Friday, July 22, 2011

On a rainy day, bake fairy cakes

I had been wanting to learn how to decorate with fondant and marzipan, and finally a few weeks ago, I took a class. Then last Sunday we had a BBQ and I was so happy to use it as an excuse to bring dessert.
And so I made fairy cakes. I know in many countries the term is cupcake, but I just love the British term. It's so dreamy, like fairies brought them all the way from their underground home.
Perhaps someone from the UK can clarify the difference between the terms, if there is any. But no, this time it wasn't fairies, it was just me:
 Like I said, I used marzipan to decorate them, which is not only smooth and pretty, but also delicious. To "paste" it on the cupcakes I used a thin layer of apricot jam. The boy and I made figures on them, and we had a lot of fun. For the owl cupcake I used this tutorial from the lovely Celebration Girl:
 I don't know if it's just me, but I just love recipe books that come with pictures, it really makes all the difference. I am convinced that on a cookbook, the recipes that are used the most are the ones that are illustrated. This recipe uses yoghurt, instead of butter. I really liked it. So, if you would like to see the recipe, step by step with photos continue reading. 
You will need: 
125 ml.  yoghurt. (I used full fat greek yoghurt, taste is delicious and I had to compensate the lack of butter in some way :p )
250 gr. sugar (I used brown sugar)
3 eggs, beaten
4 spoonfuls vegetal oil (I used olive oil)
375 gr. flour
2 spoonfuls baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Vanilla, Almond or any essence of your choice.
100 gr raisins, almonds or whatever you feel like adding.
Apricot Jam, Marzipan and Confectioners sugar to decorate
______________________________________________________
What to do
-Preheat the oven to 180ºC
-Mix the yoghurt, sugar and beaten eggs.
 -Add oil, salt, flour, and baking soda

-When the dough is properly mixed, add essence of choice (1 teaspoon, but I didn´t really measure it) and raisins or almonds.
 -Fill the cupcake forms to 1/2 or 2/3, and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry, the usual.
-Let cool .
-And finally the fun time to decorate. Roll out the marzipan on a surface covered with confectioners sugar. Use your hand, creativity or cookie cutters to design any figures you like. We used a glass to make the round base for the topper. Once you are ready, simply cover the fairy cake with a thin layer of jam (you can also use buttercream, lemon curd, etc... ) and delicately "paste" it on top of it. Voilà.

5 comments:

  1. Te quedaron hermosas y se ven riquisimas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gracias :) Cuando nos visitemos tendremos que hornear algo juntas !

    ReplyDelete
  3. I want that owl!! please... :) it looks like you both had so much fun! so sweet...

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Ines: Thanks :) it was fun, and sticky a bit ! In the end Mark went like "are we done ? " and he ate the leftover marzipan !

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments, let's talk .

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...