Before I explain about this pink train cake, first, let me give an explanation for the lack of posts in the past week. For the past 8 days I have virtually been running a hotel with no less than 3 sets of guests to put up and entertain back to back; first my dad for 3 nights, then my best friend and her husband visiting from Australia stayed 3 nights. Then I had one night off when I had to go out on serious blog business (of which there will be more details soon) and finally, an overnight visit from my mum. Phew!
I’m still clearing the decks of Blogger posts that didn’t get published before I switched to WordPress, so today I’m sharing some cupcakes and a birthday cake that I made over the summer. On reviewing these photos I decided these specimens look more like fairy cakes but I am still calling them cupcakes as hardly anyone calls them fairy cakes lately.
Fairy cakes are more delicate, with less icing and more suited to children’s parties. Those buttercream heavy beasts sold in the West End would start sheer sugar warfare at the average toddler’s get together. When I make cupcakes, I usually lop off the tops and give a flat surface of buttercream… although a hybrid between the two, I’d call them cupcakes not fairy cakes. Yet here I left sponge showing… that to me, is the thing that marks these out as fairy cakes.
They were to accompany a pink train cake for Ted’s friend Archie’s third birthday.
Pink Train Cake for Archie’s 3rd Birthday
“He’s adamant what he wants,” said his mum, “He wants a pink round cake. With a train.” No amount of persuading would convince Archie to have a boyish blue cake or one actually shaped like a train. Suggestions of a Thomas cake or Chuggington cake were met with “I’d like a pink round cake. With a train.” No point arguing really.
I was initially nervous about taking on cupcakes as well as a cake since Ted’s baptism was the following day and we were having a big family party. So we agreed to keep things quick and easy with vanilla cupcakes and piped vanilla buttercream. That week I’d received some samples of Dr Oetker products and these were ideal to decorate vanilla cupcakes in a hurry.
The sprinkles from the Dr Oetker Tea Party range included giant wafer daisies, “mini jazzies” which are like chocolate buttons covered in hundreds and thousands – I expect you remember similar sweets in the pick and mix bags of your youth (at least if you grew up in the 80s – I cannot vouch for their presence more recently) and mini chocolate hearts, moons and stars. You can easily pay £3.00 for a dozen wafer daisies so this kind, currently retailing at £1.09 in UK supermarkets, are good value in comparison. The jazzies were my favourites!
Here is Archie’s pink train cake. As ever, I was pushed for time when it came to taking pictures before collection and missed off the front of the train here! The marshmallows you see are puffs of smoke coming out of the engine. I had initially intended to use sweets or licorice all sorts to make the wheels but when it came to it, they wouldn’t stick properly and became black fondant balls instead. I cut the letters out using my Nigella Lawson Living Collection alphabet cookie cutters. If you look at the reviews on Amazon for these cutters you’ll see people bemoaning that they’re too small to make cookies. I think people are missing the point,they’re ideal for spelling words out on cakes.
The retro cupcake cases are by Rex International, not currently on Amazon but available from Gifts From Handpicked. I am on a high horse about cases recently – these ones are standard bun size rather than large muffin size. They soak up grease so they look best if you double them up.
As you may recall from previous cake decorating posts, I am not especially satisfied with my skills covering cakes with fondant icing. I did find the July heat made it easier to manipulate the fondant giving a smoother cover but there were still rough patches and a bit of cracking. Nevertheless Archie’s mum was delighted with it and it was gobbled up in quick time at the party.
they are definately fairy cakes…………..
Hi, i grew up with a mum who always baked “Fairy” cakes but she often made them into “butterfly” cakes cutting the top of and cutting the piece in half for wings…… i would say they are “Fairy” keep our british name, cupcakes i always think of as american, and they have loads of cream on them……whatever they are called i love them :)x
Growing up in England they were always called fairy cakes (and we did the butterfly cakes too!) Now I live in the US and they are called cup cakes. It is probably something to do with the measuring system here. No grams or ounces but ingredients are measured by the cup, 1/3, 1/4, 1/2 cup etc. And, cup cakes are much, much larger…..like everything else in the US!