It’s Saturday morning and you feel like a sweet treat to go with your cup of tea.
You could nip out to the shops and buy a piece of mass-produced confectionery, or you could have some fun with your children and make something special.
Well, you didn’t think we’d take the first option did you?
No, we made Stonehead’s Lemon Fairy Cakes.
Preheat your oven to 180C (fan force, so 190-200C for non-fan). Place paper cases in a 12-hole bun tin.
Cream together 125g of softened butter and 125g caster sugar until soft and fluffy. (Actually, we don’t have caster sugar so I just grind up 125g of white granulated sugar in a mortar and pestle until it looks about right.)
Whisk two eggs together. Then whisk the beaten egg into the creamed butter and sugar a little at a time.
Beat in one teaspoon of lemon essence or oil of lemon. The best - and most expensive - has the oil of lemon suspended in alcohol which has no flavour and evaporates off.
It’s well worth spending the money on good quality oil of lemon as the cheaper stuff suspends the oil of lemon in vegetable oil and can be greasy, especially in icing and the like.
Anyway, back to the recipe.
Sift 65g of self-raising flour into the mixture and fold in. We use the cheapest SR flour and the raising agents aren’t much good so I add a half-teaspoon of baking powder. Better quality SR flours shouldn’t need this.
Fold in two tablespoons of milk and then another 65g of SR flour. Mix until well mixed.
Using a teaspoon, place equal amounts of the mixture in the paper cases.
Bake for about 15 minutes until the cakes are well risen and golden brown on top. Gently tap the top of one of the centre cakes - if it springs back it’s done.
Remove the cakes from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes in the tray. Then remove and cool for another 10-15 minutes on a wire rack.
To ice, take three tablespoons of icing sugar, add a couple of drops of lemon essence and a few drops of warm water. Mix together into a creamy paste and spread on the cakes.
For variations, try vanilla essence instead of lemon or a couple of teaspoons of cocoa (a little more milk may be needed).
i use the basic same recipe to make a lemon sponge: cheap lemon curd made a bit more liquid with a few drops of lemon juice (also takes some of the *screws up face* sweetness away) in the bottom of a glass microwaveable pudding basin, top with the sponge mix (2oz butter/2oz dark brown sugar (I prefer this, you could use caster) / 1 egg / lemon essence / dollop milk / 4 oz SR Flour. then nuke on full power for 4 minutes - just enough time for me to make custard with birds on the stove. variations on the sponge puds in the microwave are standard fare for us - you might want to make a bit more tho, as that amount feeds 2 nicely
i’d make these but they’d go too quick and i’m supposed to be *losing* weight!!! I made flapjacks last night. guess how long they lasted. there were 16 small (3cm) squares, there were 2 left this morning. *looks guilty*. so i make the microwave sponges - at least those are limited in terms of fat/sugar and you’re not *meant* to leave any for another time so you don’t feel so guilty.
flapjacks rock though. lol.
Just thinking about lemon cakes and homebaking - specially as my lemon cupcakes yesterday failed to hit the mark :0( We live in an upper conversion of a Victorian villa and ,as you can imagine, have to have repairs done now and again. My husband does most of them, but occasionally workmen have to be called. AT times like this I usually make scones and serve them with my homemade jam. The whole homemade thing seems to have been turned on its head. I usually cook from scratch - down to making my own pastry as well when I’m making a pie. All of these skills were learnt at my mum’s side - we were so poor we had no option but to make from scratch. Yet it seems to me that my homemaking skilks are seen as ‘middle class’ - you know, it’s ok for me to bake/cook - I cam afford it. Few people seem interested in the fact that getting the best quality food means cooking it oneself. Shop bought c*** or a small amount of a homeade goodie? No brainer,
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