Treat you to cake every night.
Dec. 1st, 2006 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaRight, folks. I need your help to solve an important problem.
What is this:
Obviously it's a cake. I hope that's obvious, unless something has gone badly wrong with either my baking or my friends list. But what kind of cake is it ? If you wanted to describe such a cake to someone, what would you call it ?
[Poll #879053]
Someone told me to make fairy cakes. I hope that's a fairy cake. I always grew up thinking a fairy cake was just another name for a butterfly cake, which is the kind where you slice the top of a little cake off, put jam/cream in the hole, cut the top in half and stick the two bits in like wings. But I don't think they meant that.
The above might be a cupcake, but I think that's a strange American term, probably born of their pernicious habit of measuring everything in cups. It's definitely not a muffin, which is also American, but a somewhat different texture. And taller.
In our house, the above would be called a Little Bun. This could then be divded into subgenuses such as Little Curranty Bun and Little Iced Bun as required. I was pleased to note that the packet my icing sugar came out of - which contained some fairly misleading advice about how much icing you need for twelve buns - did at least refer to buns.
When the mother is in full-on coffee-morning baking-mode, Little Buns come trooping out of her kitchen in their dozens. This evening I have been doing my best impression of her, as I was asked to make two dozen fairy cakes for Mabel (my dance team)'s tenth birthday celebration at the weekend.
The more observant will notice that there are more than 24 there. Firstly, I volunteered to make more since an extra team announced their intention of attending after we'd done the sums that decided everyone needed to make two dozen. Secondly, the sums assumed that most teams would bring few hangers on, and no one would eat more than one cake - assumptions I feel to be shaky at best - so I planned to overcater a little. Thirdly, I have promised to provide some cakes to my extremely strict quality-control department, headed by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
onebyone. Fourthly, once you've got the oven hot and the Kenwood out it's not much more effort to make another batch anyway.
However, even the unobservant may notice that I'm quite crap at icing. I rarely make cakes which require icing. The mother's tip for icing buns was "make the icing stiffer than you think you want". She should have said "make the icing stiffer than you think, no, stiffer than that, no, I mean it, put more icing sugar in". When she puts a dollop of icing on a bun, it all spreads out neatly in a circle instead of running unevenly. I think this is further evidence that she uses witchcraft, which is just cheating.
If you're interested, up there there's vanilla and coffee buns, little curranty buns, vanilla and raspberry buns, cherry buns, peppermint buns, and lemon buns.
I'm not sure yet of the wisdom of peppermint buns. I mean, I like them, but then I make peppermint milkshakes and everyone thinks that's weird. I made the buns minty using peppermint oil, which is scary stuff. When you take the lid off, it's not just "oooh, that's minty" - more sort of "holy crap, where are my sinuses?". A drop goes a long way; I have a 50ml bottle, and I think it'll probably see me out. The lemon oil seems to work well for lemon flavouring, though.
I'm also not sure the violently pink icing was a good idea; it was made by stirring jam into normal icing. It's come out very sticky and I haven't dared try eating one yet.
What is this:
Obviously it's a cake. I hope that's obvious, unless something has gone badly wrong with either my baking or my friends list. But what kind of cake is it ? If you wanted to describe such a cake to someone, what would you call it ?
[Poll #879053]
Someone told me to make fairy cakes. I hope that's a fairy cake. I always grew up thinking a fairy cake was just another name for a butterfly cake, which is the kind where you slice the top of a little cake off, put jam/cream in the hole, cut the top in half and stick the two bits in like wings. But I don't think they meant that.
The above might be a cupcake, but I think that's a strange American term, probably born of their pernicious habit of measuring everything in cups. It's definitely not a muffin, which is also American, but a somewhat different texture. And taller.
In our house, the above would be called a Little Bun. This could then be divded into subgenuses such as Little Curranty Bun and Little Iced Bun as required. I was pleased to note that the packet my icing sugar came out of - which contained some fairly misleading advice about how much icing you need for twelve buns - did at least refer to buns.
When the mother is in full-on coffee-morning baking-mode, Little Buns come trooping out of her kitchen in their dozens. This evening I have been doing my best impression of her, as I was asked to make two dozen fairy cakes for Mabel (my dance team)'s tenth birthday celebration at the weekend.
The more observant will notice that there are more than 24 there. Firstly, I volunteered to make more since an extra team announced their intention of attending after we'd done the sums that decided everyone needed to make two dozen. Secondly, the sums assumed that most teams would bring few hangers on, and no one would eat more than one cake - assumptions I feel to be shaky at best - so I planned to overcater a little. Thirdly, I have promised to provide some cakes to my extremely strict quality-control department, headed by
onebyone. Fourthly, once you've got the oven hot and the Kenwood out it's not much more effort to make another batch anyway.However, even the unobservant may notice that I'm quite crap at icing. I rarely make cakes which require icing. The mother's tip for icing buns was "make the icing stiffer than you think you want". She should have said "make the icing stiffer than you think, no, stiffer than that, no, I mean it, put more icing sugar in". When she puts a dollop of icing on a bun, it all spreads out neatly in a circle instead of running unevenly. I think this is further evidence that she uses witchcraft, which is just cheating.
If you're interested, up there there's vanilla and coffee buns, little curranty buns, vanilla and raspberry buns, cherry buns, peppermint buns, and lemon buns.
I'm not sure yet of the wisdom of peppermint buns. I mean, I like them, but then I make peppermint milkshakes and everyone thinks that's weird. I made the buns minty using peppermint oil, which is scary stuff. When you take the lid off, it's not just "oooh, that's minty" - more sort of "holy crap, where are my sinuses?". A drop goes a long way; I have a 50ml bottle, and I think it'll probably see me out. The lemon oil seems to work well for lemon flavouring, though.
I'm also not sure the violently pink icing was a good idea; it was made by stirring jam into normal icing. It's come out very sticky and I haven't dared try eating one yet.
