cream.

For the most part when I bake, it turns out alright without any major disasters. I am often amazed at how on earth I manage to pull this off with my track record of little mishaps in life which tend to be attributed to my clumsiness.

Every now and then, something slightly spectacular will happen when I am in the kitchen, and they always seem to happen when no-one is there to appreciate them with me.

I'd like to tell you about one of those times that happened to me just the other day. It was Saturday evening and I had taken over my good friend Ros' kitchen for an epic baking session, making 60 odd cupcakes for Sarah's birthday. As I was preparing the double cream for its iminient date with a bowl of marscapone, we had a little unexpected encounter with the rest of the kitchen. By that I mean that the cream decided it wasn't ready to date just the marscapone, she wanted to try out the rest of her surroundings first.

Being discontented with the home I had given Miss Cream of a tall, slender measuring jug, and even more unhappy that in preparation for her date with Mr Marscapone she had to be whipped and whisked a little bit, Miss Cream decided to make her feelings known. As I started to whisk Miss Cream, she stayed in her measuring jug home for less than 3 seconds before erupting. I never knew 200ml of cream could go quite so far. By this I mean that Miss Cream went all down my top, jeans & socks, all over the hobs, the floor, the recipe book, the working surface. She even found her way into the ridges of the bread bin and inside cupboard doors. To my utter amazement, not a single drop landed in the bowl of marscapone that was ready and waiting patiently to have the cream added once whipped.

I stood still in the kitchen for a good 5 seconds, mouth wide open, before the laughter of disbelief kicked in and the disappointment that Ros would not get to see her new and improved creamy kitchen, as I had to clear it up before she got home because it really is impractical to bake in a slippery creamy kitchen.

Thankfully, I had enough cream left over to make it back up to the right quantity, and Miss Cream did her job properly the next time. Or perhaps it would be moreaccurate to say that I was more sensible and put the cream in a bowl that was big enough to contain the cream, which I totally knew I should have done the first time but didn't want to wash up the bowl that I needed. That'll teach me to cut corners next time.

Tune in later if you'd like to see the cupcakes that I baked...