Lets be honest , who doesn't like cake ? .....What ? , you don't ? , sorry , run along now then , there's nothing I can say that you would ever want to hear (right now he's gone , lets continue)
As a child on Sundays our house was filled with the smell of baking. Mum would make several large cakes to be cut up for our lunch boxes during the week , coffee & walnut , Victoria Sandwich , rock cakes , fairy cakes , scones , carrot cake ...excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin!
As my Brothers grew older the cake stock only lasted until Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest & 'shop brought' cakes edged their way in along with Clubs, Kitkats & Wagon Wheels (bigger in those days of course)
One of my first memories was sitting by the worktop with Mum , rolling out bits of pastry , left over from a pie or something , dropping them on the floor , rolling again , cutting out & then presenting them for Dad to eat when he got in (he liked grey pastry with bits in , well at least he said he did !!)
As I got older , one of the first things I cooked at school was a Victoria sandwich (6/6/6/3 method of course) , followed by a Christmas cake with homemade marzipan & fondant snowman , although the short time we had for home economics at school meant most of it was actually done at home.
Then came the exciting bit , one of my older Brothers had done his chef training & decided that he wanted to specialise in patisserie , which for the uninitiated means CAKE !!
He won national prizes for his bread & his Swiss rolls & cake was frequently brought home from college for us all to enjoy , not to mention the homemade fresh doughnuts (hot with cinnamon sugar) and the yearly treat of hot cross buns (still a treat to this day)!
Then Mum , having decided that she was not going to pay out for 3 Birthday cakes in 2 months learnt how to decorate cakes , intricate icing , sugar flowers , swags , bows , frills , fiddly bits (technical term)and being the lovely Daughter I am , I decided to go with her to learn , something I regret to this day !!
I'm not saying that I dislike cake decorating (yes I am actually) but the bit I find annoying is that people eat my creations !
If people realised just how long each individual flower petal , stamen or fiddly bit took to do they would preserve the cake forever in a glass box , to stare at daily.
Having been to a wedding and seeing the flowers from a cake we'd done stuffed in a box , all broken up , it makes you wonder why you bothered !!
But still I like cake , I like eating cake more than making it , although my waistline has complaints on this issue and yes I know you are wondering, my favourite ever, ever cake ~ just has to be a split custard doughnut , fresh creme patisserie , lightly dusted with icing sugar and I'd better go now , the drool is making my keyboard damp. xxx
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