Fairy Cakes from Madeira

In the US, I believe, these are called Cupcakes. Here in Oz though we have a whimsical streak and these are Fairy Cakes. If the peaked tops are sliced off, the slice cut in half, the top covered in cream with the half slices placed in the cream at an angle like butterfly wings, they then become wonderful Butterfly Cakes. Small Fairy Cakes can be cut in half, creamed in the middle, put together again rolled in pink jelly (jello to the US) and dessicated coconut and then they become Peach Cakes. Fairy Cakes are made from Madeira Mixture. Below, is the basic Madeira Mixture , based on Miss Schauer's,from which so many good things come.

MADEIRA MIXTURE Ingredients: 125 grams (4oz) of butter; 125 grams (4oz) sugar; 2 eggs; vanilla essence; quarter of a cup of milk - I used Carnation Milk - Light and Creamy undiluted; 6 oz of SR (self-raising flour) - if you don't have any SR Flour then use plain flour (for the US - all purpose flour) with a teaspooon and half of baking powder. Method: Cream butter and sugar until the mixture is white; add vanilla essence to taste; add eggs one at a time and then make sure that the mixture is well creamed; add milk and then flour (although you can add milk and flour alternately if you prefer). Flour can be either folded in by hand or mixed on a very low speed. Not the high speed used to cream the butter and sugar. On completion, you should have a nice batter. Certainly not runny - but not too thick either. It has to be Goldilocks consistency - Just Right.

If it is too thick you can add a tiny amount of water to get to the right consistency - if you used the Carnation milk. If you substituted ordinary milk, then dilute with the same milk. I used this mixture to make the cakes Muffin size. It made 5 cakes. I used non-stick muffin pans in which I inserted fluted muffin papers. Bake in a very moderate oven. I cooked them at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 15 minutes. Remember they don't take long too cook so keep an eye on them through your oven's glass door. Vienna Cream: Measurements are inexact here. I started out, when the cakes were cool right through, with 125 grams (4oz) of butter which I creamed. To this I kept adding icing sugar until I got the consistency I wanted. Now there is something that you need to know about icing sugar. In Oz, we have Icing Mixture and Pure Icing Sugar. Icing Mixture makes a soft not a hard icing. It is not pure icing sugar because the icing sugar is mixed with cornflour. Pure Icing Sugar can very lumpy. You will need to get rid of the lumps by rolling with a rolling pin or whizzing around in your blender or processor until it is smooth and silky. Finally, sift it in a good old fashioned sifter. So, icing mixture is quicker and if you want the icing or cream to be soft and butter this is great. For hard icing or fancy fondants, you will need the pure unadulterated stuff. I applied the icing with a bread and butter knife applying in swirls which I made even swirlier with a dessert fork. I then added coloured cachous which are available in the cake making section of the supermarket.