Happy Father's Day

My dad has plenty of interests that keep him busy - walking, cycling, watching cricket, drinking upwards of two pints with his friends, dragging me to cultural events and speaking Russian in a ridiculous accent. 


For Father's Day, I decided to make him a cake that would celebrate at least two of these hobbies and plumped for a Russian film and the Tyneside Cinema. Actually another of his hobbies is to watch a film and then make a pretentious comment about it to his friend at the cricket. John - if you're reading, he doesn't actually spot these things for himself, he just looks them up on Wikipedia. 


I chose a Soviet poster that reads "You - have you enrolled as a volunteer?" and changed it to "You - happy father's day!" I traced the image onto a fruit cake I'd iced last week and painted it on with cocoa butter. I was pleased with the result - I've not got an artistic bone in my body but I'm canny with a bit of tracing paper.

"Sorry about the smudge"

Like a lot of men, my dad has no interest in soft furnishings but there is one set of curtains that he loves - the ruched pink curtain at the Tyneside cinema that is raised with a satisfying "shhhhhhhh" at the beginning of a film. He once commented that if he ever wins the lottery, he would get a curtain like that for his bedroom window (presumably my mother would be spending her half of the winnings on a divorce, citing unreasonable behaviour).


I tried to recreate this curtain on the cake but wasn't happy with the result.

He, however, was happy with the result - he had his hands on a massive cake. Luckily another of his hobbies is scoffing.


I also made a brief nod to his love of drinking upwards of two pints with these Timothy Taylor's Landlord cake pops.

I mentioned last month his silent T shirt competition at the cricket, in which you wear a T shirt that will arouse the interest or envy of your friend. My dad's been on a roll recently, scoring with his Bulgakov T shirt from Brighton and his Dapper Dan T shirt advertising the fictional hair cream George Clooney uses in O Brother Where Art Thou. I think I might have put paid to his winning streak by insisting he wear a T shirt with my company logo and take a photo to prove it. So here he is at Durham cricket ground, gamely displaying an admittedly feminine logo. If I start getting a load of orders asking for cakes shaped like cricket pitches, I will know who to thank. To be honest I have  a lot to thank him for.

Wishing happy father's day to all the dads, especially mine, and thinking of those who have lost theirs 


xx