Bun, cupcake or fairy cake?

Are they all exactly the same? I grew up calling these cakey creations "buns" and thought "fairy cakes" had the sliced off tops which were stuck on again as wings (or are those "butterfly cakes"?) The American term "cupcake", which has steadily grown in popularity in the U.K., just made me angry. In fact I usually ended up shouting "it's not a cupcake, it's a f***ing bun!" at people.

The "cupcake", however, is not a silly new term or fad. It can be traced back to 1796 when a recipe notation of “a cake to be baked in small cups” was written in “American Cookery” by Amelia Simms. (Good old Wiki!) The "bun" is apparently a Northern English term (fancy that!) and is described either as a sweet bread or a sponge/butterfly bun and the term "fairy cake" relates to the dinky cake size.

I decided further investigation was required, mostly through comments on cake blogs. Some believe the "fairy cake" is of a lighter texture and uses glacé icing as opposed to buttercream, or that "cupcakes" are more versatile in flavour and a "grown up" cake whereas "fairy cakes" are plainer and associated with children's parties. Another interesting theory came from a lady called Sarah on the Maison Cupcake blog:

Fairy cakes use the 2:1 ratio of flour sugar and butter to eggs and go into cases of a size that means I can get the cake into my mouth in one go. Cupcakes vary the amount of flour etc. according to the recipe and have milk in them and can only get into my mouth in one bite if I’m feeling particularly limber.

Very slowly, through much baking and blog reading, I am beginning to accept the "cupcake". I no longer view it as a threat to the "bun"; if anything I think it's a different kind of cake (with much more elaborate icing!)

So will I finally start using the term cupcake without muttering it through gritted teeth? Maaaaaaaybe.

The Hummingbird strikes again!

I just can't leave that book alone. This time, it has delivered the ULTIMATE brownie, and I do mean ultimate. It is the tastiest, piggiest thing known to man or woman, filled with chopped walnuts and ooey-gooey chunks of chocolate (I used Cadbury's Bournville). It has an obscene amount of butter and sugar and uses 5 eggs(!) but I don't care. If you're a brownie lover you must make this! It's the Frosted Brownie recipe, but I loved the brownie so much by itself that I didn't bother with the icing. That's how good it is! (Plus I had run out of butter by this point.) I felt this brownie was so special that it had to be put on a pedestal, as it is most certainly king of the brownies. 

Best blondies so far!

I've been promising the girls at work for a while that I would bake them some white chocolate brownies/blondies. Tomorrow they shall get some! I'm very pleased with them. This is the third time I've tried this recipe and these are definitely the best I've made. Instead of macadamia nuts I used ground almonds and I cut out the salt as I didn't like how it tasted in my last batch. I also used baking white chocolate instead of milkybar (which I used last time) and I preferred the flavour.

Red velvet

Another Hummingbird Bakery recipe. I have seen red velvet cake recipes around for a while, but never really knew what they were, so this evening I decided I had to try one out.

It turns out they are red (very red in fact), slightly chocolatey, and cream cheesy. It's also the first time I have used white wine vinegar or buttermilk in a recipe. How exciting! For years I have seen recipes (mostly muffins) with buttermilk as an ingredient. Do you think I could ever find any in a supermarket? No! Not until Tuesday anyway; I finally spotted some in Tesco. Hurray!

So here they are in their full, sexy, red glory.

I think I may have fallen in love with a kitchen appliance

http://www.kitchenmixersreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Kitchenaid-Mixer-Colors.jpg

So many pretty coloured mixers! So pretty that I'm not sure which one I like best. Maybe the green.

Here's a green one looking lovely in someone's house: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30214361@N04/3675295034/

February baking creations

Mam's birthday tart

"Happy Bakewell Birthday!" My mother is strange in that she's not a great cake fan, so for her birthday she requested a Bakewell Tart. I hadn't made one before but found a recipe in my Avoca cookbook and it worked lovely, just a shame I burnt the edges of the pastry. The lemon in the pastry nearly overwhelmed the almond flavour so I may reduce it by half the next time I make it.

Have only just noticed, about a week later, that I forgot to put the flaked almonds on top. Fairly important thing to miss out, I'm so stupid. Oh well, I'll just have to bake it again...

Black-bottomed cupcakes/buns 

This was my second venture into the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I found the bun a bit too heavy on the stomach although it was tasty warmed up. The recipe was a bit strange to follow and at one point I thought my mixer had died because it made a pretty nasty smell after attempting to mix the super thick chocolate batter. I also had problems with the vegetable oil because I couldn't find small enough liquid measures. On the whole I just wasn't 100% sold on the recipe which was disappointing as I thought it would be great.

Hummingbird Bakery brownies

This was the first recipe I tried from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. As promised, the brownies turned out "chewy and chocolatey", however they were very difficult to remove from the greaseproof paper. It certainly didn't stop me eating them though.

I also decided to rival the Hummingbird Bakery for photgraphy. It is such a beautiful book. I think this is the best baking picture I have taken so far and shows off my new Cath Kidston cup.

January baking creations

Kathleen's birthday cake

I made a pink chequer board cake for my cousin Kathleen's birthday with fondant icing decorations and marshmallows.

I wasn't there to take photos of the cake's chequer board interior, however Kathleen's fiance Thomas has allowed me to show the photos he took. Thanks Thomas!

The birthday girl admiring her cake.

It may not be a perfect chequer board but it's pretty good for a first attempt!

Chocolate buns with marshmallow filling

I made these with my friend Sarah. We discovered that it is a bad idea to put marshmallows in the bun mixture before it's cooked (in other words we should have followed the recipe!) It was fixable though; we put melted marshmallows in the crater holes that were left in the cooked buns and then covered it up with chocolate buttercream icing.

White chocolate brownies/ Blondies

  These were yummmmmmmmy.