Fairy Bread – An Uber Recipe

  Today folks, we are taking fairy bread to new heights. For those of you reading from a country other than Australia or New Zealand, fairy bread is a kid’s party food absolutely ubiquitous with the under 9 set, and an essential part to any “bring a plate” event for children. What is this magical delicacy, you ask? What, pray-tell, do fairies eat? Well, apparently they eat sliced white bread, generously buttered (or margarined) and liberally coated with sprinkles/hundreds and thousands/nonpareils. Now, I know I might sounds a little sneering here, but truth be told, I have nothing against fairy bread. It’s a tasty treat, when real butter is used. Kind of like cinnamon toast on acid. Which is fine, tasty as, and would leave any child happily bouncing off the walls for hours afterwards (if I recall correctly). Here’s the thing, though, right? I’m not buying that this is what Fairies eat. Fairies are some utterly magical creatures. They live in natural areas, such as the woods, the mountains, in coastal areas and rainforests. They hold court, usually with a King and Queen, and several hundreds of courtiers, along with jesters, advisers, jugglers, and I’m assuming, chefs and wait staff. Chefs who’s sole purpose in the Fairy realm is to delight the King and Queen with new and ever more magical ways of consuming the fruits of their forest/mountain/coastal/rainforest homes. So…white bread? With butter? And sprinkles? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his poem “Fairy Bread” I highly doubt he was thinking about sprinkle bread either…

Come up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy ready to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children ,you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell So, in order that we might better emulate the eating habits of the Fairies, I shall be posting my recipes for the three delicious variations above over the next few days. Lucky for us, these work as a brilliant snack, and I think are TOTALLY elegant enough to serve at something like a high tea. Of course, kids will love them too, and you have the added bonus of cramming some nutrition into them at the same time. EVERYONE WINS in Fairy Bread land. Stay tuned peeps!

– Sarah.