Fairy cakes

'These are the prettiest little cakes for a birthday party or just for a special treat; they are also known as butterfly buns' 

Rachel Allen, 'Bake', p39

Right then, part deux of Megan's party food (see previous post).  When I was planning her dedication party, I had grand plans to make fancy, girly pink cupcakes.  In the end I was pushed for time, and just had time to do these.  I also wanted to do fancy piped icing, but didnt have time to work out how to use a piping bag.  I ended up just spooning the icing on, and adding some lovely 'strawberry glimmer crunch' that I picked up in a supermarket.  They looked OK I think, and tasted lovely.  

Being totally truthful, they didn't actually make the party.  By 2am on the day, I'd just finished icing the main cake and was crawling into bed (at which point Megan woke for a feed... grrr!) Didn't have a spot of energy left for the cupcakes.  I ended up icing them the next evening, and they went to Megan's singing group and to pre-school for Evan's teachers.  They were much appreciated!

Well, if you're decidely more organised than me, these are definitely worth making alongside a celebration cake.  As they use all the same ingredients, I just whizzed the batter up in my KitchenAid straight after making the cake.  No need to wash the bowl out.  And I just made up a load of buttercream, which i shared between the cake and fairy cakes.  For that, I use a recipe from my Great British Bake Off cookbook... it adds a little melted white chocolate which makes it extra yummy (and extra naughty... but who cares when you're celebrating?!)  I won't include the fairy cake recipe here, as I'm sure most readers will have made them at some point.

Going back to the piping bag issue, it's something I do intend to master by the end of this challenge - and will need to when I come to making profiteroles.  It's got me thinking of which other skills I'll need to master. So after a flick through 'Bake',  here goes...

1. Rolling a Swiss roll or roulade
2. Making praline
3. Removing a biscuit based dessert from the tin (more about this next time!)
4. Making meringues
5. Making a steamed pudding
6. Making yeast bread
7. Using fresh yeast
8. Making a plaited loaf
9. Making sourdough bread
10. Jointing a chicken
11. Collaring a cake tin
12. Making shortcrust pastry (Hooray, tick, made Quiche Lorraine)
13. Making choux pastry
14. Making hot water crust pastry
15. Making puff pastry
16. Making flaky pastry
17. Piping, including making a piping bag
18. Making American-style frosting
19. Making creme patissiere
20. Making crystallised flowers
21. Making chocolate curls
22. Making marzipan
23. Making candied peel
24. Preserves, including jam; marmalade and curd, and sterilising jars.

Hope that's given you some insight into what's coming up.  It seems like a long list, but I'm looking forward to mastering (or maybe just attempting) all these new skills!