Thursday 28 January 2010

Magical Muffins

The children have been excited about these muffins coming up for a while now. There was something about the name that put me in the mind of the hallucinogenic 60s, but the kids has no such qualms!

This is the muffins prior to their magical transformation. I have to say it was an odd muffin recipe - rubbed in and a lot of milk - and I thought the actual cake part was bland and a little heavy.
But the fun was in the decoration! All three of my children were fired up by this, even rubbing their hands with anticipation. We mixed the icing, and I tried hard to find 'messy-mama' mode as we sloshed the food colouring. The results were a riot of joy, clour and kitsch.

We stuck with the theme and had magical poems, including elves riding the underground and a nymph and a goblin arguing over moon beads. I searched on-line and discovered the delightful "A Small Dragon" by Brian Patten. If you have a minute - literally, 58 seconds - do click on the link and listen to the author himself read it. It is wistful and a little sad; something I couldn't quite catch touched me. After I had read it and we had paused a moment, my little girl wondered aloud what might have become of the dragon. I didn't know. What does become of us when we need foods others can't provide?

1 comment:

Jane D. said...

I've loved having you share your baking through the book moments, thank you Gaynor x.