Cupcakes are pretty much enjoyed by everyone. Even my husband, who claims not to like cake, has been known to change his mind with a cupcake when he has one. Though small children often just lick off the icing and leave the rest! So, having ascertained that my person likes all foods apart from coconut, I decided on lemon cupcakes, with lemon frosting, decorated with edible glitter, lemon sugar crunch and wafer daisies.
Cupcakes, of course, are different from fairy cakes. Cupcakes originated in America, as early as 1796, according to Wikipedia, when a recipe notation of "a cake to be baked in small cups" was written in a book called American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. The name "cupcake" is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup. "Fairy cake" is an English term, describing a smaller cake which would be appropriate for a party of fairies to share.
Fairy cakes are what I used to make with my Mum when I was little, she just called them "little cakes". In fact she still makes them now, in large batches, as they freeze well.They usually had chocolate chips and/or sultanas in, and weren't iced. Sometimes for birthday parties the plain ones would be transformed into "butterfly cakes" by cutting a circle from the top, filling the hole with butter icing and cutting the little circle in half before replacing it to look like butterfly wings. I didn't know about cupcakes until I read about them in childrens books written by American authors, and didn't experience one until I was a lot older. But these days, I make them quite a lot.
Ususally I use paper or foil coated cases, though I do sometimes use silicone ones which can be washed up and reused. Cupcake cases are smaller than muffin cases, but quite a lot bigger than fairy cake cases:
The size does cause debate. A good sized cupcake is normally enough, you wouldn't want two in one sitting. Or I wouldn't anyway. Some even think one is too much. The larger ones are best eaten with a fork, especailly if theres a lot of icing, so you don't make too much of a mess!
One of the best things about cupcakes is the endless variety. Firstly, there is the sponge flavour (and colour). Then you can scoop out some of the middle and fill them with a little surprise, like custard, or jam, or melted marshmallows. Then there is the icing (or frosting, to give it the American name - they mean the same thing), and finally my favourite bit, the decoration...
An optional procedure after baking, recommended by Peggy Porschen (great name!) in her excellent book "Boutique Baking" is to drizzle some kind of flavoured hot sugar syrup over the cakes when they've just come out of the oven. This keeps them moist, a good idea as I think there is nothing worse than a dry cake of any description.
I bought a book of cupcake recipes years ago, which was quite frankly, rubbish, and put me off for a while, I tried making peanut butter ones, and caramel ones, and they were rather disappointing. Then I bought the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and my cupcake making was revolutionised. Their recipes were much more successful and I got the bug. Their famous red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and topped with red edible glitter were requested by my daughter for a birthday several years ago. I' ve made lots of their recipes, including chocolate, chocolate and hazelnut (filled with nutella and topped with a whole hazelnut), and strawberry cheesecake cupcakes (with chopped fresh strawberries in the sponge mixture and cream cheese frosting sprinkled with crushed digestive biscuits). Another of their recipes was green tea cupcakes, using milk infused with green tea in the sponge, and icing containing matcha green tea powder sourced via ebay (see photo below):
Their marshmallow cupcakes were also a great success, with melted marshmallows in the middle and mini marshmallows mixed into vanilla frosting for on the top, all piled up like a glamourous hairdo!
Other flavours I've had a go at include cappucino, chai tea with cinnamon vanilla frosting and chopped pistachios, rosewater, raspberry and lemon (with a whole raspberry in the middle and one on top of lemon icing), rhubarb and custard (see the rhubarb blog post for a picture of that one), macadamia and white chocolate, Easter nests and chocolate devil's food.
Easter Nest Cupcakes
Jubilee cupcakes made for a street party, with tricolor icing swirls
Lemon and raspberry
Rosewater
Icing can just be spread on with a small palette knife, or piped with a plain or star nozzle. I've just got a duo colour piping set so I'm looking forward to having a go with it soon. The jubilee cakes pictured above were iced by using three plastic sandwich bags with the different coloured icings in, inside the main piping bag. I swear by my lakeland silicone piping bag as it's so easy to clean.
Probably the best part is decorating them. There is such a wide choice available, you can get polka dots, sugar strands, fudge pieces, mini marshmallows, chocolate shapes, edible glitter, neon coloured sugar crystals and even silver and gold shimmer spray to give a metallic effect. I've found that the silver is much better than the gold, which doesn't seem to show up very well, even on chocolate icing. And I love the wafer daisies.
Presentation is something to think about if the cakes are going to be a gift. The main supermarkets sell lovely boxes quite cheaply which I use for macaroons too. If you're going to be displaying them you can get cardboard stands in a range of designs, I've inherited a fabulous perspex one that used to belong to my sister (see below) and it can have anything from one to five tiers. Normal ceramic cake stands loook very effective too.
Double choc - for a wedding.
So, that is the wonderful world of cupcakery! Long may it continue. And if you're one of the other four people on my creative pay it forward list, you'll get your something before the year is out. It might not be cupcakes, but it is likely to be edible.
Thank you for reading,
Caroline :-) x
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