PEOPLE confined to their homes in Horrabridge due to Covid-19 have been having their day brightened with deliveries of handbaked cupcakes.

The delicious iced morsels are baked by professional cakebaker Lesley Drayton and delivered by Methodist community outreach worker Ali Mansfield working with Horrabridge Helps, the village’s Covid-19 support group.

‘It has turned out to be so incredible and it is about so much more than a cupcake,’ said Ali. ‘With the lockdown we were well aware that people were going through so much behind closed doors and we needed a way to reach out to them. I had heard about Lesley who lives in Horrabridge and bakes these amazing cakes. She is phenomenal. I went to see her and said if I provided the ingredients would she bake the cupcakes, and she said no problem!

‘It started with 24 cakes and it has gone up and up each week — last week we delivered 105 cupcakes, 38 cupcake deliveries in one afternoon. People can nominate someone to receive them. I put a card in with them with a message from me, to let them know they are being cared for and are not on their own.

‘We have been able to care for people who are struggling with cancer, mental health problems and single parenthood, as well as people who are simply going through a hard time and finding this current situation tough, including one woman who had lost her husband and a young girl who had lost her dad.

‘It has been really great. I have had lots of help from people who live in the village. Julie Northam has been helping me deliver ­— she knows everyone — and I could not have done it without Lesley.’

The project has also been bolstered with £600 in donations from several families involved locally in the Methodist Church.

Lesley, who lives in Horrabridge, said she had been glad to help while business for her one-woman cakebaking operation Lesley’s Luscious Cakes was slow.

‘Because I’ve been sheltering during all this I couldn’t go out to help people here, so instead I offered my services to bake cakes,’ she said.

‘Ali buys me the ingredients and I bake them. We started off with fruit scones and cheese scones as well as doing individual quiches which people on their own could just put in the microwave. Then Ali said ‘would you be able to do some cupcakes? And it has gone from there — we did 105 last week!

‘It has really cheered everyone up, which is the main thing. It has kept me sane as well. Next we are going to be doing cream teas.’