Blue Peter

I never realised how much physical exercise was required to bake a cake. My right bicep is positively bulging after the work out of combining literally kilos of fruit with mountains of sugar, butter and flour. Combined with the challenge and complexity of lining the cake tin with a million different types of paper and string, I really do feel as though I have earned a Blue Peter badge and the cake isn't even cooked yet!

I took the advice of my favourite kitchen shop salesperson and used newspaper instead of brown paper to wrap my cake tin in. I am perhaps naive in these matters, but paper and extreme heat has always equaled fire in book. I am hoping that this will not happen but will be keeping a close eye on yesterdays' sports pages just in case.