Fairy/cupcakes

[Fee_B77]

Hiya!!

I'm looking to start some mass production (well, 50 or so) of cupcakes for my birthday cake tower! I'm hoping to achieve american style stiff frosting which dries just a little but still soft on the inside. THe only sites I can find are US ones (no offence I love them lots but I don't understand some of the ingredients or measurements). Is there any UK sites with the ingredients or measurements converted so even one as simple as I could understand?? I'm also looking for a failsafe cupcake recipe, would like to make choc ones, plain ones and lemon ones.

THis has started to convince me I should just buy them in!!!

Many thanks in advance for your input.

Fee x

[nutgoneflake]

A very basic sponge recipe for about 12 fairy cakes is 4 ounces each of caster sugar, self-raising flour and butter, and 2 eggs. Dead simple to scale up for as many as you like. Add vanilla essence for plain ones; for lemon ones, add the grated zest of one lemon and a bit of the juice; for chocolate ones, replace a tablespoon or so of the flour with the same amount of cocoa powder (not drinking choc!)

There are other recipes for more chocolatey ones with real melted chocolate, but if it's basic you want - these all work fine!!! Icing wise, I don't know really. The ones with egg white in would be very hard once set, and I'm assuming you'd need some sturdier ones at the bottom?? Maybe you'll need more than one kind of icing - you could have the gooey ones at the top then!! I make a frosting with 6 ounces of icing sugar and 1 ounce of melted butter and a few drops of milk. Beat or whisk it and it's lovely and fluffy, but once chilled a bit, it's a bit firmer. Not suitable for your foundations though!!
One other bit of advice is to build it in stages and let each one harden before you start the next. I've done it with cornflake cakes before and it needed a good solid bottom!!

Have fun!!

[maxine55]

Hi on ebay or a cake shop you can buy a cake tower which you just pile the cakes on each level so you dont need foundation cakes so they can all be gooey if you want take a look they are quite stunning when finshed.

[Fee_B77]

Hi again

Thanks for your input, really appreciate it. I do have a cake stand thingy to put them on, should have explained that really. I will have a practice with the recipe you've suggested.

THanks again

F x