I get my birthday cake... and eat it

Full-frontal Frangipane

This is my version of the infamous Page 3 from the newspaper proprietor none of us care to mention any more (not that many of us ever did).  It's shameless I know, the out-there, in your face, Frank Gallagher of a Frangipane, strutting its stuff, regardless of what its neighbours think.

So, here are some of the neighbours who probably should be worried but don't look as if they are to me. 

If you like cake, you'll love these

OK, ok, now I'm anthropomorphising cake.  Enough already.  And it's not just cake, they have the occasional tart as well.  That's a tart which dresses as if it's always an occasion - basically a tart you could take anywhere - you could even take it home if you were so minded.

But we were in Boulangerie Bon Matin, which Dalston and I have visited a few times since it's opened, but this was the first time for local Kam the cook.  You can tell when a woman (or a man) is that good at making puddings themselves (mmm, I remember the halva well), they will have a real feel for making a good choice.

The very tiny helicopter pilot flies again with camera on board

And that's what Kam chose: an orange sponge with a chocolate drizzle.  Let's take a closer look at the sponge.

Spongy sponge

Now, it sounds a little silly to caption something 'spongy sponge', but you'll know from what may or may not be extensive experience that a sponge can sometimes disappoint.  Not this one though, it had a lovely moist, coherent crumb.

Moist crumb speckled with strands of orange

If I were to have taken the photo a few moments earlier, you would have seen a tiny person walking off to the side of the sponge, you might just be able to spot them by looking for their shadow on the left-hand half of the sponge, right at the very top - do you see him?  What do you mean, you don't?  Now, come along, you must surely know that there are very small people who live in delicious, freshly-made, good quality food.  You'll never find them in mass-produced pap filled with preservatives because as they're so tiny they find them incredibly toxic.  You only find them in fresh, flavoursome food.

You're just kidding me now, aren't you?  Look, here's the evidence of the tiny people so that you can examine it at your own leisure.  They're like baby Borrowers or Lilliputians and they're very, very shy and retiring.  Unlike my frangipane, which was anything but.

Gather ye almonds while ye may and put them in a cake for me, you - everybody

Yes, probably everybody could do with a bit of frangipane - and let's face it, even if you don't bury your face in my frangipane - it always comes up trumps with the money shot.  Vielen dank, Kam, für mein kaffee und (geburtstag) kuchen.