Freeganism: the practice of reclaiming and eating food that has been discarded.
Regular readers might be aware of an appalling lack of recipe posts on my blog as of late.
This is for several reasons:
a) This past winter has been a long and dark one and I have found the poor light quality caused by low cloud cover (usually filled with rain whipped horizontally at the window by gale force winds) to be a deterrent from trying to take decent food photos. The fact that at mid-winter it’s pitch black come four pm doesn’t help either, and the studio lights I bought really cast a harsh unpleasant light. I need to rethink my kitchen lighting – LED overhead spotlights perhaps?
b) I’ve been on a diet. I began dieting in earnest in mid-December last year in a bid to lose the weight I’d gained after a serious foot crush injury two years ago. I have lost 23.5 lbs to date (go me!) – not much more left to go. I’m only now getting back into the swing of cake baking again now that I can have the occasional treat (accounted for, of course, in my Fitbit app, and earned, in advance, by taking extra steps!). Trust me, the giant plate of raw vegetables, grilled lean meat and pile of low fat cottage cheese I’ve been living off of was not worth blogging.
c) I’ve got a new part-time job in the village shop. They’d asked me to help out with two shifts a week for them awhile back, which I politely declined (it’s been over 8 years since I’ve worked for anyone else!), but when a friend of mine (on the shop committee) came by to my house and all but begged me to reconsider, I thought that it actually might be a good idea. Being a self-employed freelance writer/stay-at-home Mum means the only grown up person I saw in the day was the local postie (before hubby – also a postie – came home, that is). I was needing to get out more. The sociable side of me was needing seen to. However, part time job (I ended up taking 2.5 shifts over 3 days in the week) means that my ‘working’ week for freelance writing and blogging has been cut in half.
I’m not complaining. I really do love working at the shop. It gets me offline and away from deadlines, and I get to socialise. I’m actually starting to learn the names of the people I’ve been sharing a village with after all these years. Plus, it gets my step count way up! On a delivery day I can easily clock up 7 miles, without any extra effort! Being in the same village with the local school means I can walk to work, so there are no fuel bills to account for, and if my children need me for any reason I am only a few minutes away. Plus I get paid! It’s rather nice being handed a wage packet again. 🙂
While at work the other day I spied one of my colleagues clearing out the fruit section of the shop. A whole box of oranges were destined for the bin, as they were unsaleable (bruised and definitely past their best). I rescued them from their journey to the local rubbish heap with no idea of what I would do with them once I got home. A bit of freeganism, don’t you think? Those poor unloved oranges…
The idea for orange curd popped into my head. I’ve tried making both lemon and lime curds in the past, successfully, so I reckoned an orange curd would be quite nice. I found this recipe online, and tripled it as I had obtained 450 ml of fresh juice from all these lovely oranges. This filled three Kilner preserve jars with curd.
Now, what to do with all that orange curd?
Why, fill some butterfly fairy cakes!
Would you believe this was my first ever attempt at making butterfly fairy cakes? Why have I never done this before? Such a simple, yet effective, technique. Unfortunately, the kids weren’t particularly fond of the orange curd filling, but us adults certainly enjoyed them. In fact, I was found wandering the village streets late last night working off the calories I’d consumed having eaten two of these (they come in at around 290 kcal each!).
All in all, I was quite pleased with how the recipe turned out, although the orange curd didn’t set as well as I had hoped. This might have been due to tripling the batch. Still, the consistency of it worked well for the cakes.
Orange Curd Butterfly Fairy Cakes
Ingredients
for the orange curd
- 150 ml orange juice freshly squeezed
- 115 grams unsalted butter
- 226 grams caster sugar
- 2 eggs beaten
for the butterfly cakes
- 125 grams unsalted butter softened
- 125 grams golden caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 125 grams self-raising flour
- 2 tbsp orange juice freshly squeezed
for the icing
- 230 grams icing sugar plus extra, to dust
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp orange curd or orange juice
- 1 tbsp milk or more, to reach desired consistency
Instructions
to make the orange curd
- Place 2 inches of boiling water into a medium sized saucepan and bring to a low simmer.
- Put the orange juice, sugar and butter in a heat proof bowl and suspend over the simmering water. Stir until melted.
- Add the beaten eggs, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 20-25 minutes until the mixture is thickened and smooth. The mixture will coat the back of the spoon when it is ready, and a finger, drawn along the back, will leave a line.
- Strain to remove any bits of cooked egg white, and pour into a sterilized bottle.
to make the butterfly cakes
- Preheat oven to 200 C. Line a muffin tin with 10-12 cupcake cases, depending on their size.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla, and sift over the flour.
- Combine well, adding 1-2 tbsp of orange juice to reach a soft, dropping consistency.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking cases and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden and springy on top.
- Leave to cool before carefully slicing the tops of the cakes off. Cut each top in half to form the butterfly wings.
- Using a small spoon, scoop about 1 tsp out of the centre of each cake (scoff these while assembling!).
- To prepare the frosting, beat the icing sugar, butter, orange curd and enough milk together to form a pipable consistency.
- Spoon 1 tsp of orange curd into the centre of each cake, and top with a swirl of orange butter cream frosting.
- Push the two halves of the cupcake top into the frosting to form butterfly wings, and lightly dust with powdered sugar before serving.
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Mum of three, daydream adventurer, OU Life Sciences graduate, occasional crafter, ex-pat Canadian & quite possibly Britain's most northerly food blogger.
Kate Cass says
I will definitely be making these with Lydia, so fresh and Summery and her birthday is coming up so they would be amazing, this site is great love your recipes so professional!
Johanna GGG says
I love butterfly cakes – am constantly telling myself I will make them and then get distracted.
You sound as though your recipe blogging has slowed for all the right reasons. I can just imagine the village shop being something like the centre of a soap opera – and onya for making progress with your weight loss.
Sinead Charlotte says
They look great!
Rebecca Claridge says
They look lovely, will have a go at these with my girls over the Easter hols!
forcompsonly says
loved making these as a kid.they look yummy am going to try this recipe with my daughter next weekend
Pam Francis Gregory says
Love Butterfly cakes – Have great memories of the ones that my mom used to make!
Ursula Hunt says
Butterfly cakes seem to have been forgotten about with the emergence of cupcakes, so it is lovely to see them back
Heather Haigh says
Those look very pretty and I love the sound of your, very very frugal, orange curd. Brilliant!
DANIELLE VEDMORE says
I love butterfly cakes! I cant believe you have never made them before. I usually do plain buttercream or lemon ones – orange sounds yummy! xoxo
ashleigh allan says
Yum these look good – love the sound of the orange curd!
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
Well done you! Sounds like you’ve done really well with losing the extra pounds (unlike me!) and the job will be great too….. the ‘home’ time may cut but getting out is always a great leveller.
I’ve always loved orange curd, especially used to fill cakes. Butterfly cakes take me way back to childhood (which I think was probably the last time I made them). These ones looks very cute and tasty (extra so for the home made rescue curd!) I’ve made some amazing rhubarb curd in the past too…… seems you can pretty much use any fruit!
jenny paulin says
wow these are so pretty and they actually look like little butterflies!!! i am very impressed. i also love the sound of the orange curd – something i have never tried, but i love lemon curd so am sure this would not disappoint x
Choclette says
Ah, so glad things are working out for you Elizabeth, you had a bit of a rough time of it last year. Well done for losing such a huge number of pounds, that sounds like a huge feat. and the job sounds good too – getting out of the house and meeting people is really important and something I need to get better at now I’m working from home.
Your cakes look delightful, so pretty. Butterfly cakes have been on my list for a long time, but like you, I’ve not actually got around to it. Thanks for linking up my blood orange cakes.
International Elf Service says
This is a great post! Love the recipe ideas and hearing a bit about you. Very well done on your diet!! Funny – the first thing I noticed when I popped in was how lovely your photos are and then the first thing you say is how you’ve had to stop posting due to light problems. We have big light issues here too!
carolynla says
these look very nice love the presentation
Elizabeth says
Thanks Carolynla 🙂
Kirsten says
Elizabeth,
These look so lovely! Well done you for turning trash into treasure!
Elizabeth says
Thanks Kirsten – I dislike seeing food go to waste, and this was a great chance to salvage something. 🙂
Gwen @simplyhealthyfamily says
I can totally relate (except maybe to the dark weather bit, we live in Phoenix 😉 but I’ve had my share of ups and downs w blogging wether it be from my own food injury and high blood pressure (no weight lifting) or my more than part time job at the hospital and finally 4 kids sucking any and all creative energy I had left right out of me 😉
My youngest, a girl will adore these little cakes!! I think she won’t even notice the fact that they aren’t pink 😉
saving and sharing everywhere 😉 oxox
Elizabeth says
It’s not easy, is it! Blogging can be incredibly difficult with children about too – yesterday I was trying to read the fine print in a contract with the six year old going, “Mum! Mum! I want I want I want, MUM I WANT!!” haha! I bet you have fantastic light in Phoenix – it’s a place I’d love to visit one day.
Heather | girlichef says
Those ill-fated oranges could not have found a better home. I love pretty much any kind of curd, and the thought of it with these beautiful little cakes sounds delicious! They’re so pretty.
Elizabeth says
The orange curd wasn’t as zingy as the lemon or lime ones I’ve made previous, but it certainly has a lovely flavour of its own.
Nayna Kanabar says
These butterfly cakes look so pretty. Adding orange curd must have taken them to anew level.
Elizabeth says
Thanks Nanya 🙂 They were really rather delicious!
sarah says
well done on losing weight! These cakes look beautiful.
Elizabeth says
Thank you! 🙂
Vicki in Ottawa says
Thanks for a lovely blog post. Congrats on your dieting success, as someone who’s done it I know the sacrifices you have to make. Especially in the cold dark winter when you (or maybe it’s just me) only want to curl up in front of the telly with a huge dish of Mac and cheese. I’m surprised the kids didn’t love the orange curd. Oh well, you can always give it as a gift if you made too much. Your job sounds perfect and I hope you continue to love it. Yup, I really enjoyed this blog post. 🙂
Elizabeth says
Thank you for your wonderful comment! It’s comments like these which make blogging worth while for me – thank you! 🙂 (I’m now craving Mac & Cheese too!)
Jayne T says
Those cakes look lovely, well done on you weight loss too.
Elizabeth says
Thank you! 😀
Camilla @FabFood4All says
Beautiful cakes Elizabeth and I bet they taste fabulous too! Thank you for linking to my Granny’s Quick Lemon Curd:-)
Elizabeth says
Thank you – they were rather moreish! 😀
Olivia Jade Thristan says
These look so yummy, I’d love to try these! 😀
Elizabeth says
They are super simple to make – if you haven’t the time to make your own curd a shop bought citrus one would do too. 🙂
Jeanne Horak-Druiff says
Oh – how pretty! I saw them on Instagram and had to come and take a look 🙂 I am also a past master at rescuing unloved, unappetising-looking fruit and turning them into something delicious – in this house usually a coulis or a crumble. Adore the idea of orange curd!
Elizabeth says
There is something really satisfying about turning what was going to be landfill into something beautiful. I do it with my crafts too – as a hoarder of little bits and bobs! 🙂
Stephanie says
I used to love making butterfly cakes as a child, never thought of using orange curd though – what a great idea x
Elizabeth says
I can’t believe this was the first time I’d ever made them – I really ought to make them more often. 🙂
Margot⚓Coffee & Vanilla says
Wow!! That looks so lovely and is pretty simple to make. I need to show it to my girls, they will love it.
Elizabeth says
They really are easy to make – great for baking with kids. 🙂
Laura says
Well done for sticking to your diet Elizabeth! These cakes are ever so pretty – not any people post about butterfly cake so it’s extra nice to see them. You’ve got me yearning for butterfyl cakes now! I’ve thought many a time about making an orange version but never got round to it. I need to sort that out!
Elizabeth says
Thanks Laura! It wasn’t easy, there were a lot of tears in the early days, but I’m so glad I’ve stuck with it. Just a little bit more to go… 😀
Kavey says
These are lovely, proper fairy cakes and I love orange flavoured cakes. Now I want some!
Elizabeth says
Heehee, get baking then! 😀
Maya Russell says
I love these butterfly cakes. Very spring-like.
Elizabeth says
I thought so too – I liked the bright light shining through the window while I took the photos too – it gives it a nice ethereal look, I thought.
Paul Wilson says
Great stuff. My mum used to bake something similar when I was a child.
Elizabeth says
You lucky boy you! I never even heard of butterfly cakes until I moved to the UK. 🙂