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| Recipe of the week... Lemon fairy cakes |
Ingredients: 110g butter or marg, 110g caster sugar, 2 eggs,
110g self-raising flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 lemons, ½ a jar lemon
curd, 36 lemon jelly slices (for decoration).
Time taken: Half an hour to make and 20 mins to bake. Then a
while cooling and half an hour to decorate. So, a couple of hours total.
Hi readers,
Fridayyyyyyyy!!! It’s official.. we’ve made it to the end of
the week. HOO-RAY! Can you even remember the start of the week?? I don’t know
if I can it seems like so long ago. This week has been looong. Long. Long, and is
it just me or has it been a hard one? Like, more difficult than normal. No, it
definitely has. It’s been tough.
For me: There was the dentist, not pleasant. I won’t detail.
Then there was Valentine’s Day as a single gal, facing the onslaught. Romantic
bliss rammed down everyone’s throats via every imaginable form of social media.
And, there was work. With many colleagues and clients away skiing over the
school holidays! Enjoying the French Alps and leaving the rest of us to chaos. What
a week.
How about you – what do you think?? How’s the week been for
you, lovely readers? I bet it’s been one hell of a week, one way or another!
And, if it hasn’t been one hell of a week, then what are you waiting for?! It’s
Friday.. cue the champagne!
One night of irresponsible drinking and reckless behaviour,
in my pyjamas on the settee no doubt, and then it’s on with the weekend. And
two days of goodness knows what! I love the feeling on a Friday that just anything
could lie ahead. There’s wonderful potential in the unknown.
Basically: I’m feeling pumped up for Friday night and the
weekend ahead, readers, and I hope you are, too. I hope you're excited and
happy and – to quote from The Perks of Being
a Wallflower (an excellent film, which I watched last night) – you
feel infinite.
You’re not feeling like you could jump out of your skin you’re
so excited for Friday night?? Well, readers, that just isn’t good enough. Feed
your minds and embrace the potential that the weekend holds.
You need a powerful film to watch – with characters that
will have you engrossed and a plot to steer your mind away from work stuff? I
say, watch The Perks of Being a
Wallflower.
You’re looking for an insightful page-turner to sink your
teeth into – a new book to read that contains fresh perspective and food for
thought? I say, Steal Like an Artist
by Austin Kleon.
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| Go read this book, I insist |
You’re on the hunt for a fact or a figure or a quote (to save as your phone’s wallpaper or write in the front page of your work notebook, perhaps) – one that will inspire you to think outside the box or dream bigger? I say, how about…
“The work you do while
you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your
life”
- Jessica Hische (taken from Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon).
… that’s been inspiring me through the week! Maybe it’s the
ChefBeHere blog?? And I’ll still be here sharing recipes in eighty years’ time!
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| With a boyfriend by then |
Who knows. But I’m definitely here today and certainly do
have a fabtastic recipe to share, readers! Don’t doubt it! So. My recipe of the
week, this week, is one that I hope will inspire you to look ahead to Spring,
readers, and one that I hope will get you baking – because it’s been ages since
I shared a recipe for a bake. Far too long.. goodness!
This week, my Father Bear was another year wiser. And so we
had a bit of a fuss for him and went out for a birthday tea. We went heavy on a
whisky theme for his gifts and, for the occasion, I got my bake on! Had to dust
off my baking box when I got it down from the cupboard for this first bake of the
year.
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| How have I not baked in six weeks? |
And then none of my ingredients were all that inspiring! They
were too Christmassy. So I braved the sleet and made it to the shop for some
new baking kit.. and found, readers, that (in Asda, at least).. Spring has
sprung! Daffodils and Easter eggs and hot cross buns and, even if it’s freezing
outside, some small signs that Spring could be around the corner.
So. I put all my eggs in one basket and went for a Spring
theme. Lemon was my flavour of choice – as it’s fruity and yellow – and I decided
to adapt a basic fairy cake recipe to give it a citrus twist. And this went
really well! I had fun in the kitchen, baking away and watching the miserable weather
outdoors, and then the fairy cakes were met with rave reviews both at work and
at my Father Bear’s birthday bash. Result.
Do you have a special occasion coming up? Someone’s birthday,
maybe, or you’re hosting a dinner party for friends?? These fairy cakes could
be a lovely addition to any celebration! And even if you don’t have a reason
for a party, really, there’s always cause for baking one way or another! Why
not bake up a batch of fairy cakes and invite friends over for a cuppa and cake
at the weekend? Or surprise your colleagues at work with a cakey treat?
If any have some time to spare for a spring-inspired recipe,
for some citrusy little cakes (that aren’t too big and so aren’t really
naughty!), then I think you should definitely roll up your sleeves and give
lemon fairy cakes a go. Ready to get your bake on?? Here’s how to magic up a
batch of tasty buns in just 15 simple steps…
1.
Stick the kettle on, brew a cuppa, and get all
your ingredients and baking kit out.
2.
Heat the oven to 180C and line a 12-hole fairy
cake tin with paper bun cases.
3.
Grate the zest of your lemons into a bowl.
4.
Measure your butter and sugar into a large
mixing bowl, and use a wooden spoon to cream them together until you have a
smooth, pale paste.
5.
Crack your eggs into a mug and use a fork to
whisk them up a bit, then cut your lemons in half and squeeze the juice of
lemons into the mug.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: Look out for any lemon pips falling into the mug! If they do, be sure to
fish them back out again.
6.
Tip your eggy mix into the big mixing bowl, and
spoon in your lemon zest. Give everything a good stir together.
7.
Measure out your flour and add 2 teaspoons of
baking powder.
8.
Sieve your dry ingredients into the main mixing
bowl, so that they lightly coat the contents, and then use your wooden spoon to
gently fold all the cake mix together.
9.
Once the mix is quite smooth, with no major
lumps, spoon it out evenly between the bun cases until they’re half full.
10. Carefully
transport into the oven to bake for 10-20 minutes, until they’re golden brown
on top.
ChefBeHere Top Tip: The bake time is quite vague here as it
depends greatly on the oven you’re using. I would advise checking on your buns
after ten minutes to see if they’re done; if they are then you can take them
out, and if they aren’t then this is the perfect time to swizzle your bun tin
around to face the other way. Then, keep checking every five minutes after
that. Fairy cakes are only small so they can quickly go from baked to burnt! We
don’t want that so keep a good eye on them.
11. Once
your buns are nicely browned, safely take them out of the oven and turn the
oven off. Leave your buns on the side, to cool for half an hour, and in the
meanwhile you can get your dishes done and clean up the mess in the kitchen!
12. Come
back to your buns once you’re ready to decorate. For this you will need a sharp
knife, a jar of lemon curd and a teaspoon, and some lemon jelly slices for
decoration.
13. For
each bun, take it out of the bun tin and sit it on a square of kitchen towel.
Use your sharp knife to carefully cut a circle out of its top. Take the top of
the bun off and cut this circle of cake in half (to make your two fairy wings).
14. Then
spoon a dollop of lemon curd into the hole you’ve just made in your bun, and
arrange your two cake wings, pressing them into the lemon curd so that they
point upwards as though your fairy cake were flying.
15. Finally,
take a few lemon jelly slices and press these into the lemon curd in a row
running between the two wings, like the body of a butterfly. Repeat this for
each of the fairy cakes, and try not to eat all the lemon curd and jelly slices
in the process!
And that, readers, is all there is to it. Not too difficult
is it! Maybe don’t attempt this bake while drunk – there is some skill required
during the decoration stage when you’re slicing the heads off your fairy cakes (although
on BBC Good Food it does claim “this easy peasy recipe is perfect for baking
with children”… ha!) – but as long as you’re relatively sober and have the
right ingredients, and enough time, then I reckon you should be fine.
Even my Brother Bear and his Lady Bear could do well with this bake! And they are not bakers, readers, they really aren’t. Do let me
know! Let me know how you get along with this recipe, if you give it a go. I
hope it works out well for you and you have some lovely fairy cakes to share
with your colleagues or loved ones.
Have a fun Friday night, feeling infinite, and a fantastic
weekend.
Friday safely readers,
Hayley
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| Get your bake on, readers! Such pretty cakes to bake |
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