Easter 2013

As I sit writing this on Good Friday my thoughts have turned to my childhood. On this day, my mother would send me off to my grandparents’ house with a bag of warm hot cross buns which were only available at this time of the year and not, like today, when they can be bought all year round.  I was instructed to ring the bell and place the paper bag on the doorstep and run back home – it was, after all, the Easter bunny that left them, wasn’t it!? It was all part of our family’s Easter tradition. My sister and I were also so fortunate to receive a number of chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday including sometimes a giant shop display egg to share – my mother knew a confectioner’s rep I believe! We would nibble them in secret and see who could keep their eggs intact the longest. I remember that my big sister always seemed to win and it wasn’t for some years that I realised she would eat some of her egg and then rewrap it in the foil paper in such a way that it still looked whole. Such fond memories.

During my own daughter’s childhood at Easter we would make an egg hunt for her. My husband and I would spend a happy hour writing clues for the locations of the eggs which we had been hidden all over the house or garden and I’m sure she still remembers the challenge and the fun of this annual event. I wonder, in the future, whether she will continue with her own family’s Easter traditions?

I haven’t, this week, baked a large Simnel cake for us but have made an individual version for each patient at Cynthia Spencer Hospice. 100 grams of the cake mixture sat perfectly in the little loaf cases and cooked superbly in an hour. I decorated them with a little fondant icing and couldn’t resist placing a miniature chocolate egg on top. My clever designer daughter, Laura, made tags for me and they looked really pretty in their cellophane packages tied with ribbon. It’s a nice thought that the Clandestine Cake Club might make an Easter memory for someone outside the family this year.