Buns not cup cakes.

Someone on the radio was wondering where all the buns had gone. Or rather when did they get replaced by cup cakes.
I got a longing for old fashioned buns or queen cakes then. My Mother use to make buns. They were either plain or had caraway seed in them, it was easy enough to tell them apart if they were iced as she tended to only ice the plain ones. Sometimes if there wasn’t time to ice them we would have to turn the buns upside down to see if we could see the seeds through the bun paper. This was not always a foolproof way of telling, and an unlucky bun eater would end up with a mouthful of caraway seed. Caraway is a grownup taste and some people never like it.

The other buns that I love are coffee walnut ones well really coffee walnut cake, but buns are mini cakes.

Here is the recipe for the ones I made today make sure the butter is soft leave it to reach room temperature for an hour if you can, but don’t let it turn to oil. All you need is a bowl, a wooden spoon, a dessert spoon, a sieve and a scales.

Buns
6 oz/170 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
6 oz/170 g soft butter
6 oz/170 g sugar
3 eggs
1 oz/30 g chopped walnuts
1 tsp caraway seed

Icing for the walnut buns
3 tbs icing sugar
1 tbs very strong black coffee or Irel coffee
walnut pieces to decorate


Set the oven to GM 4/350˚F/180˚C and line 2 bun trays with bun papers.
Makes about 24 buns.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the sugar, eggs, and butter. Beat these together until well blended and divide the mix in two parts add caraway to one half and the walnuts to the other half. Spoon a good dessert spoonful into each bun case you should get about 11 or 12 of each. Bake for about 15-20 minutes in the centre of the oven, the top will spring back when poked gently with a finger. Take out of the oven and put the buns onto a wire rack, leave to cool.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the coffee beat together to make a smooth thick paste. Spoon over the cooled walnut buns and decorate with walnut pieces.