Fairy Cake - Introduction
 The fairy cake, or cupcake as it is known in other English-speaking
countries, is a small cake specifically tailored to serve one. Fairy
cakes are usually baked in special baking paper cups and benefit from
various cake decoration options such as frostings, fruit jams or
sprinkles.
The term of cup-cake comes from the early 19th century, or possibly
earlier because back then cakes were baked in individual cups or moulds
and so the cakes took the name from the receptacles they were baked in.
The use of the word “cupcake” has been passed on from generation to
generation and nowadays it is used to describe any small cake that is
the size of a teacup. The British variant of fairy cake comes from the
size of the cakes themselves, being ideal for a couple of tiny fairies
to share.
Your basic fairy cake recipe is made up of some basic cake
ingredients such as flour, sugar, butter and eggs with most of the
variation coming from the flavourings and the multitude of cake
decoration options.
Fairy cakes are very energy efficient as far as using the heat of the
oven goes because their small size leads to the better conduction of the
oven heat thus allowing them to bake considerably faster than layer
cakes.
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