From Mother with Love; The Fairy Cake Years

Both my my brother and I have birthdays in September, which proved to be a tricky mix of excitement and disappointment as young kiddies. This is due to the fact that the English school autumn term begins in September so we would be so looking forward to our birthdays coming up after the summer holidays but also have the dreaded black cloud of school starting looming over. So this meant that every year are birthday would have to be celebrated with a day at school, a day beginning at 8am, in an itchy uniform, filled with joys of double maths, late homework, french verbs and spelling tests.

But bless our dear Mother, she could feel our pain and so every year, come September she would bake birthday fairy cakes for my brother and I, and our entire school year to enjoy at break time. Now I say fairycakes and not cupcakes. Fairy cakes are quiessentially english creations. They are small and dainty, perfectly sized to fit in the palm of a child's hand. Light, fluffy and sweet. Sweet enough to be wanting more and never ever falling into the sickly catergory. She would make 36 for me and 36 for my brother. Beautifully crisp and golden on top with that brilliantly sunny yellow of airy cakey goodness inside; revealed once biten into- and delicately spread with a shiny icing glaze in blues and greens for the brother and pinks and yellows for me. No nuts, no fuss, just a lot of love.

The fairycakes are intrinsic with fond memories within our family, circled with giggles, cuddles and brought sunshine on rainy days. They can put a smile on the face of everyone, even the grumpiest, most stone-hearted fellow would find his mouth up-turning. I'm positive these gems will be a best seller at Half Moon.