Mum's cakes

Everyone's skills have to come from somewhere and I have to say that, although a lot of my cake-baking has been picked up along the way, the definite inspiration for my baking efforts is my Mum. And I was reminded this weekend that I definitely still have a long way to go.

When I was small (and probably even not so small) I can remember there always being cake in the house and in the last couple of years I have been trying to follow this example so that we always have some nice snack to take along to work and keep us going through the morning without having to resort to bought biscuits, snack bars, etc. filled with preservatives, E numbers and who knows what other nasties. However with only two of us in the house I am not a great offerer of choice, so imagine our excitement this weekend whilst visiting my parents to be offered a whole range of sweet treats to choose from to go with our cup of afternoon tea.

Mum had really surpassed herself and we may have even been offered four choices but my eyes had slightly glazed over and I was starting to salivate by the time she got to the Dundee Cake option after hearing about Coffee Sponge Cake and Mars Bar Rice Crispie cakes. 'Well, I shouldn't really as I'm going for a run in a bit' I virtuously proclaimed, 'well, maybe just something small for energy, perhaps a rice crispie cake...' But then out came the gloriously light (well that was my justification for eating it!) coffee cake with layers of butter icing in the middle and on top. Virtue went out of the window and soon I was happily tucking into the coffee cake with everyone else!

Incidentally I did go for my run eventually and I did get try to the Mars Bar Rice Crispie cake later in the weekend but somehow even with a long three day weekend I ran out of time to check out the Dundee Cake...