Menopause Cake

Back when we first started asking people to submit to Menopause: The Anthology, we said

This anthology will be published on Menopause Day, 18th October 2023. When, we have decided, all (post)menopausal women should celebrate their last period, since we never actually know when it happened. Memorial or celebration, you choose, but we will be having cake.

And now with the launches approaching, I’m starting to think about what kind of cake Menopause cake would be.

My go-to-cake for launches (partly because it travels, and cuts thin slices that hold together, well) is a chocolate/almond/brandy affair which comes with serious health warnings. Everything a person might be alllergic to is in it. It is also glorious.

This seems like a good starting point for a menopause cake to me. I’m thinking it should also have coffee in it, to up the ante. (Something I can’t cope with – I can’t drink it, but I can, sometimes, eat things flavoured with it.) But also something cooling – but what? Yoghurt?

I’ve made variations before – the one above is Solstice Cake, where one half is the main recipe and the other half is ginger/orange/almond, which through complex cutting and splicing creates the four seasons, or day/night/dusk/dawn depending on how you want to think about it.

What variations should be included in Menopause Cake?

Let me know what you think!

 

 

Lopsided cake – how can you resist?

Lop-sided Liars' Cake

Lop-sided Liars’ Cake

It may not be the prettiest cake, and it certainly the least symmetrical that I’ve made, but its got chocolate and brandy and almonds in it, and its celebrating Lovers’ Lies. You may be able to recognise the passing resemblance to Annie Rickard Straus’ fish from the cover…

lovers lies fishI was going to ice on Lovers’ Lies but decided that freehand icing writing was beyond me and might do serious damage to my already bumpy icing.

So long as you aren’t allergic to any of the ingredients, you might like to try a slice, it is an epic among cakes.

Cake available for one night only, at Daunt Books 51 South End Road, London NW3 2QB. Almost opposite Hampstead Heath Station. Oh – and some wine and nibbles – and good company from some of the many authors whose stories are featured in the book – I did mention the book, did I?