• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Charlotte's Lively Kitchen logo

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Baking & Desserts
      • Biscuits & Bars
      • Cakes
      • Cheesecakes
      • Chocolates
      • Cupcakes
      • Icing
      • Ingredients
      • Jams, Curds & Spreads
      • Meringues
      • Savoury Baking
      • Scones
      • Sweet Sauces
      • Vegan Baking
    • Lunch & Dinner
    • Side Dishes & Sauces
    • Breakfast
    • Drinks
  • Conversions
    • Grams to Cups Conversions
    • Oven Temperature Conversions
    • All Baking Tools
  • The Food Calendar
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • HOME
  • RECIPE INDEX
  • – BAKING & DESSERTS
  • – LUNCH & DINNER
  • – SIDE DISHES & SAUCES
  • – BREAKFAST
  • – DRINKS
  • CONVERSIONS
  • CALENDAR
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • PRIVACY
×
Home » Baking & Desserts » Cupcakes » Fairy Cakes (From my boys for my birthday)

22 February 2015

Fairy Cakes (From my boys for my birthday)

Making fairy cakes with children is so simple and so much fun. Here’s my recipe for simple vanilla cupcakes and two different types of icing.

Skip to the recipe

fairy cakes

Today is my birthday and so the boys decided that they wanted to make me a cake (I know I probably shouldn’t be posting recipes on my birthday, but we celebrated yesterday so I think it’s OK!). After some discussion they decided that it would be most fun to make a selection of cupcakes.

They’re all made from a simple all-in-one vanilla sponge (recipe below) to which they added either chocolate chips, sultanas or kept them plain. They then made butter icing, glacé icing and melted milk chocolate and finished them off with a selection of different sprinkles.

Daniel was in charge of making the cupcakes with a bit of help, and my only job was running around with the camera (Josh decided that he was too sleepy so went for a nap instead).

Making the cupcakes

The great thing about making cupcakes with children is that they can get really involved. The cake mix is an all-in-one sponge so you simply chuck all of the ingredients in together and mix them up. They’ll need a bit of help to measure the ingredients, crack the eggs (unless you want to be picking bits of shell out of the cake!) and make sure the mixture is fully combined, but they can really feel like they’ve been a part of it.

Here’s Daniel making the cakes. You can see and adult hand sneaking in every now and again to help him out, but it was mostly his own work. I love the look of concentration on his face when he’s stirring the mix and the happiness in spooning the mixture into the cupcake cases. It was so lovely to him enjoying baking.

Making fairy cakes

They decided to make a selection of different cakes by splitting the mixture into three, keeping one bowl plain, adding chocolate chips to one (1 tsp per cake) and adding sultanas to the other (1 tsp per cake).

They then topped the chocolate chip cakes with melted milk chocolate and sprinkles, the sultana ones with glacé icing (recipe below) and either a cherry or sprinkles, and the plain ones were either made into butterfly cakes, or topped with buttercream (recipe below) and mini marshmallows.

If you want your little ones to be as involved in making the icing as they were with the cakes then I’d recommend making just glacé icing, as it’s simply a case of stirring the ingredients together. The buttercream needs beating (preferably with an electric mixer) and the chocolate needs melting on the stove (in a glass bowl over simmering water), so both would require more adult involvement.

And here they are, the finished cakes…

fairy cakes 2

FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS

Subscribe to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients

fairy cakes

Fairy Cakes, Buttercream and Glacé Icing

Making fairy cakes with children is so simple and so much fun. Here’s my recipe for simple vanilla cupcakes and two different types of icing.
Print Rate Save Go to Collections
Servings: 12 cupcakes
Prevent your screen from going dark

INGREDIENTS

For the vanilla cupcakes

    • 175 g unsalted butter - at room temperature
    • 175 g self-raising flour
    • 175 g caster sugar
    • 3 large eggs
    • ½ tsp baking powder
    • ½ tsp vanilla extract
    • 12 cupcake cases

    For the buttercream (makes enough for all 12 cupcakes)

      • 100 g unsalted butter - at room temperature
      • 200 g icing sugar
      • 1 tbsp ish milk
      • A few drops of vanilla extract

      For the glacé icing (makes enough for all 12 cupcakes)

        • 125 g icing sugar
        • 1 tbsp warm water
        • A few drops of vanilla extract

        INSTRUCTIONS

        To make the cupcakes

          • Preheat the the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan.
          • Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.
          • Put all of the ingredients into a bowl (175g room temperature butter, 175g self-raising flour, 175g caster sugar, 3 eggs, ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp vanilla extract) and beat until fully combined and smooth.
          • Evenly divide the mixture between the cupcake cases.
          • Bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, insert a skewer and if it comes out clean then they're done. If not then pop them back in for a couple more minutes.
          • Cool on a wire rack.

          To make the buttercream

            • Beat the butter (100g) until it is light and fluffy (preferably use an electric mixer but this can be done by hand).
            • Sift in the icing sugar (200g) and beat until combined.
            • Add a few drops of vanilla extract and beat to combine.
            • The icing needs to be soft but not sloppy. If it is a little hard then gradually mix in milk (up to 1 tbsp) until you have the required consistency.

            To make the glacé icing

              • Sift the icing sugar (125g) into a bowl.
              • Gradually add the warm water (1 tbsp) and mix until combined.
              • The icing should be just runny enough to spread onto the cakes. If it is a too stiff then add a little more water, if it is too runny then add a little more icing sugar.
              • Add a couple of drops of vanilla extract and stir again to combine.

              NOTES

              For the two types of icing I have given the measurements needed to cover all 12 cupcakes. If you want to make a selection of different types of icing then simply reduce the quantities for each type.
              Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a comment and rating at the bottom of the page to let others know what you thought.
              WANT TO HEAR ABOUT NEW RECIPES FIRST?SUBSCRIBE to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Mailing List

              Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.


              Free From/Suitable For…

              The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.

              • Suitable for Vegetarians
              • Tree Nut-Free
              • Peanut-Free
              • Sesame-Free
              • Soya-Free
              • Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
              • Fish-Free
              • Crustacean-Free
              • Mollusc-Free
              • Celery-Free
              • Mustard-Free
              • Lupin-Free

               

              Reader Interactions

              Comments

              1. NS says

                September 07, 2017 at 1:29 pm

                I’m sorry but this recipe was an epic fail

                Reply
                • Charlotte Oates says

                  September 10, 2017 at 10:03 pm

                  In what way? If there’s a problem with any of my recipes I’ll always do my best to fix them or make the instructions clearer.

              2. Barbara says

                April 11, 2016 at 8:01 am

                Hi Charlotte, my 5 year old grandson made and decorated these cakes yesterday, with only a little help from me, helping to hold the wisk upright. We both enjoyed it very much and the cakes were delicious. They were well received by the family, after Sunday lunch. Thank you, I will be trying the birthday cake next.

                Reply
                • Charlotte Oates says

                  April 11, 2016 at 12:01 pm

                  It sounds like you had a lovely time together 🙂

              3. Katie says

                March 21, 2015 at 1:49 pm

                Looks like he had a fab time making those cupcakes and they look delicious 🙂 I love baking with little ones, its always messy but so worth it xxx #SundaySweets

                Reply
                • Charlotte Oates says

                  March 23, 2015 at 11:33 am

                  He really did, it was so lovely to watch.

              4. Toni @ Gym Bunny Mummy says

                March 15, 2015 at 5:06 pm

                Ah I love when the kids get involved in baking, so sweet that they wanted to bake you cakes for your birthday too. Thanks for linking up to #SundaySweets, hope to see you back next week x

                Reply
                • Charlotte Oates says

                  March 15, 2015 at 11:16 pm

                  Thanks Toni. I’ll hopefully be back next week, I just need to make sure I get myself organised as Sunday’s can be chaotic in my house!

              5. BakedPotato Mummy says

                February 25, 2015 at 9:06 pm

                Oh wow! He looks like he’s having so much fun and those cakes look amazing! What a perfect birthday treat for you.
                Thanks for linking up with #LittleChefs

                Reply
                • Charlotte Oates says

                  February 26, 2015 at 11:51 pm

                  He really was, it was so lovely to watch them cooking together.

              6. jean atkinson says

                February 24, 2015 at 7:16 pm

                i bet he told all his friends at school bless him x.

                Reply
              7. jean atkinson says

                February 23, 2015 at 7:38 pm

                o daniel really like’s to get involved u can c it in his face.
                i bet he felt really special making his mum a cakes x.

                Reply
                • Charlotte Oates says

                  February 23, 2015 at 11:31 pm

                  He loved it! I told him at the start of the week that it was my birthday soon and everyday he checked whether it was time to make the cake.

              8. Mel says

                February 23, 2015 at 3:02 pm

                This is soooo sweet! Your little one looks like he’s really enjoying himself in the kitchen! x

                Reply
                • Charlotte Oates says

                  February 23, 2015 at 3:50 pm

                  It was so lovely to watch them cooking together. Daniel was so excited and had so much fun. I don’t cook with him enough but I really want to start doing it more.

              Leave a Reply Cancel reply

              Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

              Rate this recipe




              Primary Sidebar

              Charlotte Oates about me

              Hi, I'm Charlotte Oates. Welcome to my lively kitchen where I share delicious, simple baking recipes, baking tools and calculators, and lots of tips and tricks.

              Find out more
              Facebook logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Facebook page Pinterest logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen - Pinterest page Instagram logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Instagram page Twitter logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen twitter page

              Latest Post

              • The Food Calendar 2023 – International & UK Food Days, Weeks and Months

              Featured Recipes

              • Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake
              • Biscoff Cake
              • Oreo Cheesecake (No-Bake)
              • Chocolate Orange Cake
              • Easy Lemon Cake (All-In-One Lemon Sponge)
              • Easy Lemon Cheesecake (No Bake)
              • Lemon Buttercream
              • Easy Coffee Cake
              • White Chocolate Buttercream
              • Coffee Buttercream

              Footer

              About

              Contact

              Privacy Policy

              ↑ back to top

              Copyright © 2022 CLK Digital Limited