Fairy cake and sprinkles

Threading Together

I have very happy memories of baking with my children over 45 years years ago, when they were very small, standing on stools to reach the table, armed with baking utensils and oversized aprons.

Dusting the table with flour to roll out pastry, resulted in much laughter and clouds of flour from clapping hands that settled on face and hair.  Pastry off-cuts were twisted, screwed up, over-rolled and generally abused, before going into the oven.  The result was a small selection of strange shapes, all bearing streaks of grey and the odd currant or two.  It was our job as parents to feign enjoyment in eating one.  Many parents will relate to this!

Making fairy cakes was  a favourite activity, for it involved much licking of wooden spoons, dipping fingers in the mix, precariously (and very unevenly) putting a spoonful into each paper case in the baking tray.  Once baked and cooled, the real fun was spreading the water icing on the top, followed by multi-coloured sprinkles.  This was gleefully done, dropping the sprinkles from above, resulting in more on the table and surrounds, than on the small cakes.  These ‘escapees’ were retrieved with firm dabs of licked fingers then quickly eaten.

Such joyful memories of innocence, fun and laughter.  Whenever I see sprinkles on fairy cakes in the bakeries, I am still transported back to those times – but I’m sure that our cakes were bigger, brighter and better than the ones we see now!

Gwen Hedley