Airy Fairy Cake Pops: Local Girl Admits She Was Wrong

A lot of the time, I like to think I am right about stuff. I know, for example, that you should put the milk in the cup after the tea. I know that if you paint clear nail varnish on to the posts of cheap earrings they will no longer make your ears go large and purple. I know that if you are following a recipe and are missing an ingredient you can normally substitute it for something else without sending an emergency runner to the shop. All in all, I'm the smug one, who always gives advice, even when it's not wanted.

So I was pretty confident that cake pops - cannon balls of cake impaled on a stick, smothered in icing and assorted nuts and sprinkles - were never going to be a match for the cupcake. Just too gimmicky, another example of us rushing to follow what our healthy role models across the Atlantic decree to be the latest in baked goods trends. What's wrong with a cake? With icing on the top?

Anyway, then two cake pops arrived last night, courtesy of the chief Airy Fairy herself. And I did have to admit, they looked very nice, nestling in their pretty box, glancing admiringly at each other as they jostled for my attention. So being a good, kind person, and taking my duties as an Airy Fairy taster panellist very seriously, I ate one. And if my mouth hadn't been so full of cake, I would have eaten my harsh words about cake pops, for they are delicious.

Out of the two, the Naughty Nutella, rolled in chocolate icing and dipped in crushed nuts, was the more irresistable, but only by a whisker. The Very Vanilla, covered with white chocolate and pretty sprinkles (many of which now adorn my kitchen worktops) was a very close second. I had failed to realise that cake which has been rolled into a ball and cloaked in a thick layer of chocolate is the moistest cake in the known universe, producing a texture that manages to be light, sticky and substantial all at the same time. My only criticism? I found it hard to eat them off the sticks (hence the sprinkles all over the kitchen - I have visions of tiny mice in pink tutus having a field day with them later), so simply removed the stick and ate them like a big round cake.

You can find out more about these caketastic marvels at the AiryFairyCupCakes website; I attach a link so that Mr Liz may click through and see that they are also doing a sensible collaboration with gorgeous Didsbury shop The Flower Lounge for Valentine's Day. Now, if only I could learn how to draw a big Radio Times-esque circle aroud the items I particularly desire...