A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Sunday, 5 August 2012

20. Iced Fairy Cakes

With the remainder of 'Section 1' of my bakes still outstanding, I now find myself faced with a selection of cakes for really special occasions, like Sachertorte. What to bake for husband's birthday then? Something that would travel well on our short getaway to Norfolk. In the end, I plumped for these: basic fairy cakes with basic icing and artistic license to decorate them in whichever way seemed appropriate! I've cracked sponges now - I made a really light, fluffy mixture and the buns puffed up nicely. 

There always seems to be significant deflation, but I console myself with the fact that it makes it easier to ice flat cakes! They do seem to turn out a bit lopsided, but then I don't fiddle about smoothing down the mixture before they go into the oven. I went for 15 rather than 20 minutes, trusting my judgement about the colour rather than worrying about them being undercooked. I've made too many dry cakes over the years! The cakes were fine; the icing was too runny. It's hard to describe the required consistency in words really; evidently one woman's 'thick' is another woman's 'gloopy'!
The result was an icing that was malleable, but did run down the sides of the cases and make the cakes look a bit messy. Mary's photo shows buns decorated with Dolly Mixtures; as a vegetarian, I had to get the best non-gelatine equivalents I could find and used strawberry and fizzy laces and jelly beans. I was very pleased with the bows! The cakes were very tasty, although the delights of the sponge were a bit lost beneath the sticky sweetness of the icing and the trimmings.
Baker's verdict: very easy to make, and great for a quick cake fix when needed.
Husband (and Birthday Boy) rating: 8/10 - really tasty, excellent sponge. Icing not really my thing and the jelly beans didn't really go with it for me, but the laces were tasty.
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