Butterfly Cakes

I found my first typo in the copy of 'The Best of Mrs Beeton's Afternoon Tea' - only took 37 recipes. Not bad, most recipe books I come across typos very quickly.

God I love making sponges. They are the easiest bakes in the world, although I'd not made cupcakes for years. My biggest anxiety was around how much to put into each cupcake case.

I realised that the recipe had a typo when I added the flour to the butter/sugar (photo 2 below), but it was too dry. I read the instructions and it said to add the eggs, but the ingredients list did not list eggs - whoops!! No idea how many eggs, so I whisked up 2 large and added 1.5 of it to the flour mixture. Much better!!

I put about a tablespoon of the mixture into the tin, and made 14 cupcakes.

After cooling, I whipped up some icing made of double cream, vanilla and sugar. Sadly my cakes hadn't risen enough to give me a domed top to cut off & turn into wings (to give them the 'butterfly' name) but they tasted good nethertheless.

They came out incredibly fluffy and light. I think they may have been one of the nicest sponge batters I've made in a long time. And the icing was delicately sweet, not sickly. I finished them off with a light dusting of icing sugar. Perfect!

Butterfly Cakes

100g self raising flour

pinch salt

100g butter

100g caster

2 eggs

150ml double cream

1 tsp caster sugar

1/4tsp vanilla essence

icing sugar for dusting

Grease 12-14 bun tins, or line with cupcake cases. Set the oven at 180C/gas 4. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then lightly stir in the flour and salt. Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared bun tins and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

In a bowl, whip the cream with the caster sugar and vanilla essence until stiff. Transfer to a piping bag with a large star nozzle.

When the cakes are cool, cut a round off the top of each. Cut each round in half to create two "butterfly wings." Pipe a star of cream on each cake, then add the 'wings', placing them cut side down and slightly apart. Dust with icing sugar.