i heart cupcakes

Actually, we call them fairycakes.  And from the pics below you would be forgiven for thinking my love goes beyond normal into the realms of obsession.  Not true, although I do know of some complete cupcake queens. (Cupcakes take the cake, cupcaketastic, Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit  , to name but a few). 

We just make them a lot in the deli, which gives us plenty of time to play with the decorations, and I do love photographing them.  Somehow, they always look just right in our old-fashioned, shabby chic, seaside deli.  And although the actual cupcakes and the buttercream icing are all organic, the colouring isn’t. 

Yet, it seems to be the colouring that silently beckons to the inner child, whispering: ‘pick me up.  I’m yours’.  And they do.  I’ve know grown men to go weak at the knees when eating one of our cupcakes, and last week, at the end of the day when I only had one pink fairycake left, a surfer fought his girlfriend for it.  Clearly no problems with getting in touch with his feminine side.  (It was really PINK).

It’s not just the grownups who are drawn to these fairytale creations.  Kids adore them, and between the cupcakes and the giant oat, peanut and smartie (like chocolate m&ms) cookies, children entering our cafe seem to wear permanently glazed looks.  We have made boxes and platters of these for parties, press shoots, kitchen teas, and I filled a pink, three tiered stand with mini cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday cake this year.  They were, as requested, multi-coloured, topped with handpainted icing berries, hearts, leaves and bees.  It’s like edible crafting, such fun!

Some of the dedicated cupcake blogs have some amazing cupcake combos, which are truly inspiring.  At the deli we like to keep it simple.  We make giant cupcakes with a foolproof victoria sponge batter, then we top it off with the perfect buttercream.  Mostly it’s just really good butter and organic vanilla, but sometimes it’s orange, lemon, rose or coffee.  Simplicity is the key here.  And these fairycakes make for a shot of pure nostalgia.

Don’t forget to click here for the recipe, and have  a look at some other cupcake blogs for more inspiration.  Or just visit the deli and we’ll happily ply you with ours along with a cup of All -African organic coffee.  In fact, I think I’m just off to have one now…   

Vanilla sponge fairycakes with rose and vanilla buttercream

This is a simple Victoria sponge recipe, that works every time and improves over 2 or 3 days.  The recipe makes 6 -8 giant muffins or 12 – 16 regular muffins.

Cream

• 350g butter
• 350g caster sugar

Sift together

• 350g Plain (cake) flour
• 2 pinches of bicarb
• 2 t baking powder

Lightly beat

• 6 large freerange eggs
• 1/4 cup warm water

When the buttercream is light and fluffy, fold in the dry ingredients with the flatbeater on low speed.

Then swap back to the whisk and beat in the egg mix until it is all incorporated.  Don’t overbeat.

Spoon into well buttered and floured muffin tins, mine are individual moulds, and bake for 20 -35 mins at 180*C – 200*C.

The temperature and length of baking time depends on how large your cupcakes are and how hot your oven is.  Slightly lower temp and longer cooking time for larger cupcakes, and hotter shorter times for smaller cakes.  To check for readiness a skewer inserted should come out largley dry with only a few crumbs clinging to it, and the cupcake should be pulling away slightly from the tin.

Leave for a moment to cool, then turn out and leave on a baking rack to cool completely before icing.  Click through here for perfect and easy buttercream icing.  Once iced, we wrap in squares of baking paper and tie with some string.  This keeps the cupcake from drying out too quickly, and it looks pretty…

Happy baking.

baked in individual cupcake moulds, and turned upside down

If you do not have any sour cream, try substituting creme fraiche or even buttermilk, or put 1teaspoon white wine vinegar into a cup and top with 250ml milk.  Allow this to stand and curdle, then use in place of the sour cream.

• Cream 250g unsalted butter and 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar, until pale golden and fluffy.
• Beat in 6 large free range eggs, one by one
• followed by the finely grated zest of 2 organic, unwaxed lemons.
• If you have a good quality lemon oil or essence you can add 1 teaspoon, if you only have the synthetic stuff, it is better to leave it out.
• Beat in 1 cup (250ml) of sour cream or creme fraiche.
• Sift 2 cups of plain (cake) flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and fold into the mix.

Pour the mix into buttered and floured tins.  This should do twelve giant cupcake moulds, or 1 large ring.

Bake @ 160*C for 20- 25  minutes, or a little longer for a ring.

Make sure a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool, then unmould.  Leave upside down and when cool spoon over an icing mix made from the freshly squeezed juice of your lemons mixed with enough icing sugar to make a viscous but pourable frosting.

Top with a dusting of icing sugar for extra bling, and a chubbily blushing raspberry if you are lucky enough to find them.

a ray of lemony sunshine on a late summer's afternoon

It has been far too long since I’ve participated in a food blogging event, but halfway around the world from home, and with a deli to run, bending my week’s menu around a blogging event becomes somewhat challenging.  GYO (Grow Your Own) seems to sidestep all that as the title really encapsulates the only rule, and even this Andrea has been known to bend.

GYO also goes right to the heart of everything I like to strive for in food, encouraging us to use local (like in our own garden) and seasonal produce.  This has it’s own difficulties in a worldwide culture of instant gratification.  But also it’s own special rewards.

As if these delicious sour cream lemon cakes didn’t go straight for the g-spot (that’s the ‘gasp! how yummy!’ – spot, for the uninitiated), there is the added satisfaction of knowing I kneaded and squeezed every delicious drop of citrussy goodness out of home-grown lemons, un besmirched by modern chemicals and pesticides.  Strictly speaking, I didn’t grow my own, as the lemon tree in question is in my mom’s mountainside African garden, but she’s always saying what’s hers is mine…

Baked in individual shaped cups, and inverted to show off their gorgeous architectural lines, these little cakes are all around show stoppers, especially drizzled with a little lemon zest icing and topped with the most indecently chubby raspberries just coming into season.  The sour cream in the sponge ensures a cake that improves over a few days, but I’m here to tell you you’ll just have to take my word for it as they will never last past the first afternoon.

Gasp! How yummy!

As usual , I’m posting my recipe to the sidebar, and don’t be shy about giving it a try, it’s really easy.  And for other GYO entries this month check out the roundup at Andrea’s.