“This is rather therapeutic”, I thought to myself as I *properly* greased and base-lined a cake tin. As a busy mum of two who generally speed-bakes Victoria sandwiches, my usual method is to rip a bit of greaseproof paper off the roll and jam it into the tin, using the weight of the cake mixture to keep it in there. Cake doesn’t last long in our house, especially now that my youngest child, with a limited vocabulary, has learned the word ‘CAKE!’ along with vehement pointing! I’m no show baker either, so the odd few creased edges don’t matter. It was quite nice though to cut out a circle, stick it in there with a bit of marg smeared on the bottom of my loose-bottomed tin, and then cut strips and stick them around the edge. The children were playing nicely together (for once) and not clamouring to help or attempting to eat massive spoonfuls of raw egg-laden batter. I filled the tin with cake mixture (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11695/raspberry-bakewell-cake to be exact, although I substituted jam for the fresh raspberries) and popped in the oven.
My bliss was short-lived however, as I started on the shortbread. As soon as I started up the mixer I was showered with sugar. By the time I wiped down surfaces, dumped a little extra in the bowl to make up for the shortfall, and then got a mop to clean the floor, my feet were beginning to find themselves glued to the floor. By this point the children had gravitated out to the garden, I was beginning to make their tea, watch the cake already in the oven and, erm, yeah, that’s enough to be doing in one go. As I gently squashed the shortbread into the tin (this time the greaseproof paper was just rammed in there, no time now for cutting out bits of paper!), I heard some commotion outside. I was greeted by the sight of my older child sprinkling handfuls of compost over my younger child’s head. Her hair and clothes were full of grainy little bits that wouldn’t simply brush away. I ordered them in, attempting to remove as much soil as possible. A small black trail was left in their wake, all the way down the hallway…
The cake tastes great though!