Letterpress, cakes & books at The Hours in Brecon

There's a great bookshop in Brecon called The Hours. It's an old building, crowded full with books, and at the back a cafe - a perfect combination. I have been letterpress printing for them.

I was asked to letterpress print some labels for the cakes! Unexpectedly precise printing for me, but rather fun, choosing a font, and some ornament. Dark brown was requested, very stylish!

I have used a lovely font called Bologna, which has one of the cutest ampersands ever.

And then cakes are labelled! I love the shining cake domes.

I was rather pleased with them, and the cakes are truly delicious.

Thanks to Nicky and Leigh of The Hours. If you're in Brecon, go and buy a book and then drink tea, eat cake, and start to read - what better way to spend a rainy Welsh summer's day! Here's a link to The Hours facebook page.
http://on.fb.me/1HIJAhQ

Lohengrin. opera. sandwiches. cake

I usually expect to doze comfortably through the second act of an opera, and awake with some good ideas for poetry in my mind. However, the WNO production of Lohengrin at Wales Millenium Centre this evening was so thrilling and beautiful that I stayed conscious for the whole evening.

Our usual Wagner tribute picnic in the two intervals celebrated the swan, of course. Here are the sandwiches, photographed on a stylish leatherette seat;

and here is the cake, with a curiously relevant cake tin in the background;

Haiku. cake ingredients

I always think about where ingredients come from, and I love the idea that the seasons and sunshine from a far off land arrive in my kitchen and are transformed into cake. Perhaps that's why cakes taste so good in the winter.

cherry & almond cake
comfort of warm fruits -
ripening in distant lands,
homely sunshine taste

www.francescakay.co.uk

Haiku. Baking. Magic.

I cannot believe that baking is about science. It's alchemy. How else can lemon cake be explained? The haiku is below, in case my writing isn't very clear.

oven incubates -
ingredients mix, transform
alchemy of cake.

www.francescakay.co.uk