FAIRY CAKES WITH STRAWBERRIES & ROSE CREAM

{PETITS GÂTEAUX AUX FRAISES ET CREME DE ROSE} I am in love….. and my current infatuation comes from the general direction of the kitchen ‘quelle surprise’! It all started when reading Donna Hay’s delicious recipe for “Raspberry cream cupcakes” on the Telegraph website www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink And so the song “Two for tea and Tea for two…. ” from the Musical ‘No No Nanette’ became stuck in my head.

It will come as no surprise that with grass routes in England, that tea time holds a special place in my heart – and what better to go with a cup of tea than a dainty little cake. This is a twist on the traditional fairy cake or cupcake as North American’s call it,  but one that brings back sweet memories of being a little girl serving tea to my dollies. It is shocking how many cakes a plastic doll can consume all by herself 😉

I began with the printed recipe as a base and modified a few things as I went along: as I had just bought local strawberries at the market that morning I decided to substitute them for the raspberries, and thought that a touch of rosewater and sugar would go nicely with the cream.

RECIPE – SWEET PEA BLOG

• 110g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 100g white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1 packet)
• 2 fresh eggs
• 140g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 90ml double cream
• small punnet of strawberries (the smaller the strawberries the better)
• 2-3 teaspoons rosewater
• 2 teaspoons sugar for the whip cream filling
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar

1. First preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Prepare the muffin tin by lining each of the 12 holes with a paper liner. Thicker liners work best as this recipe is rich in butter!
3. In a mixing bowl combine the flour and baking powder, set aside.
4. In a separate bowl using an electric mixer or beaters combine the butter, white sugar and vanilla until light and creamy.
5. Gradually beat in the eggs one by one. Then add the flour mixture followed by the milk.
6. Spoon the fairy cake mixture evenly into each of the 12-holes (to avoid jealousy ha ha)
7. Bake for 15 minutes (depending on your oven), use a toothpick to see if they are cooked. Remove from muffin tin and set on a rack to cool.
8. Now comes the fun part!!!  
9. Cut the strawberries into small pieces.
10. Next whip the cream into soft peaks, mix in the sugar and rosewater (to taste) and then fold in the cut strawberries.
11.  Cut a circle out of the top of each fairy cake and generously fill with the rose cream and strawberry mixture. Replace the top and using a small sive dust with icing sugar.