Yellow

I can't claim that it is Spring that is making me obsess about yellow things. Have you checked the weather in the last half hour? No? Do it. I guarantee you if the sun is shining now, in 30 minutes' time it will be pouring, wind howling, and the temperature will have dropped by 10 degrees. Check again an hour after that and you may see snow. Or you may find yourself running to find shorts and a bikini. Point is, it's not the gentle onset of Spring that is driving me in the direction of lemon zest. It is more likely to be about a mixture of menopause and mid life crisis. I have always hated yellow, and I have always disdained the use of bags.I have been a weekend Kipling backpack stalwart for years. But in the last year two things have changed. Firstly, I have, seemingly inexplicably, bought a beautiful and mildly costly shoulder bag for work. And secondly, I have entered the world of lemon cakes. Given that if you do anything lemony it involves grating zest, which also means grating fingers and fingernails, and therefore is an extreme labour of love and masochism - OMG nothing compares to lemon juice sting in paper cuts - it has to be about the hormones.

Whatever. Last week it was Nigella's lemon polenta cake, using half her recommended butter (I want people to enjoy their dessert without dropping dead of hardened arteries). Today it was the Magnolia Bakery's lemon curd layer cake. Both smell of Spring,even if the weather doesn't. The layer cake wins the prize for the Most Aesthetic Batter. I stirred it hypnotically for 20 minutes before surrendering it reluctantly to the cake tins. Which is probably why they came out of the oven a foot higher than the picture. All that air. Right. Now to find a lovely yellow bag to match.