Angel Cake
Page 14
I guess you never know.
*
We’re moving, and although I said I never wanted to again, this time I think it might be OK.
We are not going back to Krakow. We’re moving to Lark Lane, to the flat above Angel Cake, a flat with three bedrooms and a big living room and a kitchen where the sink doesn’t leak and the cupboard doors all work. There are new carpets and clean, pale, painted walls and the radiators are new and efficient, not rusty and rattly.
The flat above the shop has been empty since the end of April, when the last tenants moved out. Karen offered it to us, and Dad started work pretty much right away, painting the walls, putting up shelves. Mum made new curtains for the windows, a rag rug for the fireplace.
It’s not exactly like the whitewashed cottage I pictured in my mind, but still, it feels like home.
Dad is still shifting boxes and bin bags, with help from Ben and Nate and Tomasz. Tomasz has a removals business now, but this is one move he isn’t charging for.
Kazia and I have the attic bedrooms, up above the main bedroom and the living area. I let Kazia pick first, and I end up with the one at the back, with a soft blue carpet and a pine chest of drawers and a single bed with a bright blue duvet. I put my suitcase down and drift to the window, and my heart flips over.
There’s a back garden, a secret hideaway, green and lush and slightly overgrown. All that time I’ve spent at the cafe and I never realized…
I run down to the living room. ‘There’s a garden!’ I exclaim. ‘A proper garden!’
Dad laughs. ‘Good surprise, huh? I will grow vegetables and your mother will grow flowers, and all of us will have some green space, somewhere to relax.’
Downstairs, tucked in behind the staircase, I find the back door. I turn the key in the lock, step out on to a crooked gravel path and walk through towering clumps of greenery starred with blue and pink and gold. The spring sun warms my face, and as I look up I see the first swallows of the year swooping around the eaves, whirling and looping through the air like acrobats.
‘Swallows!’ I breathe.
When I turn back to the house, I see that the back door is painted a glossy red, like in the cottage I once imagined, and an unruly climbing rose is twining its way around the doorframe, its green and white buds still tightly furled, but ready, sometime soon, to open and flower. Dreams have a way of coming true, after all.
Karen and Dan appear in the doorway, carrying wine and lemonade and cake boxes. ‘C’mon, Anya!’ Dan says. ‘Flat-warming! Are you gonna show us around?’
On the path at my feet there is a single white feather, soft enough and pure enough to have fallen from an angel’s wing. I pick it up, smiling, and go inside.
Six Steps to ANGEL CAKE HEAVEN
INGREDIENTS …
2 ¼ cups plain flour CHOCOLATE ICING:
1 ⅓ cups sugar 150g butter – softened
2 large free‐range eggs 250g icing sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons very hot water
½ cup butter/margarine Chocolate buttons or your favourite sweets
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
YOU WILL NEED …
A cupcake baking tray, a mixing bowl, cupcake paper liners, a wooden spoon or electric mixer, a spatula and a sieve
(Ask an adult to help you use the whisk, preheat the oven and put the cakes in.)
Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Put paper cases in the cupcake tray.
Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Mix well.
Add the butter, milk and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute until thick and gooey, and add eggs. Beat for a further 1 minute on medium speed then 2 minutes on high speed.
Spoon cupcake mix into tray until ½ to ⅔ full and bake for 20–25 minutes. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
For the icing, beat together the butter and icing sugar. Mix the cocoa powder and water in a separate bowl.
Add the combined cocoa powder and water to the butter and sugar, beat until smooth and creamy then swirl over your angel cakes. Decorate with choccy buttons or any sweets to make your own delicious angel cake treats.