A special cake to thank all of the dedicated nurses at our hospice

Former Great British Bake Off contestant Karen Wright shares her recipe for everyday happiness

May 12 was International Nurses Day and I was asked by Wakefield Hospice if I could make a cake for their nurses. It was my pleasure to oblige.

I used blue as a starting point for the colour scheme. Blue is not very popular for anything edible. When you think about it, there are not many blue foods out there, but it seemed the right choice for nurses. I am not very experienced with modelling figures but the nurse turned out OK and, as she was wearing a mask, I didn’t need to worry about her nose and mouth being spot on!

I think it’s a great thing that there is a day every year when we can make a fuss of our nurses and say thank you for all they do for us. I think it is a real vocation and takes a special kind of person to dedicate themselves to the job.

Now that all our retail outlets are back open for business let’s all try to do some of our shopping in the charity shops. We really need to get behind all of the charities as they have really struggled this last year with the COVID restrictions. Anyway, who doesn’t love browsing and picking up a bargain or something unusual.

I’ve been counting the members of our immediate family that are vegetarian, as we are planning a menu for an upcoming family event. Eight out of 14 of the younger generation invited are vegetarian, plus one is vegan.

When I was young, I couldn’t figure out what a vegetarian meal would be, I assumed it was just a plate of vegetables. As much as I always ate my greens and enjoyed them, the idea of no sausages or fish fingers was not appealing. Now I understand so much more about what makes a balanced diet.

A vegetarian meal can be just as exciting as anything else. I use the word exciting as I believe food and meal preparation should be something we really enjoy spending time doing, and it is very therapeutic too. Coming up next week, you guessed it, a vegetarian dish!