Birthday-Party and Child-Friendly Fairy Cakes

Fairy cakes that you make for a child are no different from the cupcakes with which you adorn your dinner-party table; that’s partly the point. I would say one thing, though: you should always keep some Stork, or similar, in the fridge so that you can make up a quick batch whenever necessary. (OK, I’m not mad on margarine, either, but I promise you this is an accommodation that makes sense.) Butter just won’t soften quickly; the Stork you can bung straight from fridge to processor, and thus you are never more than about 20 minutes away from a tray of fairy cakes.