Cake or Art?

In my view, enticing kids to read is one of the most imperative and challenging things in the world, they need to develop a fascination with books. I, for one, am still fascinated by the first book I was ever fascinated with. As a child, I turned each page delicately, analysing each and every piece of art, as I ‘read’ the entire book cover to cover.

Once upon a time, I discovered that I loved cake. And since then, I’ve continued to be dedicated to cakes. Over time, my experience built up, my tastes diversified and my serving sizes contracted (hopefully). Now that I think about it, perhaps I grew relative to the pieces of cake I consumed (I can’t be too sure, maybe I’ll save that topic for exploration in another blog entry).

However, I remain dedicated to THAT book, the book full of cake inspiration. My mum’s copy of the original Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake book holds a special place in my heart. Particularly since my childhood dream of having a cake from that book remains unfulfilled due to my parent’s considerable laziness and disdain for cake.

I thought I was the only gigantic fan of the book, but was recently shocked upon discovering that most of my friends and workmates, now aged between 20 and 35, grew up with the same fascination for the same cake book – the one with the pretty pictures of unique cakes and the tempting train cake on the cover. It was truly devastating to discover that some of their mums had actually made them the world-famous train cake or other equally challenging cakes for their birthdays. My childhood suddenly seems so bland.

As a child, I had aspirations. Everytime I ‘read’ the book (which was at least once a month), I vowed that when I grew up, I would make every single cake in there. I even took steps to reach my goal. I ‘practised’ my baking skills (on simple cakes, scones and cookies) in anticipation that one day I would be skilled enough to take an attempt at the Women’s weekly birthday cakes.

But, as yet, I have never attempted one, I have yet to achieve my full potential. As a result, I have decided to renew my vows and pledge that by the end of the year, I would have successfully baked at least one of those cakes.

My favourite cake from the book is pictured above – the beautiful carousel. And might I add, sadly, this cake wasn’t made for me. I just found the picture on facebook – there is a facebook group called “Womens weekly birthday cake book is awesome”. I think it is a worthwhile group and I completely agree with their claim to fame!

Just some of my random thoughts.