The Cosy Little Cupcake Van: A deliciously feel-good romance

by Annette Hannah

  Angela’s shoulders slumped. ‘Oh don’t worry about that; it’s fine,’ she said, about to snatch it away. But Camilla had got to it first and when she opened and saw the burnt offerings inside it she laughed until tears streamed down her face. Angela looked mortified but had to catch on to Camilla’s laugh.

  ‘I’m sorry but the oven was useless, and the truth is, I can’t bake to save my life.’ She was blushing furiously and looked about to cry.

  ‘It’s a good job for you that I’m an excellent teacher then isn’t it? When can you start?’ asked Camilla. She knew when somebody needed a chance in life and this woman wanted to work to get a home for herself and her child and there was much to be admired in that. She was determined to do what she could for these lovely people who had suffered awful abuse and needed help. Angela hugged her warmly and they made arrangements for her to start the next day and she was welcome to bring Tillie with her.

  Camilla had stocked up on toys and puzzles for Tillie to play with when she came round and Camilla started by teaching Angela how to pipe the roses on top of the cupcakes that she’d prebaked that morning. She was pleased to see that she was a dab hand at that and picked it up really quickly. So, in the afternoon she shared her recipe for chocolate cupcakes and walked her through all of the instructions for making them and they turned out perfectly. Angela was delighted as was Tillie who became chief taster and declared them ‘very yummy’.

  Camilla laughed. ‘I should use that as the tagline for my cupcakes: “Camilla’s Cupcakes are Very Yummy”.’

  ‘I didn’t want to blame my tools but the oven in the place where we’re living is really bad and it’s so lovely here to be able to use all the proper equipment and a good recipe, so I’m thinking maybe I’m not such a disaster area after all,’ said Angela.

  Camilla showed her how to assemble the cupcake bouquets. One set of cupcakes were decorated as daffodils and the other as red roses. Again Angela picked it up straight away and Camilla was delighted that the jobs were being done in half the time. She now felt able to make some cake deliveries knowing that she could leave cupcakes in the oven, other cupcakes being iced and a cupcake bouquet being created with beautiful pastel-coloured flowers. She was happy to be leaving her business in Angela’s capable hands.

  Having loaded up the cupcake van Camilla first headed into town to deliver the bouquets. When delivering her cakes she always turned on the chimes before knocking on the door. The novelty of the van and the beauty of the unique gift she delivered brought smiles to the recipients’ faces and it warmed her heart to have brightened up their day. Next stop was to deliver the Signal Box Café’s order of cupcakes, the number of which was growing day by day. Lucy had popped out of Railway Cottage to help her to unload the van.

  ‘Oh that smell gets me every time. I just can’t resist and I’m going to have to keep three of these back for after our dinner tonight,’ Lucy said as she breathed in the sweet vanilla scent.

  ‘As you know there’s plenty more where they came from and I’ve now got some help so do feel free to increase your order at any time.’

  ‘That’s great and I must say you look like you’ve had a weight lifted from your shoulders.’

  ‘That’s exactly how I feel. It’s like for the first time in ages I’ve been able to lift my head up and take a look at what’s going on around me.’

  ‘Okay well, I’m just testing the waters here, but I’ve had a request for a wedding vow renewal cake. I think only you will do it justice.’ She bit her lip, obviously unsure of how her request would go down.

  Camilla felt her heart palpitate and took a deep breath. ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’m quite ready, although I did end up enjoying doing Ron’s daughter’s cake.’

  ‘Look, I completely understand and believe me if I thought it was too much or that you weren’t ready then I wouldn’t dream of asking you but I thought as you’ve got some help now you might be able to think about your masterpieces again. Remember how much you used to love creating them?’

  Camilla nodded and smiled. ‘Yes, they were my pride and joy and I could always get lost in my thoughts as I moulded and shaped those buildings and little people out of icing.’ Her body fought against itself with the stress of letting people down versus the absolute joy she got from cake making.

  Lucy continued, ‘You would be doing me a huge favour as this cake is needed for the weekend and the lady who was meant to be doing it has taken ill.’

  Despite the pterodactyls hatching in her stomach she spoke quickly, ‘Who’s it for and what sort of cake do they want?’

  Lucy smiled at her. ‘It’s for Mr and Mrs Ives and they would like a replica of their shop: Odds’n’Sods.’

  Camilla’s heart fluttered and despite her nervousness she knew she couldn’t turn it down. She had always been a huge admirer of the beautiful quaint Victorian shops in market square and she knew it would make a magnificent cake with its windows filled with all sorts of curios. It was a dream of a job and she could already see it in her head, complete with beams and a little version of Mr and Mrs Ives standing in front of it. Maybe he would be carrying his wife and she would have a tiny bouquet in her hand. She could probably even fit the fountain in Market Square in too. So, with nervous trepidation she nodded at Lucy.

  ‘Well as that was my view from when I stayed at the B&B, I reckon I could manage it from memory. Okay. I’ll do it.’

  Lucy hugged her tightly. ‘Thank you so much, my wonderful friend. You are a lifesaver and Mr and Mrs Ives will be so happy you’ve agreed as they wanted it to be you from the beginning.’

  Camilla hugged her friend, climbed back into the cupcake van and tootled off to buy some supplies for the new cake. She felt a new sense of excitement with this job. Her mind was freeing up some space to enable her to think about other things.

  Camilla was looking forward to getting into the habit of breathing a sigh of relief when Angela turned up for work. She still couldn’t quite believe her luck that she’d got such a good assistant. She hoped that Angela and her little one would soon be able to move to a place of their own. Camilla had discovered how it felt to be homeless but was lucky enough to have been surrounded by wonderful friends who had helped her to not only get back on her feet but also to create a solid base for her feet to stand on and feel more secure. Helping Angela was good for her too as she felt she was able to give something back. This felt like a giant step on the road to her recovery.

  She arrived back at Cupcake Cottage just as Angela was leaving. She thanked her for all of her help and Angela hugged her, her eyes glassy.

  ‘You don’t know how much you’ve helped me,’ she said, her voice thick with emotion.

  Camilla hugged her back. ‘Ditto,’ she replied.

  Chapter 26

  The sunshine brought a promise of spring as it poked its nose above the trees that Camilla could see over her garden fence. She’d made an early start today and was standing in the orangery putting together ten cupcake bouquets. They had really taken off and she loved creating them. She had a note pinned to the noticeboard with the requirements of each one and the table was completely covered in all varieties of iced cupcake flowers. She used green wooden skewers as the flower stems and then wrapped them in cellophane and pretty tissue paper in complementary colours. The one she was working on at the moment was made of large pink gerberas, but she also had daisies, one of pink roses, one of red and the majority were of a colourful selection of spring blooms.

  Each bouquet would have one of her business cards displayed with the loving message from the purchaser written on it. Camilla felt a thrill when writing the messages out, as though she was party to hundreds of secrets: the start of new relationships, the affirmation of long-time love, apologies for stupid behaviour and cheeky messages from secret lovers. She could let her imagination run wild whilst writing these cards, imagining the stories that went on behind the scenes. She wished she could be a fly on the wall after she delivered them, but she was just a
tiny piece of their lives and she was thrilled that her creativity could bring such happiness.

  She sang at the top of her lungs to George Exra on the loudspeaker whilst baking and constructing her masterpieces. Luckily, she heard the dinger on the oven so went to retrieve her sponges. She still had to fulfil the orders for the Signal Box Café and the many supermarkets that she now baked for, as well as one day start back on the larger themed cakes, providing of course that she could control the anxiety she felt when making them. She was beginning to look forward to making the cake for Mr and Mrs Ives and had decided to film it for her vlog.

  She set down her sponges to cool and replenished the ovens with the next batch of chocolate sponges. As soon as they were done she stored her bouquets carefully in large boxes and placed them in the back of the cupcake van, grabbed her delivery list and set off down the lane. Seeing the happy, surprised and amazed faces on the people to whom she delivered made all the hard work worthwhile.

  Once all her jobs had been done, Camilla got ready for her new venture that she was stupidly excited about. Since meeting Angela, Camilla was in awe of her. She’d watched her grow in confidence with every day. Not just in personality but even in the way she held herself, she reminded her so much of her own mum for bringing her up single-handedly.

  Angela had told her all about the other women in the shelter and their children and she really wanted to help. Whilst visiting Lucy one day they’d been discussing it and Jackson had piped up with the perfect suggestion. So today was the first Mother and Child Baking Session, and Camilla couldn’t wait.

  On the way there Camilla pulled up outside Railway Cottage and put the chimes on. The door burst open and Jackson flew out of the house shouting goodbye to his mum with one arm in his jacket and a biscuit hanging out of his mouth.

  ‘Hi, Auntie Camilla,’ he said as he jumped in the passenger seat.

  ‘Hi, darling, I’m so glad you suggested this, Jackson. I’m really excited.’

  ‘Me too,’ he replied. ‘I can’t wait.’

  They arrived at the shelter and began to unpack the two large-lidded plastic boxes of ingredients. Angela met them and introduced them to five mums and eight children ranging from eight months old to twelve years. Jackson was extremely helpful handing out the bowls and wooden spoons.

  ‘Hi, everyone, it’s lovely to meet you all. Thank you for allowing us to come and bake with you. Today we thought we would start with half of you making cupcakes and the other half truffles, then we can swap over so you all get a chance at making both. How does that sound?’

  ‘Good,’ came the replies in excited voices.

  Camilla and Jackson helped the children to weigh out the ingredients for the cakes and place the paper cupcake cases on the trays. Angela had to light the oven because it was very temperamental. A sullen young girl walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water. ‘Hi, Jenny,’ said Angela. ‘Are you not joining in the baking session?’

  ‘Nah,’ said the girl, ‘I’m going to watch telly instead.’

  ‘Hi, Jenny,’ said Jackson, his cheeks flushed.

  ‘Oh hi. I don’t live here, you know. We’re just staying for a while.’ Her face was beetroot. ‘I suppose you’re going to tell all the other kids now?’

  ‘No,’ said Jackson. ‘Why would I do that?’

  Jenny shrugged but the look on her face showed that that wasn’t what she expected him to say.

  ‘Did you hear Miss Barton burp in class today?’ He laughed. ‘It was like this.’ He made a fake burping sound.

  ‘Yeah, that was so gross,’ replied Jenny. ‘She sounded like a warthog.’

  ‘Oh, do you two know each other from school?’ asked Camilla.

  ‘Yes,’ they both answered together.

  ‘Do you want to help me show the little ones how to make the truffles? They’re really easy to make and they taste delicious. We’ve got some of my Auntie Camilla’s cake and we mix it with melted chocolate then roll it in chocolate strands or hundreds and thousands.

  Jenny thought about it for a second, and glanced at her mum who nodded at her.

  ‘Okay then,’ she said.

  ‘Okay first you need to wash your hands.’

  Camilla met Jenny’s mum’s eyes and returned her smile as she bounced her two-year-old on her knee to the sound of Jackson and Jenny laughing and chatting away.

  By the end of the session, despite the oven turning itself off three times, each of the children had half a dozen cupcakes, lots of truffles and huge smiles on their faces.

  ‘Jackson was a real tonic for Jenny tonight. She had lots of fun. Thanks for doing this. It was like a lovely ray of sunshine for us.’

  ‘You’re absolutely welcome, Angela. Shall I come back in, say, a month’s time and we can try biscuits or something?’

  ‘That would be amazing. Thanks again.’

  ‘Come on, Jackson,’ shouted Camilla. He and Jenny came to the door still chatting non-stop and laughing.

  ‘Jenny’s mum said she can come to mine for tea in a couple of days,’ he said, his face animated as he jumped back into the seat of the cupcake van.

  ‘Oh, that’s lovely, Jacks.’

  ‘Next time can I bring my camera and film the session?’

  ‘Ah I’m afraid not, Jackson. I don’t think that would be allowed.’

  ‘Why?’ he asked, ever inquisitive.

  ‘Because some of the children haven’t got very nice dads and they’ve had to leave them for one reason or another, and they’re not allowed to know where they live.’

  ‘That’s horrible,’ said Jackson. ‘I noticed that quite a lot of their toys were broken so I’m going to sort out some of my toys to give them when I get home.’

  ‘That’s really kind of you,’ replied Camilla. Her heart melted at the tears she could see in his eyes. What a compassionate and caring young man he was.

  Camilla had had her own taste of homelessness too. She felt she needed to do more to help those women and children. Maybe she could mention thecharity on her vlog, she’d had quite a few hits especially since she added the conversion of the cupcake van and the making of the cupcake bouquets.

  Chapter 27

  Distractions were plentiful: the cupcake orders, the charity event, attending fetes and farmers’ markets in the cupcake van, and now with the strong possibility of celebration cakes being back on the agenda. Camilla realised she hadn’t checked in on Auntie Edie for a little while, so she packed a selection of cupcakes into a box and set off in the cupcake van to her house. As she pulled up outside she turned on the chimes as she knew how it made Auntie Edie laugh to hear them. She knocked on the door and eventually heard slippered feet shuffling down the hallway. The door opened slightly, only as far as the chain would allow, and Edie’s face came into view through the opening, she could hear Bella and Bertie squawking loudly from their cage. Bella shouting ‘hello’ and Bertie swearing like a trooper.

  ‘Hello, darling.’ She opened the door wider and pulled Camilla into a hug.

  ‘Hi, Auntie Edie, special delivery – I’ve brought you some cupcakes.’

  ‘Oh, that’s lovely of you. Thank you. Let me go and put the kettle on.’

  Camilla followed her down the hall to the kitchen.

  ‘I’ve got a new flavour of cupcake I’d like you to try. It’s called Tropical Tease and I think you’ll love it.’

  Auntie Edie made the tea and Camilla put the cakes on a plate and followed her into the living room. The old lady looked out of the window at the cupcake van.

  ‘Ah, remember when you were a little girl and the ice cream man would park outside and I would send you out with some pennies for a ninety-nine for you and an oyster shell for me? Seeing your lovely van has just reminded me. Where have the years gone? Then your mum would call you in for your dinner and I’d have to tell you to shush as I’d be in trouble if you didn’t eat it all.’

  ‘I do remember,’ said Camilla. ‘And I used to share my ice cream with Bertie. Those were
happy days, weren’t they? I remember we used to have little afternoon tea parties here with my mum and I would bake the cakes.’

  ‘Yes, we did and now look at you: all grown up and those cupcakes smell delicious. Your mum would be so proud of you right now.’

  ‘Thanks, Auntie Edie, I really hope so. You’re my only connection to her so I’m sure you’d know.’

  ‘I definitely do know, my darling. You’ve handled yourself with so much dignity about this whole debacle with the house and just look what you’ve achieved. A home and a business to be proud of; you’re amazing just like your mum. Now, which is the coconut one? I’m going to have to try that first. And you will stay for dinner won’t you?’

  ‘I’d love to, thank you – that’s if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Have you seen anything of Mister Gorgeous lately?’ asked Edie with buttercream on her top lip.

  ‘I don’t know who you mean,’ Camilla replied, a cheeky grin on her face.

  ‘You know exactly who I mean, that Canadian hunk of a man.’

  ‘I did see him briefly but it was a bit of a disaster if I’m honest.’

  ‘Why? What on earth happened?’

  Camilla filled her in on all the gory details whilst Edie ploughed through her cupcake.

  ‘Well that will all blow over, it sounds like a storm in a teacup. So what was in the bag he gave you?’ she asked.

  Camilla rummaged in her bag and pulled out the cookery book that she and her mum had used for years and years, stained with butter, egg and cake mix, favourite recipes dog eared and the cover beaten. An item worthless to everybody else on the planet but to her it was priceless.

  ‘Oh how lovely.’

  Camilla’s eyes had filled, ‘I never thought I’d see it again, I burst out crying when I saw it, I could practically see the memories playing out in front of me like a hologram as I flicked through the pages.’ She hugged it to her chest.

  ‘I wonder where it was.’

  ‘I presume it got stuck in a kitchen drawer or something, thank God’