Red Nose Day Buns

When I was a little girl, I don’t think cupcakes existed. My Mum made buns, or if she gouged a bit out the top, filled it with icing, and stuck the gouged bit cut into two back, they magically became fairy cakes. The same amount of cake batter used for an 8″ two layer sponge cake made 24 buns or fairy cakes. And they seemed to last for ages, because you were only ever allowed one at once.

Whereas cupcakes are much larger. And I think a relatively new addition. I say new. They weren’t about 40 years ago. Nor even possibly 30. But I have occasionally done the whole old-school-style fairy cake winged topper for a cupcake, just for fun.

And the other thing that is confusing about cupcakes is that they are baked in a muffin tray, not a bun tray which buns are baked in.

And muffins are even larger again. With cupcakes, the aim is for the cooked sponge to rise just above the cupcake case. Whereas muffins have to explode out the top in a small mountain, and quite often be a bit gooey.

But back to Comic Relief. These buns were dashed off in a hurry one evening (I agree, it shows) to take to work. I used my Gran’s very basic chocolate sponge recipe based on the ‘everything against the weight of 2 eggs’ principle. I used to love balancing 2 eggs on the weights side of the scale and hoping they didn’t fall off.  A bit of water icing (no time for buttercream) and a glacé cherry on top, and voilá.

And why buns, not cupcakes? Because you can charge £1 or 50p for a bun and feel that’s OK. But you can’t charge 50p for a cupcake. And £1 feels a bit cheap too, given the size of them. And £2 is a bit much for someone people to pay for a cupcake, even if it is for charity.