Simple fairy cakes (the 2,4,4,4 recipe)

A fair few years ago, before I really started doing much cooking or baking for myself, I watched in slight amazement as my sister made fairy cakes without even glancing at a recipe.

I remember thinking that she must be some kind of baking genius to have memorised the exact amount of ingredients that she needed.  Then she explained that all she did was weigh the eggs she was going to use and then use double that amount of each of the other ingredients.  So simple!

And when I went to bake fairy cakes with my son a while later I found that there’s an even simpler method for making them.  

The 2, 4, 4, 4 method!

Basically, the recipe consists of 2 eggs, then 4oz each of flour, caster sugar and butter.  Really nice and easy to remember!

In case you’re like the me of a few years ago and are new to the world of fairy cakes, here’s the full recipe:

What you’ll need:

• 2 eggs
• 4oz (110g) self raising flour
• 4oz (110g) caster sugar
• 4oz (110g) butter

What you do:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
• Pop 12 cake cases onto a baking tray
• Cream together the butter and sugar
• Mix in the egg and then stir in the flour
• Spoon the mixture out into the cake cases (about 2 teaspoons of mixture per case!)
• Bake for about 12 minutes, until they spring back slightly when you press them
• Leave to cool

Make them pretty:

• Now, I don’t have exact measurements for the icing, but this is how I go about making it
• Grab a bowl and tip in about 10 teaspoons of icing sugar.
• Add a TINY amount of water and mix it in.
• Add more water little by little until you get the consistency you want.
• I like my icing to be good and thick so it doesn’t just run off the top of the cakes!
• Spoon some icing on to a cake and then top with sprinkles, smarties or whatever else you fancy.

There are tons of variations you can do of the basic fairy cake, but this simple recipe is a great place to get started!