I put my slackness down to the sheer humdrum of busy daily
life – thesedays I tend to feel pretty proud of just accomplishing
a school and pre-school drop-off in the morning, pick-up in the afternoon and a
day’s work in between. Baking is a bit of a luxury if I’m honest.
The blog-silence is also down to how mundane my
baking has become. Muffins anyone? Yawn.
And so just when I thought I’d lost my floury fizzle
once and for all, I read about the International Edible Book Festival. Oh yes,
edible books. I am so back.
The geeks among you can read about the festival’s history
here: according to the event’s founders Judith A. Hoffberg and Beatrice Coron the
International Edible Book Festival is held on 1 April every year for two
reasons. Firstly, it is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his witty meditation on food,
physiologie du goût. And secondly, it’s April Fools’ Day – a time of pranks and
playfulness. The event is now held in at least 23 countries. See, you learned a
little something today.
Right, the rest of you can pick up again here. As a
lover of books and a lover of cakes it was inevitable I’d link the two at some
stage. So when I read about the festival I took that as my cue. Here are my
efforts over the last few evenings.
First up we have ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy:
When Neil walked into the kitchen to find me placing
army men on a peace sign-shaped cake his words were "I’m not even going to ask". He may or may not have called me a "nutter" under his
breath as he walked out; he denies this.
Next up, ‘Catch 22’ by Joseph Heller:
After sneaking a chocolate fish, Neil couldn’t help but
get involved and suggested the next one, ‘Catch Me if you Can’ by Stan Redding
and Frank Abagnale:
Then we have ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens:
This cake was quickly repurposed into a cake for
Emily’s pre-school teachers (as a thank you for putting up with that
ragamuffin). After much debate I opted to serve the cake without graters or
figurines. Tough call.
The next two cakes require a disclaimer of sorts. I
think Lorde is an inspiration, a huge talent, a striking girl. However I also
think her name is just too hard to walk past for this particular exercise. So,
Lorde, if you read this – a) I am flattered; and b) please don’t take this
personally....
I present, with some trepidation, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ by J R R Tolkien:
And last, and quite possibly least, ‘Lord of the
Flies’ by William Golding:
If this lands me in hot icing then I’m playing the
April Fools’ Day card.
TTFN x
