I am very happy that The Great British Bake Off is back on BBC2 this Autumn.

I love baking – cakes especially, but I have long since stopped watching the show with the belief that I could do as well as the contestants.

It has become highly competitive and professional. Last week I actually empathised with the stress of not knowing how to make a creme caramel with no instructions. No doubt at all; I would have failed… spectacularly!


In the first week someone iced a cake in beautiful swirly rosettes and I gave that a go at the weekend. Suffice to say that I am not showing it here as it looks like a pink breeze block – one that got eaten pretty quickly though!

I do love though to make proper afternoon tea and get out the vintage china and cutlery, the strainer and tea leaves and the lace work or embroidered tablecloths.

There always has to be egg and cress sandwiches and a big cake. The crisps are my own modernisation!

So I shall continue to watch happy in the knowledge that shopping for vintage tea time artefacts and making any kind of cake with sugar in are my forte, and someone else can provide the entertainment!