LIGHT AS AIR

Over lockdown? I keep standing at the fridge wondering what I should eat next. We now shop online for our groceries and having complained for years about the experience of supermarket shopping, there is a part of me that is actually missing it a little. Our street constantly has delivery vans and couriers dropping deliveries off. We mix it up among the supermarket chains for our hunting and gathering, it’s normally whoever can deliver within the week, as we now have to plan our menus. So much for same day, next day, 3-day delivery options, they just don’t exist now. In one order we were missing 26 items and given a can of tomatoes for the lack of items delivered. That really did put a dent in my baking plans.

I’ve noticed my lockdown baking has become much more elaborate. I recently made a four-layer orange & coconut cake (see below), the recipe obviously came from MiNDFOOD. I find I spend a lot of time scrolling through gorgeous images of food and reading tempting recipes on mindfood.com dreaming of the potential baking I could attempt. I also get excited to see what recipes the team have chosen for the daily recipe newsletter. You could call it food porn, time wasting, research, or audience participation. I have now realised it’s become a daily habit.

I did however really pimp that layer cake: everything was on point, flavour profile, you name it. I challenge any MasterChef judge not to give me a 10 out of 10. With layers and layers of homemade orange curd and icing and the selection of two different sizes of coconut over the entire cake, the feedback from the family was positively glowing. “It’s like a professional cake, Dad,” was the best and I hung onto that praise for many days, telling anyone on Zoom, or who called me, giving them the cake feedback.

Of course the unfortunate thing about embracing this professional creative baking trend I’m developing is the diet – or lack of control around the diet – when creating such masterpieces. Having read enough features about the downsides of sugar, it turns out the layered orange & coconut cake is really only for special occasions. There is only so much layered cake a household can actually eat within a week. A friend rang the other day and said she was feeling depressed being in lockdown. I immediately came back with, “I’ll make you a cake”. Strange, as I think she was expecting a more sympathetic response, but what can be more healing than a homemade cake?

Another highlight in our street is seeing what the local kids have drawn in chalk on the road each day. Last week it was a beautiful range of different flower patterns spread right across the width of the road. This week it has taken a completely different direction in bold colourful chalk, ‘GET VAXED’, which I thought was rather political and eminently sensible for a bunch of eight-year-olds.

One thing is clear during lockdown: you do start to notice the small details around your house, street and local community. I have finally, after many years, worked out who owns the car with the sticker in the back window ‘I LOVE TRAPEZING’. Needless to say, I was completely wrong about the owner of the car, who for many years I thought was the Trapeze Artist in the street.

Not a pastime you hear so much about these days, but I’m beginning to think it could be an interesting hobby to investigate after lockdown. I love the idea of flying though the air. In celebration of my potential new hobby I wonder if I should make a cake?

“THERE’S ONLY SO MUCH CAKE WE CAN EAT WITHIN A WEEK.”