When I was young very few people had parties, and if they did it was generally in their own house with the usual sandwiches, sausage rolls, fizzy juice then ice-cream and jelly for pudding. Simple, kid pleasing food. I can't recall anyone having a party every single year and it was not presumed that if it was someone's birthday that there would be an invitation winging it's way to you.
When I became a Mum I never felt the need to have parties for the girls, when they were really small we would maybe have my parents round, but that would be it. They were not really bothered till they went to school and it all seemed to change.
It then became the done thing to have a party, and as time went on the parties changed, long gone was the way I remembered and in came McDonalds parties, Bouncy castle parties, Fairy parties, and Bowling parties. It seemed every child had a party and each would be different. It was now expected to have a party and I felt saddened that the children that could not afford a party would often not make a fuss of their birthday as they did not want to highlight the fact that they were not having a party.
Thankfully I have noticed a shift again and not so many parties are going on, and often children just have a get together with a few good friends and have a nice time together.
My eldest is not a fan of cake at the best of times and although I tried to tempt her with a chocolate cake she did not want one. My youngest is like me and loves cakes and all the food you should not eat. She only wanted a victoria sponge for her cake so that is what she got, but not just any victoria sponge. I had a disaster with one layer so I made another batch and ended up making a triple layer sponge with chocolate spread, pink cake, pink butter icing and topped with fluffy yellow butter icing. She refused the maltesers and mallows on the top and instead opted for sprinkles.
Victoria Sponge
100 g (4 oz) margarine
100 g (4 oz) caster sugar
2 medium eggs
100 g (4 oz) Self Raising Flour
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 Heat oven to 180ºC, 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Grease an 18 cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.
2 Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour with each.
3 Gently fold in remaining flour.
4 Place in prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes in 2 tins or 40-45 minutes in one tin.
5 When cool, fill with jam or cream. Dust with icing sugar.
