Today is Lily’s 7th birthday and as a special treat her mother said she can go to Taylor’s Bakery for a birthday cake for the party later that night. Lily was so excited, Taylor’s was the best bakery in the city and they were so busy that people had to call months in advance for personalized items.

They pull up the bakery and the entire bakery is all ready for the summer festivities, “Father’s Day” brownies shaped like cigars, Mexican Wedding Cake cookies shaped like baseballs, and the red, white, and blue cupcakes for July Fourth were all sparkling in the main window. Lily couldn’t wait to get inside and choose her birthday treat.

“Good morning, Mr. Taylor”, Lily’s mother talks to the owner. “Do you have any birthday cakes that are ready serve a party of ten?,” Mr. Taylor says, “Hello Susan, yes I do have some cakes ready in that size, all it needs an inscription just write down what you would like it to say and I will have one of my staff take care of it for you.” Lily’s mother pays for the yellow cake with chocolate frosting and discusses the details with the clerk.

Meanwhile, Mr. Taylor spots Lily looking at some sugar sculptured pinwheels in the corner. “Well, hello there!” he says to Lily as he crouches down to her level. “What can I do for you today?” Lily tells him it’s her birthday today and she is 7 years old. “Wow, that is a special age,” he says. “I will have to check my recipe books for something extra special.”

“Want to help me look?”, as he gives Lily a wink and a nod from her mother. Mr. Taylor then takes Lily to small room in the back aside from the kitchen. In this room is a large island and some stools, along the wall is a large bookcase with many old cookbooks, some in English and others that Lily calls “scribbles” (Hebrew, Arabic) as well as many other languages.

Mr Taylor takes an old leather bound book from the shelf and places it on the island. “Hmmm..”as he gives Lily a concerned look while he keeps turning the pages. Then he stops, “There it is!” as he points down to page to Lily. “What?” Lily responds. “Flittertoot!”, Mr. Taylor says. “Flitterwood?” “Flittertoot!” he repeats. He leans toward Lily and looks in her eyes, “It’s the snack cake of the fairies”, he whispers. “FAIRIES!!” Lily shouts! “Shhhh” as he touches his finger to his lips. “They will hear you, we have to be careful.” “Unpredictable, they are, the fairies, they can appear at anytime and they are very fast. Fifty of them can run up quickly and just snatch this book off the table”.

“How is it made?”Lily whispers as her eyes scan the room looking for fairies. Mr. Taylor says, “magic” the ingredients themselves must be brought into this world from another realm he says. “We must manifest them” he says and the first thing we need is someone who is seven. “Hmmm, where can we find someone like that” he says as he looks around the room. “Me, me Lily says as she raises her hand, I can help”. “Oh, you are? Perfect!” he says as his eyes twinkle.

He tells her that in order to manifest the ingredients a seven year old is needed to think very hard and to have faith and believe in the fairies. If the person does not believe in fairies how can the ingredients come from the other dimension. Lily puts on her “thinking cap” and starts putting all her effort and focus on “manifesting” the ingredients. Mr. Taylor reads the list to Lily, he says: two hummingbird (aka chicken) eggs, a cup of milk from the milky way (cows milk), some snow taken from Jack Frost (flour), some pixie dust (sugar), sprite dust (baking powder) and lastly a fairy stick (vanilla stick). Mix all ingredients in a magic bowl and stir with a magic wand, he reads. Luckily, Mr. Taylor had his magic wand (wooden spoon) gifted to him by the fairies he says.

He then finds his fairy box (snack tins) and says to Lily he must go to his secret place and put the fairy boxes in the magic cabinet (oven) once the boxes are in the cabinet it will be transported to the land of the fairies and they will use their “magic” to create the “Flittertoot”. In 200 *nicules (*fairy time = 30 human minutes) the Flittertoot will be transported back to room they are in. Lily’s eyes are enlarged with amazement as Mr. Taylor continues. He then looks up at the clock and says, “We must wait now” Fairies do not like to be rushed in their work. He says wait for the sign from the fairies, he says they just whispered in his ear that they will come later that night to see Lily, if she believed. She said, “Yes, I believe, I believe” as she hears her mother’s voice in the other room telling her that it was time to leave.

Later that night at the party, Lily’s cake is brought out, and on the cake is a small plastic fairy, the sign? Lily wonders as she looks around if there are any others. Then she sees it, at the bottom of the main cake on either side, are two smaller cakes, about the size of a snack size Kit-kat bar. The Flittertoot!

If you leaned in real close on the Flittertoot the inscription said “Thank you” on one and “Believing in Us” on the other. Lily’s facial expression was one of pure awe, and wonder. And behind her in the corner of the room was Mr. Taylor with a twinkle in his eye and small little chuckle on his face. Who knows what is in store for Lily on her next birthday?