Faery Cake.

For today 'tis Midsummer and thoughts turn to faeries and other magikal beings..........

"Faerie contains many things beside elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants or dragon; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon the sky; and the earth and all things that are in it; tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted"
 J.R.R.Tolkien

A few weeks ago I discovered the work of Richard Dadd through the publicity given to the recently published Broadmoor Revealed by Mark Stevens. Dadd [1817-1886] was a Victorian artist who is likely to have suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. In 1843 he murdered his father and was incarcerated firstly in Bethlem Hospital [better known as Bedlam] and later as one of the first patients in Broadmoor. [info from Wiki].  Thankfully for us now, those who cared for him had the foresight to allow him to paint so that we are left to admire his legacy. I am enthralled by the detail of his work and intrigued by the disturbing nature of some of his images. A whimsical Arthur Ransome he most certainly is not. These examples particularly caught my eye.

The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke

Puck

Contradiction Oberon and Titania

And to the cake? This is my wonky elderflower cake that I  baked as my contribution towards the merry Solstice celebration held with dearest chums last eve. I used some of my homemade cordial in it.

Arilx