams, it comes in cups, and I have never heard of that kind of sugar. Why can't we just measure things like the rest of the world. Oh well. I went on google and found a site that "translated" Nigella's recipes into terms I can understand. I don't suppose anyone would be willing to start a virtual fairy cake bar, would they?

OP posts:
Janstar · 11/05/2004 00:43

Hi colinsmommy

We made 6 dozen fairy cakes for my dds cake decorating lesson and still have about 2 dozen left. Decorated with feather icing, runouts, or simply iced with fondant icing and a cherry on top.

If you could make your way to St Albans, Herts, UK to collect, I'll save you a dozen

Original poster
colinsmommy · 11/05/2004 00:47

As much as I would love to, I'm sure that travelling across the U. S., then across the Atlantic then however far it is to St. Albanswith an 8 mo. old would be harder than translating grams of butter into cups. Thanks for thinking of me though!!!!!

OP posts:
KateandtheGirls · 11/05/2004 00:48

No, no, no,

Now I know it's been 10 years since I lived in the UK, but fairy cakes and butterfly cakes are not the same thing. A fairy cake is any sort of cake baked in an individual serving, like a cupcake (although it doesn't necessarily have frosting). Butterfly cakes are simply a subset of fairy cakes in which the top of the fairy cake is cut off, cut in half, and stuck on the frosting like wings.

Janstar · 11/05/2004 00:52

No - there are many cakes served individually that are not fairy cakes! But you are correct that butterfly cakes are simply fairy cakes with the top sliced off, cut in half, then buttercream piped into the space, preferably in a large swirl, and the two pieces of cake placed into it like wings.

KateandtheGirls · 11/05/2004 00:55

OK then, what constitutes a fairy cake?

Janstar · 11/05/2004 00:59

basically it's a victoria sponge mixture baked in little paper cases. Then you decorate it as you wish. Or not, as you said.

Janstar · 11/05/2004 01:00

They are like muffin cases but smaller.

KateandtheGirls · 11/05/2004 01:05

Oh, so it's the Victoria sponge that makes it a fairy cake?

Janstar · 11/05/2004 01:12

That and baking it in the little paper case.

expatkat · 11/05/2004 02:11

Not to drag this on and on, but could it be that a fairy cake is what Americans call a "cupcake?" Or do you guys already have "cupcake" in your vernacular?

KateandtheGirls · 11/05/2004 14:29

Well kat, that's what I thought a fairy cake was (not necassarily with frosting though), but my good friend Janstar tells me that it's a cupcake made from a specific type of batter, a victoria sponge batter. (So, for example, if you put a pound cake batter in little paper cases, it wouldn't technically be a fairy cake.)