FANTABULOUS FAIRY BREAD
“Come up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread 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.”
Robert Louis Stevenson’s
A Child’s Garden of Verses
A Child’s Garden of Verses
The term Fairy Bread conjures up visions of lighter then air loaves of enchantment. What we found after a little snooping on the Internet is that Fairy Bread is actually a beloved snack from Australia and New Zealand, which all ages go gaga over. The recipe: White bread slices spread with butter or margarine, and then topped off with multi-colored sprinkles. Butter and sugar…what’s not to love?
We also discovered the mania behind Fairy Bread. On one of several Facebook sites devoted to Fairy Bread, (462,060 people “liked” this particular site), fans weren’t afraid to go on (and on) about their love affair with the stuff. We’d never seen so many adjectives for tasty! Quite a few volunteered ideas of how they personalized the sweet treat to excite their own particular palate. Some toasted their bread, or substituted a healthier wheat bread to offset the guilt of eating butter encrusted with sugar. Some opted for covering the bread with peanut butter, honey, grape jelly, Nutella or even a reduced fat spread rather than sticking to butter. The toppings were as varied as clear sugar crystals, chocolate shavings, or nuts and provided a good way of using up leftover holiday decorating sprinkles. Some even used cookie cutter or geometric shapes to glam up the appearance of their “glitter bread.”
It’s no surprise that this delightful dessert is a big hit at kids’ parties “down under.” In addition to being inexpensive to throw together, and immediately gratifying when eaten, Fairy Bread is something kids can make themselves. That is, if you don’t mind the little ones sporting a butter knife. Steps are: Cut off crusts of white bread/spread on butter or other adherent of choice/ apply sprinkles (might be easier to put sprinkles in a shallow plate and than lay bread on top, aka, “dredge” method)/ cut the bread into desired shapes/arrange shapes on a colorful plate. There you have it. Some supervision might be a good idea if you don’t want to have hundreds and thousands of errant sprinkles all over the kitchen, especially on the floor. Eating sprinkles…good. Walking on them with shoes or bare feet…annoying!
Kids and adults are fans, but do fairies eat Fairy Bread? There is no conclusive evidence one-way or the other. But just the presence of Fairy Bread, with its kaleidoscope of colored candy toppings, is a sure to way to lure fairies into your kitchen. If you want some company in your kitchen, check out the adorable My Little Kitchen Fairies, figurines guaranteed to get into any mischief when left unsupervised in the cook’s domain.
Do you have a favorite fairy recipe of your own? Please post your recipies in our comments section for all to share and see!
