Tiny fairy cakes & a Labour weekend BBQ with friends

This Labour weekend we enjoyed the wonderful company of Steph and Francis (multi-talented nannies, early child-hood educators, superb baby-sitters and house-sitters). They stopped by for a BBQ on Sunday ‘avo along with an old friend of ours, John, who has recently returned to Welly for a while. John brought his son, Billy, with him. Billy is Charli’s age and all the children had tremendous fun on the trampoline, in the garden and being entertained by Steph and Francis (thank you!). Billy is very musical and asked me to play some tunes on the piano. He sat alongside me on the piano stool and sang along to his favourite Disney songs, which was really special.

After John and Billy left we got out the Sing Star and decided that Steph and Francis should stop over the night (the drink was flowing – much to my envy!).

On Monday morning breakfast was quickly followed by the baking of tiny fairy cakes (a sugar rush was indeed required for some, along with a large pot of tea!). Here’s some pics of the baking in action (recipe follows):

Recipe (thanks to Usbourne Activities, Fairy Cooking by Rebecca Gilpin):

For the fairy cakes:
1 medium egg
50g self-raising flour
40g soft margarine
40g caster sugar
small paper cases

For the icing:
50g icing sugar
about 1 tablespoon of warm water
pink food colouring
small sweets for decorating

1. Break the egg into a mug. Then, sift the flour into a bowl and add the egg, margarine and caster sugar.
2. Stir everything together well, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
3. Using a teaspoon, spoon the cake mixture into the paper cases until each case is just under half full.
4. Bake the cakes for about 12 minutes, then carefully take them out of the oven. Lift them onto a wire rack to cool.
5. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the water and mix it in with a metal spoon until the icing is smooth.
6. If you like, spoon the mixture into separate bowls and add a couple of drops of different food colouring to each. Mix it in well.
7. Using a teaspoon, put a little icing onto the top of each cake. Then, use the back of the spoon to spread out the icing.
8. Decorate the cakes, then leave the icing to set.