Mary Berry Iced Fairy Cakes

Mary Berry’s iced fairy cakes are light sponges baked in paper cases and topped with a simple glacé icing made from icing sugar and warm water, decorated with fancy sweets. The sponges bake at 200°C (Gas 6) for 15-20 minutes, the icing takes 2 minutes to mix, and the recipe makes about 18 cakes.

Berry’s headnote in the Ultimate Cake Book (2003) says “this makes special little cakes, ideal for parties or visiting children.” The icing is her simplest: 225g of sifted icing sugar with 2-3 tablespoons of warm water, mixed to “a fairly stiff icing” and spooned over the top. No butter, no cream cheese, no cooking. Just sugar and water.

The detail Berry flags in her Secrets of Success note matters more than it sounds. She says “icing sugar must be sifted when no heat is involved, otherwise it can be very lumpy.” Unsifted icing sugar has hard clumps that won’t dissolve in cold water, so you end up with gritty icing. It takes 30 seconds with a sieve and saves the whole batch.

Mary Berry Iced Fairy Cakes

Recipe by Pinch PerfectCourse: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

18

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Calories

145

kcal

From the Ultimate Cake Book (2003), Berry’s all-in-one fairy cake sponge topped with a two-ingredient glacé icing and decorated with sweets. The simplest iced small cake in her books.

Ingredients

• For the cakes:

• 100g (4 oz) soft margarine

• 100g (4 oz) caster sugar

• 2 eggs

• 100g (4 oz) self-raising flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• For the icing:

• 225g (8 oz) icing sugar, sifted

• 2-3 tablespoons warm water

• fancy sweets, to decorate

Directions

• Prepare: Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. Place about 18 paper cake cases in bun tins.
• Mix: Measure all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat well for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is well blended and smooth. Half fill the paper cases with the mixture.
• Bake: Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the cakes are well risen and golden brown. Lift the cakes out of the bun tins and cool on a wire rack.
• Ice: Place the icing sugar in a bowl and gradually blend in the warm water until you have a fairly stiff icing. Spoon over the top of the cakes and decorate with fancy sweets.

Notes

• Calories: Sponge: 1,605 ÷ 18 = 89. Icing: 225g icing sugar (887) ÷ 18 = 49. Total: 138 → rounded to 145 kcal per cake
  

FAQs

How stiff should the icing be?

Berry says “a fairly stiff icing” which means it should hold its shape briefly on a spoon before slowly spreading. If it runs off the spoon like water, it’s too thin and will drip down the sides of the cakes. Add the water a teaspoon at a time and stop as soon as the icing reaches a thick, pourable consistency.

If you go too thin, add more sifted icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. If too thick, a few drops of warm water loosens it. The icing sets as it dries, so you have about 2 minutes to place your decorations before it firms up on the surface.

Can I colour the icing?

Berry doesn’t mention it for this recipe, but she uses food-colouring gel in her Red Velvet Cupcakes in Foolproof Cooking (2016) and it works the same way with glacé icing. Add a tiny dot of gel to the mixed icing and stir through. Gel gives stronger colour than liquid without thinning the consistency.

Split the icing into separate bowls if you want different colours for a party. I do this with children and let them ice their own, which is half the fun of fairy cakes in the first place.

What is the difference between this and Berry’s butterfly cakes?

Both use the identical sponge base. The difference is the topping. Iced fairy cakes get a flat layer of glacé icing spooned over the top. Butterfly cakes have a disc cut from the top of each cake, halved, and set into piped buttercream at an angle to look like wings, then dusted with icing sugar.

Butterfly cakes take more time and skill because of the cutting, piping and assembly. Iced fairy cakes are faster and better for young children who want to decorate their own. Berry positions both as party cakes but the iced version is clearly the quicker option.

Can I use orange juice instead of water for the icing?

Berry does exactly this in her Orange Fairy Cakes in the same book. She swaps the water for “juice of 1 orange” and adds orange zest to the sponge. The orange juice gives the glacé icing flavour and a pale golden colour. Lemon juice works too, and Berry notes “you can make lemon fairy cakes by substituting lemon rind for the orange rind.”

Any citrus juice works as a straight swap for the water. The acidity gives the icing a slight tang that cuts through the sweetness. I prefer lemon for a sharper finish, but children tend to prefer the milder orange.

How long do these keep once iced?

Berry doesn’t give a specific storage note for these or for the plain fairy cakes. The glacé icing actually helps because it forms a thin crust that seals moisture into the sponge. They’ll hold up overnight in an airtight tin better than the unfrosted version.

By day two the icing softens and the sponge dries out. If you need to make them ahead, bake the sponges the day before and ice them on the morning of the party. The icing sets in about 15 minutes at room temperature.