This is an easy recipe for jammy buns. It’s perfect for children to make and also for birthday parties. It’s also pretty scrummy if you feel like eating cake with jam, but you don’t want to make a Victoria Sandwich. Essentially these jammy buns are fairy cakes with a jammy surprise in the middle.
Jammy Buns
I found this recipe again recently, when I fancied something jammy and partly because I was seeing a friend for a walk and it was her birthday, so cake was in order. As she had given me a jar of homemade jam, I thought I’d make some jammy buns using her jam as an appropriate fortification for our trek.
We ate the buns with an excellent cup of coffee in the National Trust café at Avebury before walking to Silbury Hill and then the West Kennet Long Barrow. It’s all well worth a visit if you like a decent walk with some Neolithic monuments on the way. To be honest, I was jolly glad that we had the jammy buns before we left because it’s more than a gentle stroll, so don’t try it on an empty stomach.
I like to make these as fairy cakes, to keep them small enough not to feel stuffed. (Although, confusingly, I see that some supermarkets have taken to calling fairy cake paper cases cupcake cases).
If you want to be really pedantic, and sometimes I’m afraid I do, this is the difference: a fairy cake is smaller and has, perhaps, a little glacé or buttercream icing; a cupcake is bigger and has lots of frosting; a muffin is even bigger and has a denser texture (and doesn’t keep as well).
I must apologise to my children for not making these more often when they were young. It’s so easy to get stuck into cooking and baking the same few things, and forgetting all the other easy and delicious recipes, when you’re busy at work.
Part of the reason for writing all these down is that they can be reminded of what’s possible in a spare half hour.
Jammy Buns
Ingredients
- 125 g caster sugar
- 125 g butter, at room temperature
- 150 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (5ml)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)
- Jam for the filling
- Icing sugar to finish (optional)
Equipment
Instructions
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/ 180°C fan/ gas mark 6/ 400°F
- Put a paper case in each hole of the bun tin – no need for greasing.
For the Jammy Buns:
- Put all the ingredients except the jam into a bowl and mix together well with a hand mixer
- Put a teaspoonful of mixture into each paper case to cover the bottom and make a slight depression. You should use about half the mixture, maybe a little more
- Put a small spoonful of jam into the depression. Add another spoonful of mixture on top of the jam and smooth to completely cover it
- Cook for 20 minutesDepending on your oven, you may need to turn the cakes after 15 minutes to ensure even browning
- Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack
- Sprinkle with a little sifted icing sugar before serving.
