THE JOY OF BAKING

Our lovely neighbour’s daughter, Rachael, managed to get us some flour this week, a scarce commodity in these days, so I felt the need to make a cake this morning.  I know I shouldn’t really be eating cake, but I think in these difficult and challenging times, we need to pamper ourselves a little - sometimes a slice of cake hits the spot - as does chocolate - and I’m sure many of you will agree.

You may know that we and our lovely neighbours, Lynn and Mike, have Afternoon Tea every day at 4 p.m. and although it was a wet and miserable day yesterday, we still met up, underneath our carport, keeping the prescribed 2 metres and more apart.  Of course, as it is new, it is perfectly dry under there, but it can be rather chilly as the wind whips around, so although I don’t usually break the rules of Blip, I thought you might be amused to see how I was “togged up”  for our tea yesterday.  Being a man who doesn’t feel the cold, Mr. HCB had no scarf, no gloves (I was wearing a pair of my fingerless gloves, which you can’t see), and he wasn’t even wearing socks - it made me shiver just to look at him!

Lynn had made some bread pudding so for two days we have had that with our cuppa, but today we will have Mincemeat Cake - and I hope it tastes as good as it looks and smells.  I took a shot whilst I was “whizzing it up” with my hand mixer, and thought this looked like the “Cookie Monster”, so this is for my dear Blip friend, LSquare, who is the "Queen of Pareidolia".  I had to improvise with the tin though, as this should really be made in a round tin, but earlier this year I gave all my cake tins to my friend, Sue MacDonald, thinking I wouldn’t be making cakes after losing all my weight, but I think the same recipe will be OK as a traybake.

I was listening to “Girls About Town”, renamed for the lockdown as “Girl Not About Town” or "GNAT" for short and was interested to hear an interview I did last year with Sue MacDonald, about the Community Defibrillator outside The Jovial Monk Pub at The Ridge in North Swindon, the funds for which were raised by the Ridge Coffee Club.  This was prompted because Jo, the Presenter, had heard that a man had died at a Sainsbury’s store in Swindon recently, after having a heart attack, despite the Wiltshire Air Ambulance attending, but sadly there was no defibrillator at this store.  

It was sunny when we first got up this morning, but it’s now raining hard, but I think the plants will still be grateful.  Keep well and stay safe.

I love this quote and it could equally apply to Afternoon Tea with cake:

“Seize the moment;
     remember all those women
          on the Titanic
               who waved off the dessert cart!”
Erma Bombeck