Because arranging a wedding, writing a book and having a pretty intense full time job just isn’t enough for me to be getting on with, I’ve been spending my time recently working with some pretty awesome ladies on a new ‘lady blog’ (urgh, I really really hate that phrase). Allow me to introduce to you The Flick – a lady blog for women who don’t do lady blogs. As well as writing my usual scintillating prose here, I’ll be contributing a number of features there too. My official title is ‘Food and Drink editor,’ but Lord knows I’ll probably go on (at length) about other crap on there too.
We launched on Monday, and since then the response has been amazing. Although quite a bit of that may have been due to this absolutely brilliant video posted by my colleague Vanessa, where she road tests ‘the world’s most powerful sex toy.’ (It looks like a power sander, it plugs into the mains, it vibrates so hard that I could probably whip cake batter with it, and it terrifies cats. What more do you need?) Essentially, The Flick is brilliant, I’m dead proud to be part of the team, and you should all read it. And not just because there’s two (really quite good) recipes from me currently on there either.
The first is for this Apricot Upside-Down Cake, which is absolutely delicious and a doddle to make. Each slice of this is a riot of different flavours – a pale, fluffy vanilla crumb and honey sweetness tempered with spice from the cardamom and bursts of tartness from the apricots. There’s currently half of this left in my fridge, and I keep having to resist the urge to eat it in one full gulp with a flagon of Yorkshire Tea.
Of course, if you decide to make this, and find you have excess cake that you don’t know what to do with, you could always pull out your ice cream maker and throw it into Honey Ice Cream with Apricot Upside-Down Cake pieces. Oh yes. I went there.
I’m not going to pretend that I am the first person ever to have had the thought of whacking a load of cake into a load of frozen custard and reaping the sweet sweet rewards, but I will happily admit that I’m quite proud of this recipe. Apricots and honey are natural bedfellows anyway, so the two complement each other in a frozen dessert like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé in the video to Telephone. I highly recommend making this if, like me, you’re currently living in a climate which is something akin to living inside a lukewarm grey shower cubicle. It won’t bring the sun out, but it may make you feel just that little bit more Summery. If only for five minutes.
Anyway. That’s The Flick. Read us, comment on us, debate with us, and love us. I’m looking forward to seeing you on there.
