Everyone loves a fairy cake and these are another triumph for spelt flour. You can just spoon the decoration on top or make them into butterfly cakes like we did. Delicious either way. For a change, you could also make the cakes with orange juice instead of lemon.
Ingredients
- 50 g wholemeal spelt flour
- 50 g ground almonds
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 100 g maple syrup
- 1 lemon zest
- a few drops of almond extract (optional)
For Decoration
- 150 g mascarpone cheese
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- Davina’s lemon curd
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4. Line a 12-hole fairy cake tray with paper cases.
- Put the spelt flour, ground almonds and baking powder in a bowl and whisk to combine them thoroughly and remove any lumps.
- Beat the butter with an electric whisk in a separate bowl or in a stand mixer for 4–5 minutes until it’s very fluffy and white. Add a spoonful of the flour and almonds to the butter, then an egg, whisking well in between each addition. Add the remaining egg, then more flour and almonds, again whisking well.
- Fold in the remaining flour and almonds, then add the maple syrup, lemon zest and juice and the almond extract, if using. The mixture should have a fairly wet consistency so it drops off the spoon.
- Divide the mixture between the cases, then bake the cakes in the oven for 15–20 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Remove them from the oven, then take the cakes out of the tray and place them on a cooling rack.
- Mix the mascarpone with the maple syrup. When the cakes are cool, dollop a spoonful of the mixture on top of each one, then add a little lemon curd.
- If you’d like to make butterfly cakes, cut a small round from the top of each cake and slice it in half to make wings. Fill the hollow with the cream and curd, then place the wings on top.
