Easy Fairy Cake Recipe

I’m sharing a family secret with you today ~ a tried and tested easy fairy cake recipe that’s great for kids to make.

I’m from a family of cake bakers and cake eaters and both are skills I’m keen to pass on to my own children. Cakes are central to many of our most important life rituals after all: what’s a wedding, Christening or birthday without a cake? I see many amazingly beautiful cakes online, decorated to perfection and looking simply stunning but often, if there is a how-to tutorial, I notice the actual cake is made from a packet mix. Now, I’m not one to judge but three generations of bakers in my family are whispering to me that the very best cakes are homemade.

I’m always keen to encourage my kids into the kitchen to join in with the cooking and whipping up a batch of these fairy cakes is one of the recipes they enjoy the most. If you’ve never made cakes with your kids before, this easy fairy cake recipe is a very good place to start. It’s simple to make, lots of fun to decorate and delicious to share with school, church or neighborhood friends ~ or even teddies at an at-home picnic.

Easy Fairy Cake Recipe

Based on a traditional English Victorian sponge cake, this recipe will make around 12 individual cupcakes.

To begin, take a large bowl and mix together 170 grams of butter and 170 grams of caster sugar (sometimes called baker’s sugar or superfine sugar) until both are well combined and all the sugar disappears in to the butter.

Break in three eggs, one at a time, whisking each one in as you go. My kids love this bit. You might want to have the children crack the eggs into a small bowl first, just in case any pieces of shell need fishing out.

Sieve in 170g of self raising flour (or all purpose flour with 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder added). Then, using a large spoon, carefully fold the flour into your mixture. Encourage the children to do this bit carefully and slowly so they don’t knock all of the air out of their mixture.

Add a little splash of milk if needed – just enough so the cake mixture plops satisfyingly off the spoon without being too runny.

Place some muffin cases in a muffin tin and spoon some cake mixture into each one. Bake in the oven at Gas 4, 180C, 350F for about 15 minutes.

Customize Your Cakes

When the fairy cakes are ready, take them out of the oven and leave to cool completely. Then you can decorate them with frosting, sprinkles and chocolate chips. My girls have a more is more philosophy at this point.

These cakes freeze well (without frosting) if you happen not to eat them all in one go and the basic recipe is easy to adapt too. Swap some of the flour for cocoa to make a chocolate version. Add some dried cherries or raisins to the mix. Or grate in some orange or lemon rind for different flavors.

What do your kids love to bake?

Here are a few more easy recipes for kids in the kitchen:

• Easy Recipe for Kids: Dirt Cake
• Easy Cake Recipe: 3,2,1 Cake
• Cinnamon Roll French Toast