You can’t be a preschool teacher if you are not passionate about your job. I love working with young children. It is very fulfilling to see them grow and learn every single day. That being said, it can be really hard to snap back into work mode after almost two months of summer break.
To help myself, as well as my co-workers, I decided to bake something to share on our first day back at work. After browsing through my fictional girl friend, Mary Berry’s cookbook, I was intrigued by the fairy cakes. From my understanding, Fairy Cakes are basically versatile cupcakes. Her recipe was for vanilla cakes but I decided to shake things up and added lavender and orange flavors, as a way to hold on to summer as long as I could.
Orange Lavender Fairy Cakes
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons of butter, softened
- 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons of lavender buds (I crushed mine using a mortar and pestle) For the icing:
- 1 cup of powdered sugar, juice and zest of one orange
- Extra lavender buds to decorate
Directions
- Put all the cake ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Spoon the batter into a muffin pan.
- Bake at 350F for 15-25 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Make the icing by whisking together the powdered sugar, orange juice and zest. Add the juice gradually to get a stiffer icing. (I put too much juice and my icing was very liquid and ended up being absorbed by the cake. It tasted good but didn’t look quite as pretty as it could have.)
- When the cakes are completely cooled, spoon the icing on the cakes.
- Sprinkle the lavender buds on top, while the icing is still soft.
The Hungry Quebbie 