“I only remember the moment of sheer delight”
Content editor Ellie Donnell’s lightbulb food moment began on one rainy afternoon, with just four simple ingredients…
Ellie Donnell
My food lightbulb moment isn’t very glamorous. I wasn’t abroad, ‘finding’ myself in Asia when I stumbled across a life-changing laksa. Neither was the food in question anything very refined or technically challenging.
No, the food that changed me was a very unglamorous sponge cake. We’ve always been a dessert family, and on one rainy afternoon during my childhood, my mother decided to let me help her make a cake.
I’ll always remember her casually explaining that “it’s just 4 ounces of everything and two eggs”. I will always remember how she helped me measure out the caster sugar, Stork margarine and self-raising flour, showing me how to fold in the latter to ensure a lighter sponge.
"My journey into the world of food began with a sponge cake..."
I don’t remember making any sort of icing – although I’m sure we must have done, judging by our inherited sweet tooth gene. I only remember the moment of sheer delight upon discovering that those four easy-to-remember ingredients could become something so incredibly, well, delicious. And by my own hand too.
My journey into the world of food began with a sponge cake and I will forever hold dear the sweet (and savoury) culinary delights that moment precipitated.
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In the kitchen
