Reclaim the Fairy Cake!

Over the last 5 years the whole of Great Britain has been inundated with cake makers.
I am very partial to a cake or 4 so don't misunderstand me, I DO NOT have an issue with the cakes themselves. I DO however take issue with what these new batch of bakers are calling their creations .........CUPCAKES!!!!

Photo courtesy of  bakinginspiration.com

For at least the 44 years that I have been on this earth, these mini cakes, covered with icing, buttercream, hundreds & thousands and/or metallic sugar balls, have been a mainstay of every school fête, community events and kiddie parties.

They have been created by mums, grandmas, brownie troops and enthusiastic kids, and have been decorated with whatever could be found in the back of a deep kitchen cupboard, and for all this time, and probably a whole lot of years before I was born, they have been called FAIRY CAKES.

Photo courtesy of georgetowncupcake.com

So why do we now have a country full of 'cupcakes'?
The ever pervasive influence from our ex-colony, the good ol' U. S. of A. is the culprit. Someone, and there are a lot of claimants to this particular title, decided that if you took the humble fairy cake, gave it an unusual name such as Red Velvet or Lava Fudge, and then covered the top with various sickly sweet concoctions piled higher than the Eiffel Tower, then you could sell them for an obscene amount of money, to people with more money than sense (I only say this because this trend took flight in Beverley Hills!). 

As mentioned earlier Great Britain is full of bakers of all ages, so when this trend crossed the pond many people saw an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon and make a living doing something that they loved, but, and this is my big BUT, they allowed the American name to stay because, to be able to charge the big prices, they couldn't be seen to be related to the humble Fairy Cake.

My biggest objection to the cupcake name is that it's influence doesn't stop just at the fancy shops. Nowadays at the local fairs or the school fêtes the Fairy Cake has been usurped, and a whole generation of children think that the swirly topped, sponge creations, made to fit perfectly into a small hand are called Cupcakes. NO!!!!

Please, I beg of you all, can we keep our British names, don't let foreign invaders take over, and if you are from the land of the free, we like you, we really do, but please can you keep your Americanisms of our great language to yourselves.

To make up for your corruptions of our words, dear Americans it's time we gave you one back, so here it is. You can call an umbrella an umbrella if you wish, but over here it's called a Brolly. Enough said!
Toodles
Karen Lee

(I wrote this article a little while ago on another blog, but I think this is the more appropriate place for it.)