These cakes would make an amazing hostess gift if you really want to show someone how much you love them. They may look like they took hours, but this recipe is all about the shortcuts. I used a box cake mix and canned frosting, adding fresh fruit and sugared flowers to keep it rustic and simple. There are also shortcuts on sugaring the edible flowers; I started by painstakingly painting each petal with egg white, and then dipping each petal into the sugar. For a person with my level of patience, let’s just say that didn’t last long.
If you’re taking these to a place where there will be little girls, or if you have little girls, these are going to be a hit. In England, cupcakes are commonly referred to as fairy cakes, where fairies are so much a part of the folklore. It’s a simple pleasure for an al fresco tea party on a lovely summer’s day.
Fairy Cakes
Serves: Makes 16 cupcakes
Prep time: 1 hour
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix (and components listed on it to make cake, usually eggs, oil, and water)
- 1 can Betty Crocker whipped vanilla frosting
- 1 pint red raspberries
- ½ cup whole blanched almonds
- 1 dozen pansies
- 4 small roses and rosebuds (that have not been sprayed with any chemicals)
- 1 small bunch borage blossoms, or other edible flowers: violets, nasturtiums, or calendula
- 1 egg white
- ½ cup of superfine sugar (or process regular sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds to get superfine sugar)
Directions
- Follow ingredients on back of cake mix box, filling cupcake tins no more than ¾ full.
- Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 15-19 minutes.
- Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool.
- While cupcakes are cooling, wash and drain raspberries.
- Wash and gently pat dry flowers.
- Put the egg white in a small bowl, and sugar in another small bowl.
- Take each flower by its stem and using your finger, gently “paint” the flower with the egg white.
- I tried using a pastry brush and it was too heavy, so your finger is the best tool for this task.
- Take a pinch of sugar and sprinkle it gently over the flower, being careful not to let the sugar be too thick, as it will weigh down the petals.
- Rest flowers on wax paper, allowing them to dry.
- While flowers are drying, frost the top of each cupcake thickly.
- Gently press almonds and raspberries into frosting in a pattern you like.
- Top remaining cupcakes with edible flowers and serve.
- These do not keep for more than a day, as the flower petals may soften.
2 Comments