Let them eat cake.

Well yesterday afternoon was spent baking with my niece, something we both enjoy, and it reminded me about the cake I made last month for my own wedding. As well as being fairly easy to make, I suppose in many ways it could be seen as being a greener alternative to a shop bought cake or having one specially made. Many of the ingredients were already knocking about in my store cupboard, the cup cake cases were made from recycled paper and because the bulk of it was made up of dark and white chocolate brownie cupcakes, the baking time was minimal. There was also no packaging involved and I was able to transport it to the venue in biscuit and cake tins I already own. For the top layer I made a toasted hazel nut and sour cherry fruit cake, using one of the cake tins I invested in last year when I made my sister's wedding cake. They are designed to reduce the average baking time by a third and while I can't for the life of me remember the brand name, they certainly work and energy consumption was vastly reduced. From the kids point of view it was also a great way to get Bethany involved in the wedding preparations as she took great pleasure in using the piping bag and left over icing to decorate the spoils, while Shuggie looked on hungrily and with mischief in his eye.

EDIT: Just found a great way to get people interested in home baking, with this online bake club. Friends and family can bake together, arranging bake days, uploading pictures of their finished cakes, pies and other goodies, as well as rating the efforts of others.