Let them eat cake

Spattered bits of wholemeal flour and egg adorn the old Cranks cookbook. Page 178 is falling out along with the rest of the old brown pages and we're in danger of losing the Luscious Lemon Cake recipe.

For friends and family, picnics and parties, some recipes need to be handed down. Today it was my monthly writers' workshop and we looked at shifting the words from chaos into order. These writers don't just need space and creative input. Cake fuels the words and helps make delicious connections.

Marie-Antoinette would be pleased: "Let them eat cake!"

For a little batch you need: a 100g butter, 150g sugar, rind and juice of one lemon, 1 egg, 100g of wholemeal self-raising flour. Triple the quantity because one batch is never enough.

Melt the butter and most of the sugar in a pan over gentle heat, stir in lemon rind, whisk the egg and mix it in, fold in the sifted flour, and bake for about 30 mins at 180 or gas mark 4.

Mix the lemon juice and a large spoon or two of sugar in a pan over heat, dribble it over the cake once cooked. (Poke a few holes in the top first.) Eat it before the gannets get it.