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.

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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

[Alexandra Mason]

Those cakes look so yummy i want to make some now xx

[Poppy]

Yum!! I just found your blog and have fallen in love!!!! Thank you for all of your crocheting info!!!!
Poppy
http://peacefulpoppy.blogspot.com

[andrea]

Lucy, I really want to send you present! How would I go about getting it to you?

[faye]

Butterfly cakes as far as i have known!! But i love fancy-pants cakes, perfect name for them!!

[Ros]

I'd say that fairy cakes is the generic name for all little cakes of that size and shape, but that when you cut out the top to make wings, they become butterfly cakes. Incidentally, I would always put the wings in the other way round.

[Kate]

OHHHhhhh thank you thank you thank you!!! I so wanted that recipe! And I fully intend to call them "fairy cakes"... it just sounds so lovely. Plus, I don't think you can actually hurt a fairy so eating the wings will be ever so much nicer..=) Kate in Texas

[Cat]

Ooo - butterfly cakes all the way. My Silver Spoon box has little birds on it - does that give away just how old it is...?

[noonie]

I love Butterfly cakes... stop waving them under my nose.. I'm trying to lose weight... I may have to cave in and make some for Sunday Teatime...

Love the idea of jam in there.. we also used to make chocolate ones.

UK grows Sugar Beets... some say the sugar doesn't taste the same but I've never noticed with the overprocessed white stuff.

[SarahJayne]

Mmm-mmm good! Just finished making these with my li'l sisters - we had a blast and enjoyed the treat! Thanks for sharing!

[Teresa Kasner]

Lucy, I ordered your "Lucy Yarn" collection - funny because they were so inundated with orders I might have to wait a while to get the bag here in Corbett, Oregon, USA. Have I missed your post of the granny stripe pattern? By looking at it I can't figure it out.

Love your blog! My sister and I are both fans of yours and we ask each other - "Did you see Lucy's blog today?".

Love from Oregon countryside

[mahek]

Thanks for the wonderful recipe and the lovely photographs...

[Sarah west mids uk]

Dear Lucy where I was brought up in Gloucestershire we called those cakes fairy cakes and my mum used to make Angel cake which had three layers in three different colours. I like lemon fairy cakes and orange fairy cakes!!!
Looks Like I'll be making some for a school fair next week.
Love Sarahx

[Anne Bebbington]

Lucy I spent from 18months old to 31yrs old living within a 5 mile radius of your house and we have always called them butterfly cakes

[Penelope]

Ooh yum, such fun for little and big people alike ! Ta for the inspiration once again

[Natalie]

Awww fond memories :) they've always been Butterfly cakes to me (grew up near Bridport in fact) & cupcakes are usually fairy cakes here.... Must make some with my 3-year-old but the diet limits my baking somewhat ;) xx

[Janette]

hi I definately know them as fairy cakes without the wings and butterfly cakes with. I also put a blob of jam at the bottom of the cut out bit and then the buttercream on top then the wings - yummy xxx

[[email protected]]

Attic 24...Thx for coming to the Palace post...I was all the talk today...lol
You do know your a star on the crochet circuit right?
I love hoe you teach your projects on your blog...keep it up..

[Jez]

Thank you Lucy!
I vote for calling them whatever you please, after all you're the one that makes them! ^_~

[Siobhan]

Butterfly cakes! That's what I know them as but then I am from down south too. Yummy sounding with jam - haven't tried that. I haven't made them in ages - usually do little iced and decorated "fairy" cakes. Had them lots when I was little though. Look delicious though - hope the little people enjoy.
xx

[Alicia]

Definitely butterfly cakes! Fairy cakes have the icing made out of icing sugar and water and you don't cut the cake up.

[Lee M]

Mmm... I'm from Scotland and we call them Butterfly Cakes! My mum always made them with dream topping and a maderia orange slice inbetween the wings but I remember always picking the orange off and eating the rest! Yum!

[Gill]

As a child of the North I can say I've never known the name Angel Cakes, they were always Butterfly Cakes.

My Mam sometimes used to put cocoa in the cake mixture and the buttercream to make them extreeemely chocolatey especially for birthday parties.

Lovely. xx

[Carole]

Well Lucy,
I`m from the North & we`ve always called these buns Butterfly Buns! Never heard of Angel cakes. Angel Cake that i know is the type you can get in M&S with white,pink & pale yellow delicate sponge.Men what do they know lol!
Love Carole from Rossendale xxxxx

[Blissful Mum]

I'd definitely call them butterfly cakes! I love fairy cakes too, much better than the big cupcakes with oodles of icing that seem to be in fashion right now - not that I'm complaining too much, a girl can never have enough cake! I'm baking at the moment too, for our Strawberry Tea in aid of Breast Cancer Care this Friday - will definitely add your little beauties to the list for this afternoon! I've read through virtually all your blog now and am truly inspired, thank you! Best wishes, Helen

[Jackie]

Mmmm..........Lucy they do look very yummy cakes! I call them Fairy cakes and have made them often but never with the added option of jam and then butter icing ~ I will definitely be giving that a try the next time around. Also equally as yummy is little chocolatey Fairy buns with chocolatey butter icing in the middle and a little bit of grated chocolate on the top. Hope that you are enjoying your day :O) xx