Greasy Bun Cases

Jellybaby1

I always have greasy looking cases when I take buns out of the oven no matter what recipe I use. This never happens to Rachel Allen! :mad: Is it just me?

CianRyan

It's not just you, I just buy better quality cases now. The thicker card or foil ones are great and not really very expensive.
Decobake do loads of cheap enough if you're in Dublin.

Rochester

The Ikea ones are good too.

Jellybaby1

Feeling better already now I know I'm not alone! Actually I got some foil ones in the pound shop recently - must give them a go next time although they don't look as high as the plain paper ones. Thanks.

CianRyan

You'll just end up with a "muffin top" if they rise too much, no harm in that!
And sure you know yourself, there's nothing worse than dry cake, buns should always be lovely and moist.

Jellybaby1

Rochester wrote: »

The Ikea ones are good too.

I also have some of their red and black ones but they're an odd shape, very skinny at the bottom. Oh its lovely to see the word 'buns' instead of 'cupcakes', in fact in our house they are still 'fairy cakes'. Think I will make some 'butterflies' this week!

CianRyan

Yeah, I have a thing against the current cupcake mania. Still though, I've to make 50/60 of the frilly buggers plus a 9x9 cake for my nieces Christening on Friday.
What ever happened to the plain fairy cakes and iced buns of yesteryear?

Stench Blossoms

I can never find the IKEA one's when I'm there.

Where abouts are they?

Jellybaby1

Can't remember the department name but somewhere around where the home accessories/gadgets are, such as place mats, glasses, corkscrews etc.

Stench Blossoms

Thanks.

I'll have another look when I'm up there next.

Faith

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I also have some of their red and black ones but they're an odd shape, very skinny at the bottom. Oh its lovely to see the word 'buns' instead of 'cupcakes', in fact in our house they are still 'fairy cakes'. Think I will make some 'butterflies' this week!

Cupcakes are a completely different cake to a fairy cake, that's why a different word is used. Fairy cakes are just sponge, cupcakes have more ingredients and a different crumb.

phormium

A lot of the recipes are identical to what I would just call buns, to me it becomes a cupcake when you add a load of icing to the top, too much usually for the amount of cake.

rubadub

Faith wrote: »

Cupcakes are a completely different cake to a fairy cake, that's why a different word is used.

Thats news to me. Growing up in the 80s I only ever heard the word fairy cakes, now I hear my sister calling them cupcakes and is using the same recipe.

I always presumed cupcakes is an american term, and doubted americans called any cakes fairy cakes.

Of course there will be different recipes about for cakes cooked in small cases, but back in the 80s I would have bet people in the US would have called them all cupcakes, and most here fairy cakes. i.e. I have never heard anybody correcting somebody on it, like saying "no, it is not a fairy cake, its a cupcake". I would be surprised to see a cookbook with a recipe for fairy cakes and different one for cupcakes using the same size case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupcake

A cupcake (also British English: fairy cake; Australian English: patty cake or cup cake) is a small cake designed to serve one person, frequently baked in a small, thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations, such as sprinkles, are common on cupcakes.


The name "fairy cake" is a fanciful description of its size, which would be appropriate for a party of diminutive fairies to share. While English fairy cakes vary in size more than American cupcakes, they are traditionally smaller and are rarely topped with elaborate icing.

A butterfly cake is a variant of cupcake,[7][8][9][10] also called fairy cake for its fairy-like "wings".[11] They can be made from any flavor of cake. The top of the fairy cake is cut off or carved out with a spoon, and cut in half.

Faith

Cupcakes typically use milk or buttermilk in the mixture, and less eggs, while fairy cakes are traditionally just a Victoria sponge mix. People use the term interchangeably, and probably in the last 10 years or so, use the recipes interchangeably, but there is supposed to be a difference between them. Also, fairy cakes usually only have a water icing topping and are quite small, while cupcakes are much bigger and have much more elaborate toppings, usually made from buttercream.

Jellybaby1

Faith wrote: »

Cupcakes are a completely different cake to a fairy cake, that's why a different word is used. Fairy cakes are just sponge, cupcakes have more ingredients and a different crumb.

Faith wrote: »

Cupcakes typically use milk or buttermilk in the mixture, and less eggs, while fairy cakes are traditionally just a Victoria sponge mix. People use the term interchangeably, and probably in the last 10 years or so, use the recipes interchangeably, but there is supposed to be a difference between them. Also, fairy cakes usually only have a water icing topping and are quite small, while cupcakes are much bigger and have much more elaborate toppings, usually made from buttercream.

A sponge is made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and a little milk added to get the required consistency. I've just checked Nigella's cupcake recipe, it called for butter, sugar, eggs, flour and a little milk added to get the required consistency. No difference there. I started making fairy cakes about 50 years ago as a child and was shown how to make glace icing or butter icing for the topping, then either hundreds-and-thousands, or a cherry, or for chocolate ones some broken up Cadbury's Flake or just shave a chocolate bar. I'm not seeing too much difference since then except the decorations have become extremely elaborate and expensive. I think 'cupcakes' being an American term naturally would be bigger than our little fairy cakes, hence some may think cupcakes are different. I'm no professional, just a home cook (as Delia says! )

phormium

There is no difference other than the usual difference in recipes between US and here, a lot of their cakes have buttermilk too and they in general don't use self raising flour so the recipes use soda so have to have suitable liquid to make that work. There are varying theories as to where the name came from, is it because they are baked in 'cups', paper cases, or is it because the recipes are measured in 'cups' as most american recipes are.

Either way, as far as I am concerned if it normal size plain or with glace icing it is a bun, fairy cake or queen cake. If it is bigger with a massive swirl of buttercream and some fancy decoration then it is a cupcake. If it is massive and has all sorts of added bits it is a muffin.

There's another issue, muffins, what we call muffins are not what the american recipes come out like, ours are just giant buns made from cake mix. You wouldn't have a big slice of cake for breakfast (well I would like to actually!) but people regularly eat big chocolate muffins, huge calorie count in those and nothing of the good, totally unsuitable breakfast food. I remember being served home made muffins for breakfast by friends many years ago in US, normal bun size full of fruit and fibre that you broke apart and buttered as there was very little butter in the mix, much coarser texture than a bun or cake.

Jellybaby1

I agree phormium. However, sometimes I wonder if American bakers misunderstood the original English muffin which is better suited to a Breakfast than the present day muffins. This recipe of Delia's is for English Muffins, which is what I grew up to believe were muffins. When I first saw the American muffins I was mystified by the name.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/english-muffins.html

phormium

Maybe so, they are quite different though with yeast in the English muffins. My grandmother used to make griddle scones which were similar to muffins without the yeast. Wouldn't mind one of them now dripping in butter, yum!

Jellybaby1

Funny how English muffins can make you drool. The cupcake just doesn't do that somehow.

Sigma Force

I have the same problem, the only ones that work for me are the plain white Dr Oetker bun cases. Everything else I've used ends up greasy or doesn't bake or rise well..dunno why. Have seen suggested using two cases.

CianRyan

I'm in the process of making about 50 cupcakes and I'm using Culpitt Foil Baking Cases from Decobake, they're turning out absolutely perfect.

Jellybaby1

I did a Google search on Decobake and found this. I never knew this shop existed. I will have to visit soon. Looks expensive though! I'm a pound shop shopper!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoQPyaYpmH8

CianRyan

Well compared to the pound shop it's more money but the quality jump is much bigger. Haha
It's a good bit cheaper than Stock or Kitchen Compliments, my new shops of choice I think.

phormium

Good shop but the Dublin one is teeny tiny, much bigger one in Athlone and massive selection in their original Clane shop, well worth a visit to stock up.

Sigma Force

Omg how did I miss this shop on my last trip to Dublin! Off to suss it out!