I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it….

That’s not really true. I’m not excited at all, so there is no question of my hiding it. Excitement would be exciting if it hadn’t been devalued by the legion of radio and TV commentators who are so excited for a living. Very little doesn’t excite them because not being so excited could well cost them their exciting job. Etched into my memory is a moment in the recent sodden Jubilee celebrations. On a pleasure boat on the Thames, with so much rain falling that the difference between being in the river or out of it was minimal, a renowned chef was balefully cutting slices of sodden cake in the biblical downpour whilst a seemingly hysterical commentator, hair plastered to her head and as wild eyed as any Bronte heroine, madly and repeatedly demanded to know precisely how excited the forlorn cake cutter was because wasn’t it all so exciting and she herself was about to lose control and she thought she’d like that. As song writers have mentioned before, cake left out in the rain is not a good idea and these images confirmed the song writer knew what he or she was talking about when it came to wet cake. Outside, the summer rain that had recently extinguished blazing June continued to do the business on July, whilst on the inside cake came to mind. Claire Ptak, former pastry chef for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, now runs the celebrated “Violet” cake shop in London’s East End. She makes the most wonderful cakes. I was excited by the experience of making, photographing and eating these lemon bars.