Thread: Cup Cakes versus Fairy Cakes

When I was little I used to make fairy cakes with my Mum on Sunday afternoons. Frilly paper cases, white icing and a cherry on the top, and there you go. Or a blob of buttercream and a bit of minor surgery and there was a butterfly cake.

Suddenly the dear little things have been pumped up with steroids to 3-times normal size, the icing glows in the dark ( and often features glitter) , they can be bought in dinky containers for £4 a pop, and are apparently now called cupcakes. And appear to be not only deeply desirable, but even hypothetically valuable on MoB ( as in "Love, hugs and cupcakes" etc).

Is this all some fiendish American plot to subvert our native Victoria sponge, just as they have already done with our squirrels and our crayfish?

Is it about 'bigger/brighter = better'?

Should we be worried? Send out the W.I. to fight for our rights? Start an anti-cupcake movement? Is it to do with the potentially-non PC nomenclature?

Me, I'm all for Fairy Cakes, Dorset Knobs, Lardy Cake and all the other non-PC indiginous nicenesses.

But what is the difference between a fairy cake and a cupcake anyway?


Vx

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I agree! Bring back Fairy Cakes, particularly with hundreds and thousands on. They were the less complicated cousin of the Cup Cake. The difference being more cake base in the Fairy Cake whilst the Cup Cake seems to have more topping!

Originally Posted by Viva La Belvoir

But what is the difference between a fairy cake and a cupcake anyway?


Vx

About £3 a cake

Cupcakes are the b*****d cousin of the fairy cake, full of things you probably shouldn't put in a bun (like poppy seads), they are huge thuggish lumps covered in "frosting" and so much sweetness that eating one makes your teeth scream for mercy.


Fairy cakes are tiny little things in comparison that are perfect for tea parties - they are Sunday afternoon treats. They are the cakes that your dad pretended to choke on when you brought them home from school after your first baking lesson, they are what this merry England was brought up on. They are "buns" they are the backbone of all things civil, to lose the fairy cake would be disastrous!

Any idiot can bake a fairy cake (I know, I'm one of them) and if it turns out too brown on top you simply cut the top off and tell everyone it's a butterfly bun.

Cupcakes - you can keep them pal, give me a home made fairy cake any day!

Fairy Cakes kick Cupcakes ass!
They are the imperfect, glorious wonders of childhood creativity and the nostagia of them makes them all the more charming....plus there's magic fairy powers in them!

Fight for the Fairy Cakes!!

I will join the "Fight for the Fairy Cake" revolution!

Going to be completely honest here- I've never been able to tell the difference!


*Sits in no mans land with a chocolate muffin and watches*

The cupcake's success is totally a financial one. I doubt the fairycake could get away with charging so much for it's sweet innocence. The cupcake - being larger is like the more experienced hooker in a Victorian brothel - successfully regaining it's power and dominance over the smaller and less confident fairycake. The cupcake is smug because it can seduce at a mere glance and charge more for the pleasure. Whereas the humbler fairycake might need to get a few of it's mates in on the act as a job lot of sin.

I confess - I love them both - but let's not forget the fairycake - let us fight to reinstate it's simpler appeal. And let us not forget that we can more easily get away with eating multiple fairycakes in one go, as opposed to one big cupcake! Now that's got to add power to the fight!

Originally Posted by morticiaa

The cupcake - being larger is like the more experienced hooker in a Victorian brothel

Cupcakes are not tarts!

Originally Posted by James

Cupcakes are not tarts!

No James you are right, a shortcrust pastry case filled with jam is a tart