A flutter of Butterfly Cakes

If you hadn't spotted I'm going through a bit of a retro/kitch baking phase at the moment. Recipes that were beginning to gather dust amongst the more radical baking recipes but have the ability stand the test of time are coming back. I don't know if this is because time is precious right now and retro baking is almost instant gratification. In my books baking is therapy; taking me back to an innocent time when the biggest worry in my life was what to choose from the Woolworths pick'n'mix counter.

Just like jam tarts these Butterfly Cakes are probably what introduced people to baking when they were a child. Be it eating them at the school fete or baking them with mum. Given it is poorly timed National Baking Week these cakes were perfect to bake. I say poorly timed because some schools are on half term at the moment and the National Baking Week website is bigging up all of their teaching packs. I would have loved to have linked some of my teaching in with this week.



The WI wouldn't approve of these Butterfly Cake and they wouldn't win any prizes in a village fete, why? Because hidden under the fluffy buttercream is a pool of raspberry jam. An ingredient that is banned by Butterfly Cake aficionados. Goodness I'm such a rebel!

Butterfly Cakes
Makes 12

140g unsalted butter, softened
140g vanilla sugar (you can use normal caster)
3 eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g custard powder (or cornflour)
jam

for the buttercream
100g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp water
hundreds and thousands (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 190oc. Arrange cake cases in fairy cake tin. Beat together butter and vanilla sugar then one by one beat in the eggs. If the eggs begin to curdle stir in a small amount of the flour.

2) Into the bowl sift flour and custard then fold into the batter until ingredients are well combined. Half fill each cake case with the batter.

3) Bake for 15 min until risen and golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

4) To make the icing beat together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tbsp of water until icing with light and fluffy.

5) Using a knife carefully cut the top off the cake then cut this small piece in half. In the hole you have created spoon in 1/2 tsp of jam then cover with the buttercream. Place to 2 cake halves on top of the buttercream and arrange like butterfly wings. Decorate with hundreds & thousands.

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