Easy Gluten-Free Fairy Cakes
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These Easy Gluten-Free Fairy Cakes are light, fluffy little cakes which are perfect for baking with kids. Simply made with gluten-free flour, ground almonds (almond flour) and no weird gums they deliver a delicious buttery vanilla flavour. Glazed with an easy lemon icing these Fairy Cakes are the best reason to usher your children into the kitchen.
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I am always looking for simple baking recipes to make with kids as I love sharing my passion for baking with my children. The problem is that they get bored easily so the recipes have to be easy, fun, quick and with as much participation as possible.
Fairy Cakes are ideal especially when you want to graduate from something a little more involved than chocolate crispy cakes.
The Difference Between Fairy Cakes and Cupcakes
Fairy Cakes are a distinctively British affair. The kind of little cake that are sold ten a penny at school fetes and village fairs. There are no fancy flavours involved, classic vanilla is the order of the day here.
This is also not a place for elaborate buttercreams but a simple icing sugar glaze, coloured or not but perhaps with a concession towards plenty of gaudy sprinkles.
Fairy cakes are also usually smaller than the kind of monstrous cupcake delicacy you might see Carrie Bradshaw treating herself to. Fairy cakes are delicate, light and definitely homespun.
✨Visit my one bowl Gluten-Free Vanilla Cupcake recipe for all the best tips and tricks on how to make cupcakes which are deliciously moist and fluffy and perfectly level. With an ultra quick and easy creamy vanilla frosting piped into that signature swirl.
Why These Gluten-Free Fairy Cakes Are The Best
- Okay first off, these fairy cakes are delicious with a deep buttery vanilla flavour and gentle tang of the lemon icing.
- No one would guess these are gluten-free. The texture is absolutely perfect. Moist and fluffy with no dry crumbliness or gummy mouthfeel.
- No xanthan or other weird gums (this is why I never bake with xanthan gum)
- You can use any gluten-free flour blend. I use Doves Farm Gluten-Free Plain White Flour.
- Ground almonds (aka almond flour) mean the cakes are really moist (don’t worry there isn’t any almond flavour).
- So easy and foolproof that your kid can really get stuck in.
- It takes about an hour for the fairy cakes to cool so you can pretty much start decorating straight after their naps.
- The decoration cannot be messed up. The more chaotic the sprinkling then the more charming the fairy cake.
However, the best reason for making Fairy Cakes with your kid rather than any other recipe is that it is two activities in one.
- Making the Fairy Cakes
- Decorating the Fairy Cakes
Ingredients needed
Unsalted butter. We need unsalted so we can control the salt content of the recipe. Make sure it is at room temperature.
Caster sugar. It’s a fine white baking sugar available in the UK. If you can only get hold of granulated sugar you can grind more finely in the food processor before you use it in the recipe.
Eggs. This recipe uses medium size, about 60g each with shell (50g each without shell). These are often classified as large eggs in the US. I recommend weighing your eggs to ensure the correct amount.
All-purpose gluten-free flour. You can use any. I recommend Doves Freee Plain White Gluten-Free Flour. You don't need a brand which contains xanthan gum, but if it's included then don't worry about that either. I also particularly recommend my Homemade Gluten-Free Flour Mix which gives great results.
Ground almonds. (also known as almond flour - particularly in the US) You are looking for blanched ground almonds rather than homemade almond meal. There is a bit of labelling confusion over almond flour which is sold as ‘ground almonds’ in most major UK supermarkets and found in the baking aisle. If you want to know what exactly you are looking for then check out this post >>>Is Almond Flour The Same As Ground Almonds.
Baking powder. A leaving agent which causes the cake to rise and become light and fluffy. Do check your baking powder is gluten-free before use.
Salt. I like to use kosher salt in my baking as it has a round gentle flavour. Using salt in your baked goods lifts and sharpens all the other flavours.
Icing sugar (powdered sugar). Used to make the easy icing for decorating the fairy cakes.
Lemon. Make sure it is unwaxed and organic otherwise you need to scrub off the wax.
How To make Gluten-Free Fairy Cakes
For full recipe instructions go to the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.
- Whisk together the gluten-free flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt.
- Beat the flour mix into the other ingredients.
- Place 12 muffin cases into a muffin tin then divide the batter between them.
- Bake the fairy cakes for 20 minutes.
- Remove the fairy cakes from the oven and cool on a wire rack before icing.
- To make the glazed icing stir together icing sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice until a thick paste has formed.
- Spread the icing over the top of the cooled fairy cakes and decorate with sprinkles.
Expert Tips
- You want your fairy cakes to have a flat surface once baked which makes them easier to decorate. You can achieve this by getting as much air into the batter as possible. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes in a stand mixer. Then beat well as you add each ingredient.
- Stand mixer – you don’t need a stand mixer to make the batter for these fairy cakes but it will ensure the fluffiest and lightest batter. If you can afford it a KitchenAid Food Mixer is definitely worth the investment if you like to bake. However an electric hand mixer is a much more affordable option and takes up way less kitchen space.
- The best way to break an egg is to tap the egg lightly on the work surface then hold over a bowl, tuck your finger in the crack and pull the shell away. This was one of the first kitchen jobs I taught my children who seem to excel at this method with very little shell shards.
- Vanilla extract – this is a must for a true deep vanilla flavour (not vanilla essence which is bland and watery). I like Nielsen Massey and most supermarkets stock it.
- Use your regular 12-hole muffin tin rather than buying a separate fairy cake tin.
- Use muffin cases. Traditional fairy cakes are quite small, however I recommend using muffin cases as they are less fiddly for your child to fill with cake batter. The batter will be everywhere, with bigger cases you can rest assured at least some will end up in the case.
This recipe uses 50mm high muffin cases
Why not buy several colours so you can really go to town and give real control to your child on how the cake looks. - Use a trigger release ice-cream scoop for filling the muffin cases. This makes filling the cases so easy.
- Remove the fairy cakes from the baking tin as soon as you take them out of the oven so they don’t retain the heat and become soggy.
- Check your sprinkles labels as some sprinkles contain gluten.
Icing Tips
- Consistency – Add your lemon juice gradually, you may not need the whole lemon. The icing should be the consistency of a thick paste which doesn’t drip off a teaspoon.
- Use a teaspoon of icing per fairy cake. Drop the icing into the centre of the cake and spread it round using the back of a regular teaspoon until it reaches the edges of the cake.
- Let the kids get stuck in! Give them the job of mixing up the icing sugar with the lemon juice and zest then stick the bowl in the middle of the table with a selection of sprinkles. Let your children and the adults go crazy.
Be warned, this is just as much fun for the adults. My husband insisted on decorating a couple himself and took just as much pride in his fairy cake decoration as our four year old.
Freezing and Storage
- You can freeze the fairy cakes prior to icing in a ziplock bag for up to 2 months in the freezer. A pile of fairy cakes ready to be decorated makes for an excellent toddler activity.
- The fairy cakes can be stored for up to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
More Gluten-Free Recipes For Baking With Kids
Fairy Cake Variations
- Buttercream - Go big and decorate your fairy cakes using a simple vanilla buttercream of 250g icing sugar and 250g unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Jam – swirl some jam into the batter before filling with the muffin cases for some added fruitiness.
- Add-ins – Try adding a handful of chocolate chips, sultanas, butterscotch chips.
- Extracts - Swap the vanilla extract for 1 teaspoon of almond extract or lemon extract or orange extract for different flavours.
- Decorate with a single glace cherry for beautiful simplicity.
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Easy Gluten-Free Fairy Cakes
Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter - room temperature
- 200 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs - medium
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 100 g gluten-free plain flour
- 100 g ground almonds
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Lemon Icing
- 225 g icing sugar
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan assisted /gas mark 4 / 350°F and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. About 6 minutes in a stand mixer, scraping the sides down occasionally.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and then add the vanilla extract.
- Whisk together the gluten-free flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to other ingredients and beat well.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cases.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the surface is just turning golden.
- As soon as the tin has been taken out of the oven, then lift out the fairy cakes and leave on a cooling rack to cool completely before icing.
- Make the icing by beating together the lemon juice and zest with the icing sugar until the icing is a thick paste.
- Drop a teaspoon of icing on each fairy cake and use the back of a teaspoon to swirl around to the edges.
- Decorate the fairy cakes with plenty of colourful sprinkles.
Video
Notes
- Gluten-free flour - You can use any gluten-free flour blend. I recommend Doves Freee Plain White Gluten-Free Flour. You don't need a brand which contains xanthan gum, but if it's included then don't worry about that either. I also particularly recommend my Homemade Gluten-Free Flour Mix which gives great results.
- Ground almonds - You are looking for blanched ground almonds. There is a bit of labelling confusion over almond flour which is sold as ‘ground almonds’ in most major UK supermarkets and found in the baking aisle. If you want to know what exactly you are looking for then check out this post >>> Is Almond Flour The Same As Ground Almonds.
- Vanilla extract – this is a must for a true deep vanilla flavour (not vanilla essence).
- Eggs. The eggs used in this recipe are medium size, 60g with shell and 50g without shell. If you can't get hold of medium eggs I suggest you weigh the amount.
- This recipe uses a regular 12-hole muffin tin.
- Use muffin cases. Traditional fairy cakes are quite small, however I recommend using muffin cases as they are less fiddly for your child to fill with cake batter.
- Sprinkles! Check your labelling as some sprinkles contain gluten.
- Flat surface – you want your fairy cakes to have a flat surface once baked which makes them easier to decorate. You can achieve this by getting as much air into the batter as possible. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes in a stand mixer. Then beat well as you add each ingredient.
- Use a trigger release ice-cream scoop for filling the muffin cases.
- Remove the fairy cakes from the baking tin as soon as you take them out of the oven so they don’t retain the heat and become soggy.
- Icing consistency – Add your lemon juice gradually, you may not need the whole lemon. The icing should be the consistency of a thick paste which doesn’t drip off a teaspoon.
- Freezing the fairy cakes - you can freeze the fairy cakes very well in a ziplock bag prior to icing. They will store for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for 2 hours before decorating.
Any suggestions on alternate flour instead of almond ? Schools are nut free therefore granddaughters can not take this cupcake to school!
I put this comment in your queries on the Banana Bread recipe too - but I'll reiterate here for other readers. I recommend using my homemade gluten-free flour blend if you are not using almond flour. But use it for both the gluten-free flour needed in the recipe and the almond flour. Store bought gf flour blends do not have a strong enough structure to carry the whole banana bread (which is why the original recipe needs the almond flour - as it gives strength to the flour blend). My homemade blend is specifically developed that it can be used in any cake recipe without the need for xanthan gum or almond flour.
Hi, please can I ask if it would be okay to use self raising gluten free flour with the ground almonds? If so, would we need to adjust the amount of baking powder?
Thank you.
Yes you can use self-raising instead and then you probably won't need the baking powder.
Hi
Thanks for the recipe, I just made them with the two kids we mind and they really enjoyed them, thanks so much.
Alan from Ireland
Thank you Alan - I'm happy you and the children enjoyed them!!
So delicious, I actually prefer these to a standard recipe. I will be making the gluten free version from now on!
I'm so happy to hear that Carly - thank you so much for giving your feedback on the recipe!
Hi Georgina,
I have just made my second batch of these.. My husband has been recently been told he is gluten intolerant. He was gutted that not all my normal bakes adapt. These however are amazing. Lovely, light and delicious. Family love them too. These are now on my keep list. Thank you.
Hi Laura, I'm happy you are enjoying them - thank you for your feedback on the fairy cakes!
Hi, Ive made these several times and always great the best glutenfree fairy cakes Ive ever made, we like them without the icing. The first batch I made as the recipe says except that I reduced the sugar to 150g using 100g of white sugar and 50g of light brown sugar, also added grated rind of a lemon and some cinnamon. Spurred on by the success the second batch I made the same but subbed ground hazelnuts for the ground almonds and they turned out great too just a slightly different flavour. For the 3rd batch I subbed equal amounts of ground sunflower seeds and ground pumpkin seeds instead of the ground almonds and I also added some anis seeds and these were the absolute best ones, even my husband who doesn't need to eat GF adored them so these will be our preferred recipe from now on, only thing is they start to turn green after a day or two so I must remember they aren't going mouldy. Lol.
Hi Gill, I love the fact you have adapted this recipe so many different ways - they all sound like great ideas!! Thank you for sharing your experience with the recipe.
Hi Georgina. A resounding success. They are everything I hoped they'd be. After putting up with, for years, dried out 'sponges' every time I go out for a coffee and cake, or buy in a supermarket variety, these fairy cakes are delicious. Better than any I've had in the past, even made with regular flour. My husband also is over the moon, as I'd stopped baking. I put half in the freezer, took them out yesterday and they're just as good. We're having a family day on Saturday, so I shall be doing some more for the occasion. I shall be trying out a chocolate version as well. Thank you.
That's great to hear!!
Hi. I posted a question, but somehow it got lost, so hopefully second time lucky. I'm wanting to try and make these fairy cakes and want to know if I can blend the sugar and butter using a hand held whisk. The last time I tried using the whisk it caused the mixture to break up into globules rather than blend the ingredients together. I have problems mixing just using a wooden spoon due to arthritis, and I don'thavea mixer. Could I have had the butter too hard or too soft.
Thank you
Hi Charlynne, apologies I'm on holiday at the moment hence the slowness of my replies. I've responded to your comment but I thought I would also add some extra information. When this happens during the sugar and butter mix it just means that there is more sugar in the recipe so it depends on which recipe you used that this happened with. More sugar in a recipe can cause a cake to collapse hence it not rising as well. Although yes, if your butter is too hard then it will be difficult to mix in with the sugar. Too soft and it will not be able to achieve the same airiness. Using a hand held whisk won't be a problem in these recipes.
Hi Georgina.
I'm about to try this fairy cake recipe, and I just want to verify something. I haven't got a big mixer, just a hand hold one. Are you sure it's ok to blend the sugar and butter together with the mixer? Reason I'm asking is because the last time I tried using the handheld mixer for blending sugar and butter together, for a different recipe, not one of yours, the mixture didn't blend together it formed separated globules. The cakes were a disaster, they didn't rise at all. I tend not to use white sugar, always preferring brown, and I also tend to use granulated. Could that have been the reason that the cakes didn't rise? Thanks
If you mean a handheld electric beater then it works just fine - I've made it this way many times. The change in sugar shouldn't affect the rise of the cakes.
Brilliant. A fab sponge with a great flavour the family loved them. I used muffin cases and and decorated with buttercream An excellent recipe and so quick and easy. Thank you
I am in the US and it doesn’t look like I can get Doves GF flour here (at a price I’m willing to pay). Any thoughts on which brands of GF flour blends available in the US are close? I may stick with your best vanilla cake (where you specify blend ingredients) to prevent a possible/likely baking disaster, but would love to give this recipe a try!
Hi Sara, this recipe is very forgiving and as long as you use the ground almonds specified in the recipe then you can use any brand of gluten-free flour - so do choose your favourite.
Absolutely gorgeous. Made my 9 year old with coeliac very happy after she missed out at the school bake sale. Beautiful taste and crumb. Thank you so much
I love to hear that Naomi - thank you so much for your feedback!
I made these for my Coeliac Granddaughter. She is very fussy but by the end of the weekend she’d devoured the lot. She loved them. Thank you.
That's great to hear - thank you Wendy!
I am very new to Gluten Free baking. The recipe for the Fairy cakes looked very easy, and it was. The batter, before baking, looked very good. However, the end result was somewhat of a disastor. I used cupcake liners (somehing I never usually do). There was batter everywhere, talk about a river over flowing its banks. To cut the story short, the Fairy cakes are now part of a pudding, eggs, milk/cream and cranberries as I found the batter very sweet. Will have another try next weekend. I was hoping to surprise my granddaughter who was recently diagnosed Celiac.
Oh dear, that doesn't sound right at all. If you are going to try it again then please get in touch via email if you would like me to help you troubleshoot the recipe, georgina@fromthelarder.co.uk
Many thanks Georgina,
Will have another go....after looking at your video I'm thinking the cake liners I used were too small. Also I did have alot of batter. Could this recipe be baked as a cake? if so, what size pan would you suggest?
Annie Csak
The fairy cakes should be baked in a 12 hole muffin tin. The cupcake liners are those larger ones (often called muffin liners) and should be filled 3/4 full. Yes, you can bake as a cake. You can bake it in a 20cm square cake tin or a 20cm round cake tin. The oven timings will be slightly different though - it will take longer in a tin. Maybe 25-30 minutes but you will need to check for doneness with an inserted cocktail stick. As long as you are checking at around 25 minutes it won't affect the rise of the cake.
Best gluten free buns that we have ever had.
everyone loves them not just the gf family members
going to be adventures and try adding the choc chips today,
thank you
So happy you enjoyed them - thank you!
These cakes are fabulous but mine always sink in the middle slightly. I bake them properly and have played around with the oven at 10 degrees either side of 160 and it just won't stop happening can anyone tell me why this is happening???
Hi Abigail, can I ask if you are using Doves flour as specified in the recipe? I'm interested to know if that has something to do with it. Also, can I check the sizes of your eggs. A sunken middle means that there is too much liquid in your recipe or it has not been baked for long enough.
Wow, I've never baked with gluten free flour before and was apprehensive. These unassuming little cakes taste amazing! The only hitch I hit was I didn't read the end properly where it says put batter in muffin cases - as we were making fairy cakes I bought fairy cake cases. Being a household where any home baking disappears almost before it has time to cool I made double the quantity. Wow, 48 cakes. I don't think they'll hang around for long though. Luckily I realised the problem early on and adjusted the cooking time.
I would have no problem eating that many cakes!! So happy you like the recipe - thank you!
Hi
I can replace the eggs with flax egg or chia egg to make it vegan? Thanks!
Hi Rachna, I haven't tried that substitution so I can't say for sure I'm afraid.
Hi there
I don't usually comment on articles as I am very often disappointed with gluten free results but I have to say these were delicious and will be my 'go to' sponge recipe.
Thank you
That's lovely to hear - I'm so happy you enjoyed them!!
These Fairy cakes were absolutely delicious! Best fairy cakes I've had in years - shop brought or home made!
You would never guess they were gluten free in a million years.
My daughter made them so its an easy to follow recipe - not too complicated.
Thankyou so much for allowing me to enjoy fantastic cakes again!
Hi Joanna, thank you so much for your lovely feedback - I'm so happy your family enjoyed the fairy cakes!!
I really fancied a homemade fairy cake today, even tho I haven’t eaten one in decades. Back then I was still able to tolerate gluten and my Mum made the best fairy cakes ever. Shop bought cakes were somehow never the same and on the whole in recent years I have not loved shop bought gluten free cake as for me they are either far too sweet or have an odd texture, so I don’t eat much cake anymore. But these cakes are lovely, light and tasty, and they are so good, you can’t tell they are gluten free. Thank you for a happy afternoon baking and tasting!
Hi Annie, that's great - I'm so happy you enjoyed the fairy cakes. We make them all the time - definitely a favourite in our house!!