I love school cake stalls

I remember, back in the day, when I would accompany my parents to vote in Federal and state elections in church and school halls near our house.  Inevitably, there would be a sausage sizzle and a cake stall, sometimes if we were lucky there would be a 2nd hand toy or book stall too.

Then the food regulations changed in Victoria and it made it very difficult to sell cakes and slowly the cake stall disappeared.

When I moved to Canberra and finally had a chance to vote I was really excited at the prospect of the cake stall, but apparently it was not a tradition in the area I lived in and I was disappointed to find an empty school ground on election day.

I've not had the opportunity to vote in Australia since, as I've voted in Australian embassies overseas when the time came in 2004 (Germany) and 2007 (Japan).  Definitely no cake stalls then, but nor did I expect it.

Today I was pleasantly surprised by an impromptu cake stall at the local shops.  It's not an election day, but perhaps it was because of Mother's Day.  Regardless of the reason, I was happy to be able to buy a pair of orange and lemon cupcakes for the princely sum of $1.50.

It was a simple vanilla cupcake with basic icing sugar icing, but it was delicious to eat, while sitting out on the balcony sipping a coffee.