Another level

I don't feel I'm boasting when I say I'm good at baking, but I cannot aspire to this level of cake decorating! All the flowers are made of fondant, and the cake was delicious too.

I belong to a local Facebook group and a few weeks back someone said they were fed up and lonely during lockdown. Several people promptly volunteered to organise get-togethers, and one of them was W, who lives in Lézignan and has a huge barn next to her house which easily accommodated a dozen of us. 

She had really pushed the boat out with a beautifully decorated room and tables, and her husband did an amazing job as maître d, always making sure people had food and drink. As well as this cake she'd made quiches, salad, and one of those Scandinavian sandwich cakes (she is Norwegian) which was also beautifully decorated. It was refreshing to meet some new people, and also to spend a few hours in a cool indoor room while the sun blazed down outside. Bruno the Peugeot's thermometer read 34C when I left, and his air conditioning stopped working ages ago.

When I got home, my sourdough starter was having a party of its own in its jar, so I decided on the spur of the moment, perhaps inspired by W, to start some bread, and also to use up the starter overflow with some brownies. I have now escaped downstairs from the hot kitchen. Meanwhile S has escaped to the Pyrenees for the weekend. Hopefully it is cooler there.