Janet E Davis

Cupcakes connections

This Friday and Saturday, I will be making cupcakes.

They will be sold for charitable purposes: to help a little towards connecting young people in Newcastle with people living a much tougher life in Romania, and to help them in practical ways. I will be working hard (trying to ignore my bad back and various inflamed joints) to make cupcakes that smell enticing and are decorated (probably quirkily) in ways that shout “Buy Me!” These will be cupcakes created out of caring.

I have made such cupcakes for charitable sales before. When I made some for a different event, I was surprised (in a delighted way) when a woman rushed up to me to express appreciation of my cupcakes from the charity sales. Apparently, my style of cupcake decoration is quirky enough to be distinctive - and they like the taste of them too.

I started making such cupcakes at a time when I was unable to cook a meal for myself. I had been ill early in 2009, and as my physical condition very slowly improved, severe depression hit me. Cooking meals for myself was far too difficult, and I was not worth it. One day, I thought it would be quite fun to make some cupcakes and give them to friends who had been helpful when I was so ill. People on Twitter encouraged me.

As I baked, the cupcakes connected me with my distant past and a time when I knew I was loved and safe. I remembered being a very small child, helping my Gran to make fairy cakes and, I think, the more traditional little cupcakes with flat fondant-iced tops. The friends enjoyed the cakes, and when they asked if I would mind baking some for a charity event, I felt a bit better that I could do something to contribute. Eventually, many months later, it helped me to start cooking meals for myself again.

Making cupcakes helped to connect me to my creative side and even to my sense of humour as I tried to think of different ways of decorating them so that they were less ‘girly’ than many are and would appeal to boys. One of my early batches included icing the symbols for chemical elements on them.

This weekend, I may ice hex codes for colours on some. There may be lilac icing (possibly), strong blue icing and sugar butterflies (probably), and black fondant icing with matt silver stars and shiny silver dust (definitely).

I will be creating quirky cupcakes with caring, that will help in a tiny way to connect a few people across two countries and cultures.

If only we could use cupcakes to create more good connections…

PS I also had a go at making iced biscuits a few weeks ago (lemon icing on spiced orange biscuits) - picture below.

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Photographs of the cupcakes are on Flickr in the Charity cupcakes March 2012 set.