Instructions Not Included

Life's a funny old thing. Today, it leads me to talk to you about a very important issue, which concerns us all.

Cake.

Yes, cake. I was planning to just talk about food in general, but since several mildly interesting events have happened over the past hour or so, cake is definitely on my mind.

For those of you who don't know, I work in a theatre. Albeit, not in a creative capacity these days (though I have in the past, and still hope to in the future), rather I manage the Box Office, and look after 1800 or so lovely people all over the country who donate money and other things to us. We call them Members.

Now, if you've never spent time around people in theatre, I'll let you in on a (not very well kept) secret. We like cake. Oh yes. We do. Doesn't matter where you work within the theatre - it's a rare exception if this doesn't hold true. Cake is good. Cake brings people together. However, as you can imagine, cake is not exactly my best friend these days. Cake will send me spiking up, but without the option of a bolus to counteract the baked goodness.

So what's a girl to do? It's an interesting question. Because what has been happening is one of two things. When cake arrives, either I am bypassed in the passing around of the plate (since my desk is in the foyer - Box Office, remember), or I get offered it, and being sans bolus, have to turn it down. I can imagine that in the mind of others, this is a potentially difficult subject. Do you offer, and possibly tempt, or do you decide not to, and possibly alienate? How do you decide? And do you know what? I don't blame you if you find that a difficult choice to make. Because the thing is, dear reader, is that I'm not sure which I prefer either.

On other notably cake-related matters, I went out to buy my lunch today, to discover that, to my joy, the Farmers' Market was in full swing. This is usually a good thing. It means really nice, locally produced food, and the possibility of amazing sausages or a venison burger for lunch (I'll get to the cake again, I promise). However, the lack of any sort of bread other than white rolls for these sandwiches, and weirdly enough, no-one selling bread made this a bad choice. Which made me sad. As did the sight of my favourite cake from this market. Ah Porter cake....you are truly heaven. Yet, on this stall, and the stall alongside it, I saw those interesting words:

'Suitable for diabetics'

Oh really? When I ask the people at the stall why, this is apparently because the cakes in question (including a rather amazing looking chocolate fudge cake) are low in sugar. Yes, well that's all well and good, but they're not really low in carbs now are they? And, when the very kindly man at one stall actually had the recipe to hand (which I was impressed with), there was very little low in sugar about it. I suppose I have to give them points for trying, however, I left with no cake for myself, (although with a Porter cake loaf for my housemate) and the feeling that these labels were somewhat misleading.

I then returned back to work to discover....

cake.

And so the circle continues.

xx