Something for your Valentine

Ivy's heart shape cake tin 

What better way to offer your Valentine a gift than to bake a favourite homemade treat for Valentine’s Day on 14 February ? After all, as I say in Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking book, ‘who can resist the joys of a simple fresh  cake or the appeal of a tray of biscuits, warm, aromatic and straight out of the oven?’ 

Last year, Aunty Ivy gave me a pile of cake tins and amongst them was a heart shape tin. I’ve been itching to use it for one of Grandma’s easy cake recipes ever since so this year I’m making a surprise cake for my Valentine (and me) to enjoy.

Will it be Dream Cake?  

 Orange Cake or ...       

Heart shaped Valentine Cake?

I still feel like an 18 year old in my head and this week, I met up with two friends from student days, one of whom I hadn't seen since we finished our degrees 40 years ago. We’d been on a French degree course at university and had gone our separate ways with careers and families to distract us from keeping in touch and without the benefits of social media. So we spent the day reminiscing about those halcyon days of student life, laughing till we nearly cried over some of our antics .... not forgetting valentines from long ago!

Looks like I can use Ivy's heart shaped cake tin after all!