A fairy cake with your afternoon tea?

I'll warn you now this post is picture heavy, but it needs to be as you will see if you keep scrolling downwards.

After being in Jersey for a week, the land of the afternoon tea - me and the hubby decided to make my parents a thank you afternoon tea for house sitting and babysitting our little fur baby.

I know that technically I write a 'beauty' blog, however I thought I'd share with you what I made for the top tier of the cake stand yesterday. By the way - I love baking!

Yummmmm - by the way the hubby made the scones!

What I created is a kind of Bakewell Tart looking fairy cake. I used a recipe from this website which was created by the lovely Mary Berry - a British baking and cooking legend! Her recipe is just for a basic fairy cakes, however I have tweaked it to be something a little different.

Before we get started with preparing the ingredients, you'll need to pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6 / 180◦c / 200◦c fan.

What you'll need...?

Self raising flour - 100g / 4 oz
Caster sugar - 100g / 4 oz
Butter (room temp soft) - 100g / 4 oz
Two medium sized eggs
Jam - you'll need this for the filling, not the cake itself....I took a picture including it when I shouldn't have.
Vanilla flavouring

If you just want to make simple fairy cakes you can just forget the jam. I have added vanilla flavouring as something extra as I love vanilla but it's not required. This recipe will make 12 cakes easy peasy.

Into a mixing bowl throw in your self raising flour, caster sugar and cubed butter. Then into the centre add your wet ingredients which are your two eggs and a cap full of vanilla flavouring.

Once everything is in the bowl you can either beat the hell out of it with a wood spoon or use and electric whisk. I used the latter and the hubby's biceps! It was easier...

Awwww my hero

Once you've whisked it all together, using a tablespoon and teaspoon pop the mixture into your cases. Don't over fill them as obviously the mixture will rise whilst its being cooked. I'd suggest a small amount in each case and with any mixture left over, add to the cases to even them up so they all have similar amount in them.

In to the oven they go. Top shelf - be keep careful! It's hot! Now it's set your timer time... cooking time is between 15 to 20 minutes. I put my timer on for 18. All ovens cook differently, some can be hotter and others cooler. I would recommend turning them however half way through cooking.

Watch it grow!

Just keep cooking, just keep cooking until.... your buzzer sounds! And out come golden brown yummy fairy cakes...but we're not finished yet. Set them to cool for 10 minutes on a cooling tray.

Drool Homer style!

After cooling here comes the fun stuff - making the holes! Using a sharp knife (I'd recommend an adult do this if you're a little young and unsure) what you need to do is cut the peaks off, so they are a little flatter. Then with a apple corer, remove a small piece of the centre of the fairy cakes. Now do not go to the bottom of the cake, go half way only. You don't want jam coming out of the bottom of the cake do you now.

Icing time...

The fairy cakes are covered in an icing sugar mixture, so for that you'll need:

Icing Sugar - 225g / 8oz
2-3 tbsp of warm water
Glace Cherries (cut in half for decorating)

Mary Berry says to sieve the icing sugar - I didn't do this as icing sugar is a fine powder before hand but any lumps I just knocked out with a spoon first.

Adding your 2-3 tablespoons of warm water start to mix the mixture. If it is a little difficult and hard you can add extra water - but don't over do it you need it it quite thick!

Now your cakes have little holes we can start to add the jam and icing sugar mixture. Pop a teaspoon-ish amount, depending on the hole size. Don't over fill them. Remember your halved cherries will go on top of the icing so you will not see any hole.