The submit thing took a long time (less than a minute, but long in computer time), but it did post my fairy cake question. It took long enough, mid-morning West coast, that a live person might have reviewed it if it were flagged and the person saw it right away,

I have had Fairy Cakes in the past, and, to your point, they always were small, light and airy. And, were not regular cupcakes, but rather either quite small or decorated small squares... like Petit Fours. They were also white cake. Having said this, I've never made these and so have no recipe.

And, thank you for the validation, plllog.

Yes I have. Once. It's part of the Ostara and Beltaiane holidays :) I've eaten more of others makings than my own. They go along with Queen cakes for Mothering Sunday.

Fairy cakes are light and airy. Usually smaller than cupcake size, split and treated like a large cake would be. I've also had them in squares, like a tiny sheet cake and cut up and treated very much like petit fours. Tiny cakes for the wee folk. Lemon and rosewater, sweet orange, sometimes lavender or almond are good. Light frostings or honey drizzles. Berries or herb leaves for dressings.

Queen cakes are the opposite. Still small and dainty, but more of a pound cake or tiny bun and left whole. Often spiced with traditional warm spices and often a bit boozy. A good brandy straight or as a honey glaze :) Small berries like currants or sometimes raisins or sometimes nuts for garnishes or mixed into the dough.

We made and ate dozens of fairy cakes as children. They were not made for any special occasion, just for everyday eating, although they often featured at childrens’ tea. Being so easy they were often one of the first things children learned to bake. They are simply small individual cakes made to a Victoria sponge recipe and baked in a paper case. They are then topped with a little butter cream or water icing. They are shallower and less sickly than cupcakes, having far less icing. They are not split and they are never square. They were almost always vanilla but occasionally chocolate or lemon. The cupcake was unknown when I was a kid and was considered an American invention when it finally reached these shores. https://www.goodto.com/recipes/mary-berry-s-iced-fairy-cakes or https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/fairycakes_93711

What I would call a fairy cake is also called a butterfly cake:

https://www.christinascucina.com/butterfly-cupcakes-british-butterfly-cakes/

Ooh - I'd like to try those. Thanks for the links 😃

And I'm curious - are the fairy cakes the same size as regular cupcakes, or smaller?

So, fairy cakes are all of the above. :) Beesneeds described the closest to what I've read about. Small and feather light and airy, drizzled with honey or treacle (I'd assume thinned).

The others sound interesting too.

I make mine in a smallish cupcake pan. Cup cakes seem to have grown in size over the years.

A fairy cake or a butterfly cake are a normal portion size. American cupcakes are huge - for a rare treat for most peoples' waistlines LOL. The only difference that I know between cupcakes and butterfly cakes, and I agree with Flora and Colleen, is that a fairy cake has the icing on top, and for a butterfly cake you cut off the top and make it into wings. Sweet! Little square ones are called French fancies and have icing all over. None are petits fours, not ours anyway! Here, sweet petits fours are miniature versions of normal cakes like éclairs or choux buns, rum babas, gateaux..... These Christmas ones are fun! https://chefsimon.com/recettes/tag/petits%20fours

We made butterfly cakes too. Just a fairy cake with the top sliced off, halved and stuck back on with icing like wings. Same recipe as fairy cakes. As others have said, they are much smaller than cupcakes. The paper cases take a scant two tbsp of mixture. Always iced. No honey. No treacle. That would have been very messy at a kids tea.....

Again, there are different things called fairy cakes from different places. Real American cupcakes aren't so big. The ones sold by specialty bakeries are like four times the size of a normal cupcake. The mountains of frosting do seem to have spread from them, however. People like the pointy top, whereas flat frosting or icing used to be the norm. But then we were all appalled at what The Great British Bake-Off called ”American” pies. unrecognizable. Like the ”Australian” friands, or any number of things here called ”French”, which may have originated from a French concept, but are nothing like one might find in France.

I know what real petits fours are like, but there's an old time American treat that was called petits fours, which seem to have disappeared. I think they were called that because they were small cakes and the French name made them sound fancy. Accurate name or not, they were really good! Each was about an inch cube, with a smooth hard-ish coating on top and sides of chocolate, or sometimes colors. I don't know if those were colored white chocolate or something else. I'm guessing it was a poured glaze that firmed up kind of idea. There would always be a tiny decoration in the middle, in two or three colors. Commonly, a little flower or bird, or for special occasions, something thematic like baby booties or candy canes. Inside were four layers of cake. Yes, 1/8” thick cake. In between the cake layers was usually jam, but could be cream or something else. Jam was the best. A lot of what's popular now from bakeries isn't nearly as good, like those giant cupcakes with multiple discordant flavors in the batter, a big dollop of contrasting goo in a pocket in the center, and mounds of frosting and toppings. Ugh.

I have only normal sized muffin tins. That's what I meant, definitely not the ginormous commercial size! And I agree about incredible amounts of frosting being popular now - absolute sugar bombs, IMO 😝

But looking at the first recipes, it's easy to see that it's a small amount to divide into 12, so I guess it would be for what's called mini-muffin tin size? However, the baking time seems rather long for a smaller sized cake.

Plllog, I have a pictorial “how to” for those petits fours in my mother’s old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. The icing was a poured fondant.

Wow! I've never heard of poured fondant, but it makes sense! thanks, Colleen.

Neely, what a pretty picture! I'm glad to know of yet another form of fairy cakes.

So, I got curious, and found this history of American petits fours as a commercial product. https://www.swisscolony.com/blog/bakery/petits-fours-luscious-little-layer-cakes

My Betty Crocker cookbook shows how to make petit fours with a poured icing as well.

So I checked both my Betty Crocker and BH&G. Both have petits fours as just cubes of cake with warm poured sugar icing (the kind that hardens, though the recipes are very different) for enrobing. The professional sites say fondant or chocolate, and my guess of white chocolate was confirmed. I have a wire horizontal cake cutter, but I don't think I could cut evenly enough. I wonder if the layers could be baked thin. My guess is it would get too crusty. I'm going to leave this to the pros, I think. :)

Those cubes of iced cakes sound like the French fancies I was talking about above. They all sound yummy!

Oh, yes. They are yummy! But the jammy filling is best. :) Unless you love cream most. :) Most of all, they're very pretty and super easy to serve to ladies who really want sweets, but won't be seen eating a whole slice of cake. :)

So, in the history I've read, "petits fours", literally meaning "small ovens", referred to a lower oven temperature from back in the solid fuel days, the little cakes being what could be baked in the less intense heat of a waning fire. Cool!