Source of happiness

“Cake is one of mankind’s main sources of happiness,” emails David Aitken. “Cake rocks. Even rock cake rocks. Whoever said life can’t be all cakes and ale was perfectly right. One can, at a pinch, cut back on the ale.

“It’s hardly surprising that cake is what we use to celebrate birthdays, weddings and christenings. We do, after all, refer to something easy or pleasurable as ‘a piece of cake.’

“A favourite of mine is tiramisu, cake infused with rum or brandy and which means in Italian ‘pick me up’ or ‘lift me up’. The French cake croque-en-bouche means ‘crunches in the mouth’ – choux pastry, sugared almonds and caramel. One delicacy that does melt in the mouth is Edinburgh Castle cake – the gateau from the chateau.

“Cake has had a bad press at times. Queen Marie Antoinette is popularly misquoted as saying: ‘Let them eat cake’ when she heard of bread shortages among the common people, but what she actually said was: ‘Let them eat brioche’. (‘Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.’) In other words, expensive buttery eggy buns, even more unobtainable for the peasants than bread was.

“The poet Robert Fergusson uses the expression ‘Scotland, alias Land o’ Cakes’, a phrase later echoed by Robert Burns, and who am I to argue with them? There are few better names for a cakehungry country. It pips ‘land of milk and honey’ at the post by a mile.

“But I must dash – it’s time for my midmorning coffee and slice of Dundee cake. I fear I am the original person of whom it might be said: ‘penny wise and pound-cake foolish’.

“And, wonderful to relate, no matter how much cake I eat, I never seem to put on too much weight. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is just the icing on the cake.”