I blame Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. It is all their fault that this compulsion to bake again has come over me. Many years ago when the children were tiny and so was our income, I cooked for a living. Looking back now I sometimes wonder how I managed, back breaking is the only word for it and I remember how I used to bake a coffee cake, chocolate cake, Victoria sponge, a loaf cake and scones every day, as well as two huge quiches, a bucket load of soup and a main course and a pudding. My partner with whom I worked used to stagger in each day with curries and peanut loaf etc etc and we used to hurl about 50 jacket potatoes in the oven as well. Then vat loads of coleslaw and assorted salads - everything was made or cooked by us and this was pre- microwave technology and it was all fresh ingredients and organic blah blah blah. We ran a vegetarian restaurant in a local art gallery and were very successful but after five years the gallery decided they wanted to take it over and run it themselves and relieved us of the franchise. By then we had had enough but the Trustees did it all rather shabbily and came up with huge plans they wanted to carry out themselves. Was rather glad when they lost loads of money in the first year and all our loyal customers went elsewhere....
Forgive this preamble but this is to explain why I abandoned cooking for a long time. What really finished me off was one winter when I took private orders and I ended up making and selling 200+ Christmas Puddings, 10 Christmas Cakes and an unlimited amount of mincemeat. My wooden spoons, food processor and rolling pins were consigned to the back of the cupboard and they have, except for the odd occasion languished ever since. Obviously I cook proper meals for myself but baking has been more or less non existent.
Until of course, along comes the Great British Bake Off and Mary Berry (many of her old cookbooks are on my shelves) and the god who is Paul Hollywood (that hair! those eyes!) and I became hooked on the Great British Bake Off. Watching these contestants beating, whipping, baking, decorating and producing such wonderful cakes, flans and pies awoke all my slumbering baking instincts and I have gradually been picking up the bag of self raising flour and the caster sugar again. I had no scales so decided to get some new ones, did not want electronic ones, but your bog standard manual scales and here is my recent purchase. I love these because it has weights in imperial and metric as most of my old cookbooks have the blessed lbs and ozs and I simply cannot get my head round 150 grams et al. When I took them to the assistant in the kitchen shop she raved over them and said they were really 'cool' and 'retro'. Words hovered on my lips but then I looked at this child who probably is totally unaware of how long is a chain, how big an acre and what a yard is, and decided to hold back on the old acid.
This weekend my friend Rosemary is hosting a tea party for Amnesty which she does each year and this time I have agreed to do some baking for her. So out came The Great British Bake Off cookbook which I purchased recently and I decided to try out the Apricot and Marzipan Loaf (glazed with apricot jam and scattered with flaked almonds), the quick chocolate fudge cake and my old bog standard coffee and walnut cake.
So I devoted all yesterday afternoon to baking and today to finishing off and decorating the end products and had a great time. In the interests of quality control I tried a slice of the loaf cake and have to report that the marzipan really gives it a tang and the chocolate fudge cake is yummy. It was very difficult to cut into squares as it was so squidgy and I ended up with a huge heap of lovely bits and crumbs which I was loathe to chuck out so have gathered them up, put them in a pudding bowl and will steam them through this weekend and try it with an accompaniment of cream.
I have been perusing Delia Smith again and remember just how wondrous were her ginger biscuits, I have a new book on Macaroons and intend to have a stab at them, and I have just looked at the Caramelised Onion, New Potato and Gruyere pie with puff pastry in the Bake off Cookbook and am sitting here drooling. I know 2012 is the year of Charles Dickens, The Olympics and the Queen's Golden Jubilee but I think it may well be the year of the Great Colchester Bake Off as well.....
