Fairy cake recipe advice

[finglas]

Hello all, first time post on here and I am just looking for some general advice.

I am fairly new to baking and I have been trying to make fairy cakes. The recipe I have bee using is:

170g unsalted butter
170g golden sugar
200g self raising flour
1/2tsp baking powder
200ml Milk

I've been whipping the sugar and butter up together and that is a change I have made that has really improved things.

Ive started with creaming the butter and sugar together, then adding the eggs and really whipping it. Then turning in the flour and then the milk......does that sound like the right order of doing things?

I'm not sure how many UK users there are on here but I am comparing my fairy cakes to those you get in Marks and Spencers, theirs are really soft, although mine are fairly light they aren't really soft. Could I benefit from using cake flour instead of self raising ?

thank you all,

Jamie

 

[retired baker]

Hello all, first time post on here and I am just looking for some general advice.

I am fairly new to baking and I have been trying to make fairy cakes. The recipe I have bee using is:

170g unsalted butter
170g golden sugar
200g self raising flour
1/2tsp baking powder
200ml Milk

I've been whipping the sugar and butter up together and that is a change I have made that has really improved things.

Ive started with creaming the butter and sugar together, then adding the eggs and really whipping it. Then turning in the flour and then the milk......does that sound like the right order of doing things?

I'm not sure how many UK users there are on here but I am comparing my fairy cakes to those you get in Marks and Spencers, theirs are really soft, although mine are fairly light they aren't really soft. Could I benefit from using cake flour instead of self raising ?

thank you all,

Jamie

The reason I would use cake flour is to have control over the ingredients.
you didn't list the eggs, should be 3 I think.
Omit the baking powder if you use self raising. That could be why the texture is off.

Marks and sparks probably just source them, I wouldn't be surprised if they are made from a cupcake pre-mix.

 

[finglas]

Thank you retired baker.

In what way would it give me control over the ingredients ?

Thank you, that sounds like great advice. I was using 2 eggs and 200ml milk to those ingredients, I take it if I use 3 eggs I could use less milk?

Thank you

Jamie

 

[Norcalbaker59]

There is no cake flour in the UK. Cake flour is bleached; all bleached flour was banned in the European Union several years ago. There’s some heat treated flour that tries to replicate the qualities of cake flour by causing some protein denaturation. But actual cake flour is not available in any of the European Union countries, Canada, Australia and some Asian countries.

Also you cannot replicate a commercially produced baked good because large scale commercial bakeries use emulsifies, dough conditioners, and preservatives that are not available to the home baker. These extend shelf-life, improve and preserve the texture, and keep the product from drying out.

 

[retired baker]

Thank you retired baker.

In what way would it give me control over the ingredients ?

Thank you, that sounds like great advice. I was using 2 eggs and 200ml milk to those ingredients, I take it if I use 3 eggs I could use less milk?

Thank you

Jamie

I think the confusion creeps in when someone takes an American recipe and uses UK ingredients.
American cake flour doesn't contain BP.

See if you like the way this result looks, if so go ahead with self raising flour and omit the baking powder.

 

[retired baker]

There is no cake flour in the UK. Cake flour is bleached; all bleached flour was banned in the European Union several years ago. There’s some heat treated flour that tries to replicate the qualities of cake flour by causing some protein denaturation. But actual cake flour is not available in any of the European Union countries, Canada, Australia and some Asian countries.

Also you cannot replicate a commercially produced baked good because large scale commercial bakeries use emulsifies, dough conditioners, and preservatives that are not available to the home baker. These extend shelf-life, improve and preserve the texture, and keep the product from drying out.

Yeh you can buy it, you can buy swanns down American cake flour.

Swans Down Enriched Cake Flour - 32oz (907g)

For over 100 years, bakers have preferred Swans Down Enriched Cake Flour. That's because Swans Down is made from the finest American soft winter wheat and repeatedly sifted so that it's 27 times finer than all-purpose flour. Swans Down Enriched Cake Flour is a pure, soft flour that does not

americanfizz.co.uk

They're all out of stock. This one is from S Africa, sold in UK.

Snowflake Cake Wheat Flour 2.5Kg: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

Snowflake Cake Wheat Flour 2.5Kg: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[finglas]

Thanks everyone that sounds like great information on the availability of bleached flour. I thought perhaps sponge flour would maybe have allowed me to get a softer cake but sounds like I am wrong there.

Thank you

Jamie

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Yeh you can buy it, you can buy swanns down American cake flour.

Swans Down Enriched Cake Flour - 32oz (907g)

For over 100 years, bakers have preferred Swans Down Enriched Cake Flour. That's because Swans Down is made from the finest American soft winter wheat and repeatedly sifted so that it's 27 times finer than all-purpose flour. Swans Down Enriched Cake Flour is a pure, soft flour that does not

americanfizz.co.uk

They're all out of stock. This one is from S Africa, sold in UK.

Snowflake Cake Wheat Flour 2.5Kg: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

Snowflake Cake Wheat Flour 2.5Kg: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

www.amazon.co.uk

If they are selling it on Amazon, they are doing so in violation of the law. You notice there are no domestic or European cake flours on the market. And there have not been any cake flour for years. And it is because it is illegal to bleach flour in Europe.


Look under the heading of Modern flour milling. It states:


“In the UK and EU it is illegal to bleach flour, so the whiteness you see is totally natural. Flour is bleached in other parts of the world, so you might see recipes that call for “unbleached” flour.”



https://fabflour.co.uk/fab-flour/how-flour-is-milled/



The reason American cake flours cannot be sold in the UK, or any EU country is the process in which they are bleached are in violation of food chemical additives that are banned in the UK and EU. Specifically potassium bromate and azodicarbonamide.



https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2019/01/03/banned-foods