My mum has been making and decorating cakes since I was a tiny baby. Whilst I'd always admire her work, my main interest has always been eating the cake cut offs, savouring spare blobs of sugar paste and licking off the little icing faces she would pipe onto our fingers as kids.
Last year, always looking for new ways to express my creativity, I decided I would join in and try my hand at cake decorating.
Learning the various skills and techniques was one major challenge, the second and by far the most difficult, was learning to work with each other.
Mum: "I think we should do this"
Me: "I don't think we should do that"
Mum: "Why not?"
Me: "Because it's stupid"
Mum: "I think it'll look lovely"
Me: "It'll look rubbish"
Mum: "FINE, what do I know anyway, I've only been doing this 30 years"
Me: (eyerolling and muttering under breath)
After many an argument, a near strangulation, tears, hours sat in icy silence swapping cold glares, slammed doors, icing models crushed in temper and one memorable day when my sister felt it safest to remove the sharp implements from the kitchen…I think it's going really well.
The cakes are looking quite nice (they taste delicious thanks to mums baking), I get to regularly gorge on icing and cake and, best of all we are both still alive a year later.
Here are a few of our favourite cakes:
If all continues well in the Jones's kitchen, there'll be more to see soon.
