Little Cakes with Wings

Remember my post last week when I showed you some little fancy-pants cakes that I'd baked for my solo knit-and-natter at home? I had lots of requests for the pattern recipe (sorry, I've just been pootling about on Ravelry and my mind is on crochet patterns, although I do quite like the thought of a baking pattern!), ho hum, I've distracted myself now, where was I?? Oh yes, lots of requests for the recipe for these little winged cakes.

Not sure what to call them, J and I had a little debate about this last week actually. He tells me that in The North they are called angel cakes. And I then told him that in The South, we always called them butterfly cakes. And then to confuse things even more, my little baking recipe booklet refers to them as fairy cakes. So either way, whether you like your cakey wings to belong to fairies, angels or butterflies, the recipe is one and the same.

First you make a batch of little buns. I have an old faithful recipe which I always use, you can find it waaaaay back in my archives (March 2008, good lord, have I been gas bagging on here THAT long?)...click HERE to find it. This recipe makes eight cakes. 

 

You need to let the cakes cool completely before you start chopping them about or else it all goes hideously wrong so be patient ok? No crumbly disasters and no kitchen hissy fits.

So while you're waiting for the cakelets to cool, you can make your buttercream icing. Very easy thing to do :: into a bowl put 50g butter or margarine and 100g icing sugar.

Get jiggy with your spoon of choice and cream them together until lovely and smooth. If you're using butter and it's not very soft, cream it first before adding in the sugar.

Beat in a few drops of vanilla essence.

Now you need to get your little cakey to produce some wings. Take a sharp pointy knife and cut out a circle from the top of the cake. Put your knife in at an angle as you cut round so that you end up cutting out a shallowish disc shape rather than trying to gouge out a deep round hole, does this make sense??

Don't worry if it's not particularly neat, a rough circle shape will do fine.

Now cut your circle in half to form the two wings, then fill in the hole with a good dollop of buttercream icing.

Arrange your little wings on top of the icing with the straight sides pointing down and the roundy edges sticking up (took me an embarrassingly long time to get this right, I kept wanting to put the wings in upsidedown)

And the final touch (which I completely adore) is to dust lightly with some icing sugar. Ahhhhhhhh it is such a huge amount of fun to dust cakes!! They look so charming and pretty and so much more cakey when they've had a good dusting down!

And thats pretty much it, this recipe should provide you with some fun baking and some even more fun eating. They are just the right amount of sweetness.

My Little People love these cakes. Mind you, they are quite cruel to the angels/fairies/butterflies and pull their wings clean off before scooping out the icing with their Little Fingers. Then they wipe their sticky Little Fingers all down their clothes, the dirty little urchins. I hope you won't do that, these pretty little cakies do deserve to be eaten daintily me thinks.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps I do love the Silver Spoon icing sugar packet, don't you? The dinky little red tractor with it's union jack window, ploughing up sugar pink fields is very sweet indeed.

Edited to add ::: ooooooooommmmmmmmmm JAM under the buttercream you say????? Well I never, I am SO going to try this, the Little Peeps will be beside themselves :o)xx

Also am rather delighted that I shall need to put J straight on the butterfly/angel debate as these are clearly Butterfly cakes aren't they? I was right, wasn't I?? teehee! xx

Comments

[Louise]

I remember helping my Mum make fairy cakes (that's what we called them in Oz). Thank you for sharing the recipe, I can't wait to make some with my youngest.
Have a lovely day.

[Nana GoGo]

Adorable! Oop north we call them `Angel Cakes` - I shared one last week with my 18-month-old grandaughter when we went to our Village Hall - they host a Community Cafe once a month and Baby and Me go there for lunch after Playgroup - she`s not fussy about which part she eats first and she looks so cute with her button nose covered in buttericing!

[Yiota]

I have been faithfully using your recipes for almost a year now and I am one very satisfied customer; yes mam, I am! Thanks for this one. My little boy will love a winged cake or two - his mummy too, of course! ;)

[Esther]

I've always known these as butterfly cakes, but as I'm not a fan of buttercream filling I don't tend to make them much. I always use a recipe for fairy cakes from the dairy book of cookery (really great if you don't have already) and I remember it as 4, 4, 4, 2 (40z of flour, sugar and butter, 2 eggs). I amend it to suit my needs, adding raisins, bananas, vanilla extract, cherries, whatever takes your fancy really. Add a dash of milk to make it more moist and there you have it!

[rach]

lol im from the north east and i call them butterfly cakes lol x

[Kathryn]

I'm originally from Nottingham (have emigrated to Lancashire) and when I grew up my mum made these and called them butterfly cakes. Whatever their name, they're yummy!

[tonya]

Yum! Here is my latest crazy crochet stripy goodness...http://magfam6.blogspot.com/2010/06/rainbow-sorbet-crazy-crochet-blanket.html
Have a great day!

[Michelle Lindau]

I'm with Louise - in Australia we call them Fairy Cakes - they are often filled with fresh whipped cream rather than butter cream. These lovely little cakes were often served at childrens birthday parties when I was small, along with scrummy fairy bread.......

[Karin]

Yummy!
Thanks for the recipe.

~X~

[frances]

Thank you for the recipe, Lucy. I may have to give it a try. I have not seen these charming little cakes over here in New York under any name.

They surely do look adorable, and must taste wonderful ... I might add lemon extract to the cake batter, and perhaps a bit of grated lemon rind to the butter icing. Guess there are countless possible variations. xo

[Robin]

They do look yummy! Thanks for the recipe. I think calling them Angel Cakes is nice, due to the powdered sugar accent!! They look Heavenly!!!!
xoxoxo Robin

[Pamela]

I've done something similar with balls of choux pastry. Cut the tops off, fill with balls with cream, and then put the tops (sliced in half) back on as wings. I also piped backwards S shapes which looked like swans necks and popped them in too! You have to put the necks in before the wings, though, and a very healthy dollop of cream helps them stay put!

[Ann]

I rather like the name "Fancy-Pants Cakes" and that is what I am going to call them! Thanks for the pattern!!

[Carol]

I've always known them as butterfly cakes and I'm from/in Yorkshire.
Yours look scrumptious and a much better size for little hands and mouths than the american cupcakes.
Another export from Attic24!
Carol xx

[greenrabbitdesigns]

In N. Ireland we call them butterfly cakes!
Do you know I always use Silver Spoon sugar and I've never paid any heed to the picture on the box before. :)
Vivienne x

[Toria]

My mother always put a lemon filling in the fairy cakes she made when I was little.

Now a serious question - what is farmed in the UK to produce sugar? I always thought the crops you could make sugar from were tropical plants.

[Rebecca]

Ask and ye shall receive!!!
Oh, Lucy I feel so special! Like you made these just for my asking! (Does that make me an adopted kid? Though I'm 53?)
What a treat!

Thank you for taking so much of your precious (crochet) time to organize, mix, photgraph and bake! I will make some today! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

And... Even though I love butterflies and angels, I liked the name fairy cakes. They sound so magical and mystical and delici-cal!

I love U Lucy!

[Sandy]

I'm from Down Under too and we call them either Butterfly or Fairy cakes. We fill them with a dollop of thick cream instead of icing. You've inspired me to make some today after not having them for...years. Love your new blankie by the way. I am dead envious of the yarn you can source. My available choices are rather disappointing and sad really. That's what happens when you do crazy things like trying to buy wool in the tropics! Lucy, if you feel comfortable sending me your contact details I have something I'd like to post to the Little People in your life.

[Rebecca]

A P.S. for "TORIA" I think most people equate sugar with cane sugar though I know a majority of sugar here in the states is made with sugar beets. I bet that is what is produced there also. (maybe)

Here is a link

http://www.sucrose.com/lbeet.html

[Jenny]

They're butterfly cakes! Fairy cakes are the ones without the wings, and angel cake is a sponge made of three different coloured layers. (I'm from Lancashire if that makes a difference!) They look yummy whatever they're called :)

[Krista]

Alls I want to know is where the heck do they grow sugar cane in the UK???

[laura]

mmmm que rico!!! bsos

[The Garden Bell - Kate]

You have gone and done it now. I'm totally going to go live in Ravelry. What a big can of worms I opened today. So much fun over there. Now, I know where you have been. But, I won't be leaving blogland, still my fav.

OK...sweetie. This looks totally devilish. I'm thinking your sugar is what we yankees call Powder Sugar. I really don't care where it's made, it's delightful light and sweet.

Glad to see you back around two days straight. Good job, my little sweet friend.

Off to The RAV, again,
Katester

[claudia w]

I love the thought of the fairy angel butterfly cakes. When you showed the picture of them complete though they so look like butterflies. I like the thought of fairies, and angels are always good to have around, just because. I'm going to have to try my hand at these...they look scumpdiliumptous. (try saying that three times fast!)

[Jen]

Lucy, I was so happy that you mentioned how much you loved the sugar packaging. It was my first thought upon seeing that photo----why don't they make charming little packages like that here in the US?

Thanks for sharing your recipe, they look yummy!