Morning Musings

Mornings are funny things. I like early morning walks through the park to work, because there are few people in it, and as a result more animals. The other day I spotted a little grey squirrel walking across the grass. He was actually walking rather than bounding, until something startled him and he broke into that graceful flowing run. There was a duck waddling along, shaking off drops of water from the river, and having a poke around in the flower bed to see what she could see. A little robin sitting on the back of a bench, surveying his domain.

And yet I do need my cup of tea before I can contemplate starting the day! And sometimes, like today, I feel all fuzzy when I wake up, and it takes some time to shake that off. Other days, like yesterday, I can get up and just kind of glide into the day. Thursday evening I weighed out dried cranberries, raisins, sultanas and glace cherries (not cartoon-red-dyed kind!) and doused them with Cointreau.

Bright and early Friday morning (6.15 am bright and early!) I was to be found in the kitchen lining a cake tin, preheating the oven, and mixing up the first tier of my wedding cake!

The recipe I am using comes from the November issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, and I made it for a Christmas cake last year. They suggest using vanilla vodka, but I am substituting Cointreau, just like I did back then. I am making an eight inch round tier to sit right on top of an eleven inch round tier. There will be a tier of sponge for those who don’t like fruit cake as well. Having decided I wanted to make the cake myself, I worried that I might be taking on too much, it might all go wrong- but (the first tier at least) was deliciously easy.
Perhaps it is because I have the luxury of knowing someone else is decorating it for me? Friday afternoon, the lovely lady who is making me dozens of icing roses and ivy leaves to go on the cake invited me to lunch and then to have a go at making my own roses. It was thoroughly absorbing, and the three hours passed in what felt like minutes, and I did enjoy it…but…the five roses I made in that time were easily distinguished from hers