Good morning, you gorgeous lot.
I am back! After the most wonderful weekend in Edinburgh at the last Foodies Festival of 2016, I am home. As it happens, I am now home for a while as that is it for shows this year.
It has been the most incredible year – I have met so many of you and travelled all over the country with Foodies, The Cake & Bake Show, Eroica Britannia, and The Goodwood Revival. I’ve had the best time but I’m pleased to have a few weeks without any travelling! In fact, today is that most rare of days… a day off!
The self-employed will know the tremendous guilt that comes associated with this concept. A day off is hours of wasted emailing, admin, writing, and (in my case) baking time. However, I think it is needed once every now and then.
I’m a terrible boss to my sole employee – me – but I am going to force myself to do it and a day off shall be had. I am going to spend said day off watching my two favourite Disney movies; Beauty & the Beast, and Frozen.
Deliciously Decorated by Charlotte White (RPS, £16.99)
I never thought I would find a Disney that I loved as much as Beauty & the Beast. In my last book, Deliciously Decorated, I designed a cake inspired by this wonderful film and have loved it ever since I saw it in the cinema on its first release because, yes, I am that old. I had to have the video the day that it came out – I recall that it was my birthday week and I had pulled out a loose baby tooth on a caramel and consoled myself with the film. I cannot wait for the live action film in March 2017 and have a feeling that I’ll go see it more than once.
So that Frozen made me even question sharing the accolade of ‘my favourite Disney film’ was a pretty big deal.
I didn’t see the film in the cinema. To be honest, I was crazy busy and fairly broke and just plain missed it. The hysteria that surrounded the movie happened on the periphery of my social media and in the world at large but not to me. It wasn’t until the DVD release that I finally sat myself down and watched.
That the film is essentially a love story between sisters was an obvious draw for me. Whilst I don’t have a biological sister (I have a wonderful baby brother), I have several adopted sisters; friends who mean that much more to me and I could not love more if we were related.
To think that Frozen, through its catchy songs, wisecracking jokes, and ridiculously likeable sidekicks could be showing young girls the importance of sisterhood makes me optimistic in these frought times. I will never in a million years understand women who do not like other women. I am not talking about liking ALL women as there are millions of us! There are many that I dislike because I do not agree with their politics (Marine Le Pen, Sarah Palin, the women who voted for Trump and Farage like turkeys voting for Christmas, et al) but support their right to be egregious. There are women that I do not understand as I cannot relate to them, but I support their freedom to live how they see fit. However, where there are women who exist in the same little world as I do, my instinct is to build them up and support them rather than tear them down.
I support my sisters and will do everything in my power to help them achieve their goals – even if those goals are the same as mine. This is not always easily done, though it is easily said; sometimes we all want to retreat to an ice palace, shut everyone out, and be Queen of the world, but together we are so much stronger. It’s wonderful to think of the modern Disney perhaps moving away from a world of jealous, spiteful, ‘ugly’ sisters and wicked stepmothers, towards the occasional functional female relationship. I find Elsa and Anna inspiring and would love to bake them a huge Chocolate Mud Cake with Chocolate Cheesecake Frosting.
One of my enduring memories of my love of Frozen will always be dancing and singing along to Let it Go under a flurry of synthetic snow at a corporate party. Two other grown-ups were dancing and they shouted to me, “how old are your kids?” Enormous grin on my tipsy face, I found the space in an appropriate instrumental moment to reply, “I don’t have kids!” and realised that I am just a giant 6 yr old with a mortgage. Aren’t we all!
That’s it… day off… sofa calling. See you tomorrow.
Stay gorgeous!
Cxx
