Treat you to cake every night.

[venta]

Right, 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 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.

Comments

[hendybear.livejournal.com]

I think you may be missing something.....

"The mother's tip"

followed by

"I think this is further evidence that she uses witchcraft, which is just cheating."

Just goes to show how misuderstood "mothers" are I believe that there is secret society, to which you can only enter once you "a mother". This society is all powerfull and makes the Mason's look like a bunch of amatuers(it also produces the best baked products).

Oh dear, either I am right and will have to learn to live in the woods for the rest of my life, or I shall have to learn to just enjoy the cakes and shut up.

Just in case any mothers are reading this post.... GIVE ME CAKE.

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

Mmm coffee cake, mmm peppermint cake.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

And here was me thinking this was some kind of mad fairy cake advent calendar project.

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

I think that your cakes are fairy cakes because they are made of a light sponge and are small.
My gran used to make buns, they were made of something denser and had sultanas in - I think it was mostly the denser stuff though that did it, they'd have been buns without the sultanas.

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

Doh, awful typing lets me down again. Obviously a fairy CAKE, not a fairy cac.

Cup Cakes, which is the only other thing it might have been, need more and thicker icing, and don't have glace cherries on top. They also have tended to be flat-topped level with the cake case.

[marjory.livejournal.com]

I am afraid that my answer to your poll was a little facetious, but it is Friday...

As you did lemony buns, I'm sure you'll br forgiven minty ones!

This reminds me too much of one time when I was requested to make cakes and, being carried away and having lots of ingredients, I made a marble cake with blue food colouring.

It got eaten!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine who was also from the NE (although not as far N as you) called them buns, and indeed called the tin that you cook them in (ie. with an array of small indentations) a "bun tin". Whereas clearly it is actually a fairy-cake tin.

Good luck with the jam-commingled icing!

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Enough cake to feed a small roleplaying session.

[(Anonymous)]

Venta's mum can scare masons. Moreover, she's put them on the list of people banned as prospective sons in law.