Butterfly cakes

Because my Grandma was, and my mum is very good at making cakes, scones, etc I thought it was about time I got more in to baking to carry on the tradition, and so that when I have children I can teach them how to bake.  I've been inspired by the Great British bake off and thanks to Mary Berry I now make totally gorgeous butterfly cakes..well you have to start somewhere! So here is the foolproof recipe for making beautiful butterfly cakes that you can make with your kids or just when you fancy a little bit of a treat.  

The recipe makes 12 butterfly cakes and if your doing weight watchers then that is equivalent to 7 pro points each...seems a lot but just have one and feed the rest to your friends and family.  They are totally worth 7 points though!  

Before I tell you the recipe though there are a couple of things that I think have made all the difference to these butterfly cakes and ones I have made before although it could also be because it is a better recipe.  Firstly I used Lurpak butter - its rich and creamy and you can really taste it in the cakes ...not so good if you don't like Lurpak but I love it! Secondly I used silicone cupcake molds in a cupcake tray - I have found that the cakes are more moist with silicone cases than paper ones, and they are still really moist three days later! 

To make 12 butterfly cakes you will need:

• 250g of softened butter (these are not skinny cakes!)
• 100g of caster sugar
• 100g of self raising flour
• 150g of icing sugar
• 1 level teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 large eggs

1. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees (Fan 180 degrees) or Gas Mark 6.  Place the fairy cake cases in a 12 hole bun tin to keep a good even shape as they bake.

2.Whilst the oven is pre-heating, mix 100g of the softened butter with the caster sugar, self raising flour, baking powder and eggs in a bowl.  Beat the mixture until it is smooth and well blended...you can either do this the hard way and beat it by hand like I did or do it the easy way use your magi-mix or equivalent.  Add two teaspoons of the mixture into each mold.  I gently tapped the bottom of the case against the worktop to distribute the mixture more evenly.

 3. Bake the cakes in the oven for 15 -20 minutes (mine take about 17-18 minutes but all ovens vary) until they are well risen and golden brown.  Once cooked lift the cases out of the tin and place on a wire cooling rack (but leave them in the cases).

 4. While the cakes are cooling, make your butter icing.  Combine the rest of the butter with the icing sugar in a bowl and mix well...don't worry if it all looks a bit lumpy at first it will get smooth!

5. Once the cakes are cooled, cut a circle out of the centre of the cake to make a hole in the middle - I like to make quite a deep hole so that you get more butter icing! Cut the circle that you take out of the cake in half and keep to one side.  Fill each hole with the butter icing - either pipe it in or spoon it in.  Place two of the half slices on the top of each cake to make the wings and dust with a little icing sugar to finish.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that they are less cakes on the plate than were on the tray..that's because we ate a few before I remembered I needed to take a picture!! Yummy!