Monday 8th June
Good day all! I hope you had a lovely weekend (don’t tell anyone, but I was super lazy this weekend and did spend quite a lot of time just chilling!).
Following my comment about not getting a slice of cake on Friday, the blog today is all about cake! I do love a slice of cake, do you?
At Olive Hill we have some excellent bakers on our staff team (I am not one of them). This morning I had a little gift bag outside of my office door, inside were some delicious Welsh cakes - expertly cooked by Mrs Higgins’ mum. They were delicious; there were two of them, they were rather large and they are both now in my tummy. Miss Lee also made cakes today, they were works of art - vanilla cupcakes, filled with raspberry jam and finished off with icing. I also have one of those in my tummy. I told you I loved a cake!
The history of cake dates back to ancient times. The first cakes were very different from what we eat today. They were more bread-like and sweetened with honey. Nuts and dried fruits were often added. According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills.
People have consumed cakes of all kinds throughout history and at all sorts of occasions. Today, people traditionally serve cakes at birthdays, weddings, baptisms, holidays - basically we make any excuse to eat cake! Or, if you are like me, you don’t need an excuse to eat cake - you just enjoy eating it at any time, in any place.
Here are a few more interesting cake facts:
Have you ever wondered whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit? Apparently, they are technically cakes.
The key difference between cakes and biscuits is that cakes go hard when stale, whereas biscuits go soft (please do not try this as a science experiment, it would be a waste of delicious food).
Cakes are traditionally round, symbolising the cyclical nature of life, the sun and the moon.
Over £1.2 billion is spent on cakes every year in Britain.
In Medieval times, parties would be held to mark the end of Christmas and live birds and frogs would burst out of a giant cake (that is one cake I would not like to eat).
One of my favourite cakes is a Battenberg. The traditional pink and yellow cake was created in honour of the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884.
The Victoria sponge is named after Queen Victoria who enjoyed the simple cake at the afternoon teas she helped make fashionable.
A recent survey ranked chocolate brownies, chocolate cake, fondant fancies, Victoria sponge and fairy cakes as the nation’s favourite cakes; another recent survey said chocolate cake, Victoria sponge, lemon drizzle, carrot cake and cherry Bakewell were the nation’s favourite.
I thought I do my own little survey about favourite cakes, with the staff of Olive Hill. Here are the results:
Mrs Shinner loves a Victoria sponge, with fresh cream and strawberries. I know that Mrs Shinner is an excellent baker and I look forward to one of these cakes appearing in school soon (please Mrs Shinner). Mrs Hackett, Mrs Waters, Mrs Carpenter and Mrs Birch also love a Victoria sponge.
Miss Homer (Y6) loves a fruit cake, but it must be made by her nan.
Miss Jenkins loves a cherry Bakewell.
Mrs Higgins feels that all cakes are goooooooood! Her favourite has to be her mum’s homemade Welsh cakes. I agree, they are delicious.
Miss Best just said we were making her hungry. Miss Best is now on maternity leave and we are missing her cheesecakes, she often baked for us.
Miss Raphael enjoys a slice of coffee and walnut cake (sorry Miss Raphael, but I do not like coffee or walnut - I believe I may have found a cake that I don’t like).
Mrs Mariott loves all cake. But she now knows that I will make her make a choice when I ask a blog question, so she settled on lemon and blueberry cake.
I think you can all guess Mrs Stonehouse’s favourite cake … yes, you got it, chocolate cake.
Mr Priest now thinks he is Mrs Mariott and is unable to make a decision … he sent in a picture of lots of cupcakes (he is also a good baker), his mum’s Scottish fruit slice and Rolo cupcakes. It is lucky he was busy, or he’d still be sending pictures now!
Mrs White loves a sponge cake with icing - like the ones you have at birthday parties. Children, if you ever have any spare birthday cake you know where to send it … TO ME!
Mrs Grice enjoys a slice of rainbow layer cake - does that mean it has seven layers? That is one very large slice of cake Miss Grice.
Children, Miss Richardson doesn’t really cake - what? How can you not like cake? She does like a sticky toffee pudding though.
Mrs Fawke and Mrs Copson love a carrot cake - I’m not really a fan of vegetables in a cake, what do you think? Does it count as one of your five a day?
Mrs Tansley likes a nice slice of death by chocolate cake. Not if Mrs Stonehouse is around, she’d be taking it off you and eating it herself.
Mrs Dudley loves a raspberry profiterole cake.
As you can see from my survey, Victoria sponge cake was the most popular. I now think we should have an Olive Hill bake-off. All members of staff who are good at baking can make a Victoria sponge and I will judge which one is the best!
Children, I have included the pictures of the cakes below - just in case you are feeling a little hungry and wish to dream of cakes. This week, I have set myself the challenge of learning how to bake chocolate brownies as long as I get the ingredients. Another secret, I can actually make a good Victoria sponge, I just prefer to eat other people’s and not have to worry about the weighing of ingredients, the mixing, the washing up etc.
Have a lovely evening all. We miss you.
Stay safe.
