My unofficial motto is “when in doubt, bake”. If any other form of creativity is stifled, if there’s nothing on telly, if there’s any sort of mental unrest, baking is the answer. It’s a science, and the results taste good and give you a sugar rush; what could be wrong about that?

A combination of stress over a family illness, creative frustration and the excuse of friends round for dinner sent me packing to the kitchen. Plain mini cupcakes from a recipe in Cupcake Heaven (with the slight alteration of a sprinkling of orange zest) and buttercream icing with almond substituted for vanilla, dyed pistachio green and sunshine yellow with food colouring. Ready made sugar flowers completed the look, which I subsequently realised looked quite Easter-themed.

Next plan is a more striking flavour of cake or plain cakes again with white chocolate bejewelled icing, I reckon.