Let them eat cake

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Posted at 12:02PM, 06 February 2009 by Lulu Grimes - Deputy editor, olive magazine

I love baking, and I particularly love making cakes. I'd make 'em all the time if there wasn't a lack of people in the immediate vicinity of my kitchen to eat the end results (the olive office excepted). Cake, when I make it at home, will never be wasted, but only the two-year-old will eat slice after slice without any frisson of guilt or regret. (I know I shouldn't feel guilty about eating, but a slab of well-frosted carrot cake is not exactly light in calories, and I don't believe in low-calorie pale imitations of the real thing.)

Are there still people over the age of 15 who happily eat cake every day?

I'm thinking about cake at night as well. My bedtime reading at the moment, Jane Brocket's Cherry cake and ginger beer, is a collection of recipes based on food in children's books. Well-written descriptions of food can reignite an appetite if you are remotely peckish, especially at 11pm. Just William, The Famous Five, Anne of Green Gables and Milly Molly Mandy all ate cake for tea. Lashings of it. The adults ate their fair share too. I wonder, are there many people out there who always have a cake in the tin should the need for a cup of tea with a little something arise? Are there still people over the age of 15 who happily eat cake every day?

There is no lack of cake out there, so someone must be eating it. Tearooms and bakeries are hip, stalls piled with chocolate brownies and cupcakes dot farmers markets and there are plenty of recipes to tempt. Take the baking supplement on this month's olive or the over 200 recipes on this website.

So who is out there baking? And who is eating the fruits of your labour? Do you always have a cake on the go or do you only knock one out for a birthday or celebration? And what is your favourite recipe ever? I mean to make more cakes from now on and stuff the consequences. Anyway, that's why the elastic waistband was invented.

Comments

Ellie Reade

6 February 2009, 1:46PM
Ellie Reade

I make cakes on a semi regular basis - the tip to not expanding your own waistline is to share with your family or work colleagues. I personally find baking one of life's pleasures and helps alleviate stress (even more so when when you see others enjoy the end results). I've become well known for my carrott cake, apple tarts and as for my Rich Fruit cake! My nan always had a cake ready for Sunday teatime - it's not the same without!

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Aedara

6 February 2009, 3:20PM
Aedara

I adore baking but I just don't do it anymore except for special occasions because if I did I would literally eat half of what I made on the day I make it and its just stupid to complain about an expanding waistline and persist with making the guilty culprit every week. Maybe one day when I just give up caring about my trouser size I'll get back in the business. My mum used to make cakes all the time at home there was always a cake tin full and a piece of homemade cake in my lunchbox every day. I miss those days. Cake is by my reckoning the best thing in the entire world (foodwise anyway).

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marie northants

6 February 2009, 4:18PM
marie northants

i make cakes quite often with my 5 yr old daughter who loves licking the bowl!!! However theres just the two of us so end up giving to friends and family.We made a lemon drizzle cake this afternoon its lovely mmmmmmmmmmmm

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Girl Flower

6 February 2009, 5:08PM
Girl Flower

I love baking too.. Cakes, tarts, cupcakes, anything but as it is just me and my other half, and he doesnt have a sweet tooth, I end up eating most of it myself. I do take some into work to share around or give to friends, but the challenge is how much cake is left on Monday for work when I have baked it on Sunday afternoon... Not much as a general rule! I just cannot resist cake - Im the same with biscuits too!

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Northumbrianlucy

6 February 2009, 5:32PM
Northumbrianlucy

I enjoy baking, and look forward to it. I also think it's a really relaxing thing to do. I do have the problem that once something has been baked, it's only right to sample it at least once, or twice! I tend to bake cakes for my friends' birthdays, my housemates and for the office where they go down a treat. It takes great willpower not to gobble the lot though!

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Lushious

6 February 2009, 6:59PM
Lushious

My earliest memories of cooking are with my Nan as we looked through her one and only cookbook to find a recipe that she had the ingredients for. Normally it was a cake of some description and I loved to bake and make a cake on a weekly basis for my children to take to school in the lunch boxes and for dessert during week. I now feel that I have made a rod for my own back as they expect it and will turn their noses up at anything shop bought or in a packet. So now my love of baking has turned into a bit of chore as I pull out my Magimix and look for any 'all-in-one' recipe as this takes some of the pain away and God forbid if anybody wants to help, that makes it even more painful! I suppose at least I know what is going into what I am making and it is additive and preservative free!!! Perhaps I need a bit of a rest to regain my enthusiasm.

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lulu@olivemagazine

6 February 2009, 7:29PM
lulu@olivemagazine

There's a rhubarb and ginger cake sitting 2 inches from my nose at the moment, I'm going to make someone in the office take it home. I also like making fun cakes as well, a book from Planet Cake in Sydney just arrived on my desk with some hilarious cupcakes that look like crying babies in it. I'm going to try them at the weekend - if they work I'll let you know.

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trickydee

7 February 2009, 11:44AM
trickydee

I've really got into baking over the last few months and probably make 1 a week which my wife is more than happy about. I think that you can eat cake regularly so long as you wear it off. She's at the stables every day and I'm at the gym or on the tennis court 4 times a week. Enjoy what you want without the after effects ;o)

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sheppy

8 February 2009, 6:22PM
sheppy

mmm I've had quite a bit of cake over the last few days, but don't usually eat that much cake generally. However, it has been my birthday recently and some lovely people have cooked me banana cake and some brownies. Both of which were superbly delicious!

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Belinda

9 February 2009, 7:09PM
Belinda

To hell with the waistband - I love baking as it relaxes me big time, just me and the big bowl. Results are eagerly awaited by partner, neighbours and colleagues alike.

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Abi

10 February 2009, 3:23PM
Abi

I love to bake and do far more regularly now that my daughter needs packed lunches. Although I always want to make more than I can afford to buy. It does make me think of how to save money by perhaps making freezer biscuits and meringues only when I have egg white left over from other recipes. I also have a job where we all enjoy cooking and we all take in treats each week to share.

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Laura

10 February 2009, 4:53PM
Laura

Myself and my neighbour Sara each bake fairly regularly (she is 21 I am 25) - she stopped recently after an overdose of fruit cake baking around Christmas - so I have just begun my 'stint' â�� I made Lemon Drizzle Cake (from BBC food website - tana ramsey http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4942/lemon-drizzle-cake ) the other day and took her a piece over â�� she of course invited me in for a cuppa tea â�� oh how lovely (as was the cake!) I plan to bake Marble cake soon too â�� also from the bbc food website - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5557/chocolate-marble-cake

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Laura

10 February 2009, 4:54PM
Laura

I go through stages of enjoying baking â�� obviously in one of those stages right now! I find it very relaxing and the joy of seeing people eat the finished results is always heart warming too. My partner Mark who I live with usually finishes most of the cake off â�� and I just make sure I only have a slice a day (when a cake is in the house â�� which is probably only one week every 6 months!!) Ok so I donâ��t bake that often â�� but life gets in the way â�� but the house for sure feels more homely when you know youâ��ve got a cake to dip into waiting in the kitchen for you! I think I vow to bake more cake!!

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Laura

10 February 2009, 4:54PM
Laura

The joy of baking and eating cake should not ever be viewed as a guilty pleasure â�� life is too short not to eat cake with friends and family with a cuppa tea at about 3pm â�� and so what if its every day â�� just make sure itâ��s just the one slice you have! As my late Grandma used to say â�� â��A little of what you fancy does you good!â�� Also â�� instead of having biscuits, chocolate bars etc in the house (which have god knows what E numbers and bad things in) â�� why not bake a cake every Sunday to see you though the week - using organic, locally sourced ingredients and then you can really feel good about eating this cake knowing you have supported your local farm shops and such â�� and you know whatâ��s in it because you made it!

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lulu@olivemagazine

11 February 2009, 12:40PM
lulu@olivemagazine

You are all absolutely right, guilt has no place in cake world. To that end I have made my way (with the help of the office) through a devil's food cake and am just about to embark on a pineapple/banana concoction, with cream cheese frosting.

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joanneheather

8 March 2009, 9:03PM
joanneheather

I made my husband a lovely fruit cake this week - you boil the fruit in sugar and butter - I used a mixture of sultanas, raisins and dried morello cherries. Delicious! He has given up chocolate and biscuits for Lent so can still eat cake..... Last week I made him an Italian currant cake (he likes fruit cakes). Also delicious. We both make cakes quite often. They are such a lovely thing to offer guests or take as a gift. I also make homemade biscuits for friends' parties etc. Very rewarding. Melting moments go down well!

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