Top hat cakes

That sounds the same as the butterfly cakes we used to have. The cut-off top was halved and pushed into the cream to look like butterfly wings.

There are a lot of recipes online. Try googling them.

I think that if you pile up the mixture to a point in the cases they will rise higher in the centre.

Thanks elegran but I don't think they were just the usual fairy cake recipe. They were decidedly pointy and thin at the top, not just tall. The point was cut off horizontally before putting on the small blob of buttercream - which was all it could take.

I have never seen anything resembling them since my childhood parties and I can no longer ask the cook.

I will keep on searching.

Thanks

What was pointy and thin at the top? I've made top-hat cakes for donkey's years (as shown to me by my mum) and it's always been usual cake mixture.

You don't have to just put a blob of buttercream or cream in, you can add jam or lemon curd as well - that's really nice - and then, after placing the removed piece back on top, sieve with icing sugar.

HollyDaze we may be talking of the same thing!

Do you have the recipe please? What makes them rise into such a strange shape?

Sorry, just reread your post. The cakes I'm remembering rose to a thin point in the centre. Is that the same as yours?

Why not try making the butterfly cakes, but with some extra baking powder and/or bicarbonate of soda added? That might do the trick.

No-one seems to have a recipe for exactly the cakes you are thinking of, so a bit of experimentation is called for.

You could always try, baking them twice, take them out of the oven when they are still uncooked in the center, then put them 1 by 1 in a microwave for a minute or 2 watching them carefully, the centers should then shoot up to make points, well that's what I would try.

They where called butterfly cakes and I still do them for DGCs at the week-end,filled with butter icing and dusted with icing suger,good idea newist I will try that also.

Versavisa - no, they don't rise to a think point, more like dome-shaped.

I don't usually give away my secret recipes but just betwen you and I, try:

100g margerine
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self-raising flour
Few drops of vanilla essence
Lime or lemon juice (freshly squeezed after you have zested it first)
Lime or lemon zest

Beat marg and sugar until it changes colour (becomes paler) and very, very creamy in texture. Whisk eggs. Add a very small amount of the flour to the mixture and add some of the beaten egg and beat the eggs into the mixture - repeat until eggs have been incorporated. Gently fold in the flour in two goes. Add the vanilla essence and fold again. Add the lime or lemon juice. Mixture should be a soft dropping consistency (if you have to shake it off the spoon, you can add a little bit of milk). Spoon into paper cases (I tend to use muffin paper cases).

Bake at around 180 (you know if your own oven bakes hot or cooler so adjust accordingly if it does) for around 15 mins (but keep an eye on them. You can touch the top to see if they're spingy when checking if they're cooked but you can also check by looking underneath the cake case and the sponge should look cooked.

Filling

Depending on how many cakes you have made and how much buttercream you like will determine quantity but a starting point is:

200g of butter or margering
500g of icing sugar
Lime or Lemon juice
Grated zest of lime or lemon (how much depends on your taste for it)

Mix the icing sugar and marg and beat the living daylights out of it. Beat in the juice. Add the zest and stir - buttercream should be soft but not too runny (not thick either!).

When cakes have cooled, using a sharp, pointy knife, carefully cut a circle of cake out of each cake (about the size of a 10p) to a depth of about an inch to an inch and a half depedening on the size of cakes you have made (this will produce a thin pointy end thinking about it - you can always replace this upside down onto the cake) and put to one side. Place a level teaspoon of good quality lemon curd into each cake and top with lime/lemon buttercream; replace the removed piece of cake and push down gently so that buttercream oozes out slightly. Dust lightly with icing sugar.

If you take them to car boot sales, they sell very quickly if you bring them here, they'll disappear even quicker!

I hope they come out the way you are looking for

Aaaagh, I proof-read that and previewed it so why didn't I see that I'd typed 'think' instead of 'thin'