Raspberry and Almond Fairy Cakes, gluten-free buttery sweet treat
These fairy cakes are inspired by this recipe for pink cakes, which are made to look like the popular Dutch treat roze koek. And another source of inspiration was this recipe for rondos, another Dutch treat.
I love these. Also, they’re a perfect addition to a homemade afternoon tea. Or perfectly good by themselves.
While these are lovely as a tea-time or coffee break treat I’ve categorised them as a dessert. Most, not all but most, of the tea-time treats are lower in saturated fat and refined sugar than these fairy cakes. Also, they do work nicely a bright sweet after dinner treat.
For some reason I always find fondant a little difficult and messy to make. If you have the same issue I advise to leave it set a little before placing it on the buns. But you can simply pour it over the buns once you have it made. However you do it, it’s definitely worth it.
Raspberry and Almond Fairy Cakes
Yield: Makes 12 fairy cakes
Suitable for: Gluten-free diet
Ingredients:
- 110g salty butter, softened
- 135g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 150g ground almonds
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- zest 1 lemon
- 150g icing sugar
- 10 fresh raspberries
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 10g sweet butter, melted
For the almond fairy cakes
For the raspberry fondant
Instructions:
Make the almond fairy cakes
Grease a 12 bun baking tray and line with cases. Turn the oven on to 180° C.- Place the salted butter in a bowl with the caster sugar and lemon zest, and beat until it’s a fluffy mix. Crack the three eggs into the bowl and beat until well combined. Mix in the vanilla extract. Finally, gently mix in the ground almonds until well combined. Be careful not to overbeat the almonds or it will give the batter a marzipan taste.
- Divide the mixture among each of the bun cups in the baking tray - about two teaspoons of batter in each cup. Put the filled tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the fairy cakes have risen and are golden brown on top. Take the tray out of the oven. Turn the oven down to 150° C. Let the fairy cakes cool for about 5 minutes. Next gently push down the tops of the fairy cakes to flatten them a bit. Place the fairy cakes back in the oven and bake for a further 20 - 30 minutes or until they are baked through. When you place a fork into a cake and it comes out clean the fairy cakes are done. Take the tray out of the oven and turn out the cakes upside down on a plate. Leave to cool completely.
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Make the raspberry fondant
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Place the raspberries in the sieve and push through with a spoon, into the sifted icing sugar. When no more juice is coming through, pour the lemon juice over the mushed raspberries and again just scrape through any juice. Combine the juice and icing sugar together until totally smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more lemon juice. Melt the unsalted butter and stir into sugar until well combined. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to set. Assemble the fairy cakes
When the fairy cakes have cooled completely and the fondant is a little set, pour or spread over fairy cakes. Leave the fondant to set completely on buns, for an hour or two. At this point they are ready to eat or freeze for a later date.
Enjoy!
