Jabez' First Cake
I r emember I was around 10 or 11, my memory belies me now, when I baked my first cake. I had been baking with my father since long before that- dense, candied fruits-speckled pound cake loaves on Christmas which were then distributed to neighbours, friends and family. But that one night, fueled by too many episodes of MasterChef Australia, I felt it necessary that I bake my own cake, from scratch. I wanted to rise above flour-sifting and sugar-measuring and egg cracking duty. So I did. A sickly sweet Victoria sponge, made even more saccharine with a mint infused simple syrup, dry and overbaked and crumbling at the first sight of contact. I remember it still being absolutely delicious though. Everyone loved it. Especially my grandfather, lover of everything sweet that he is. Maybe the moment has been rose-tinted by the happiness of that memory, and smudged around the edges by time. I've made quite a progress since then. There have been quite a few cake
