Sorry Madeleine it is a Fairy

My son loves cake.  He loves to bake and eat cake and we eat a lot of cake in this house.  However, I have never baked madeleines and I do not own a madeleine tray.  So today I will be cooking 'a frost of sugar and citrus' fairy cakes (sorry Nigel).  I will also be cooking them a day early (January 13).    I should have cooked a chicken pie yesterday but it serves 6 and there is two of us, so it will be cooked and served on Friday, watch this space...it sounds amazing!

So onto a Frost of Sugar and Citrus...

Another lovely example of Nigel's nice earthenware.  

I must confess, I am very much looking forward to baking and eating these but it has been a very busy day in the office and I slightly wish I had a team of Brownies to come in and cook for me.  However, the show must go on.

One Kitchen gadget I do have, and love, is my mixer.  This is a god send for this recipe which requires 10 minutes of mixing to make the butter and sugar light and fluffy.  

Adding the eggs is tricky and as Nigel warns, mine starts to curdle slightly.  I think I manage to save it and here come the fairy (cakes)...

Not my prettiest but the proof is in the pudding.  Whilst the cakes bake (in the quickest of moments) I prepared the deliciously lemony syrup to spoon over the hot cakes when they come out of the oven which gives them a lovely sheen.

The icing is made with lemon juice which is something I will definitely do again.  A lovely sweet light frosting which sinks into the cake with that fantastic twist of...black pepper.  

So, my slightly ugly looking fairy (cakes) with a hidden dark secret of a twist of black pepper.  Whilst  my son loves cakes, these are distinctly grown up and I am not sure there will be many left for him in the morning.  Nigel ate his accompanied by a lemon verbena tea, my husband ate them after coming back from the pub...

JanieCooksNigel

13/01/16