“I only remember the moment of sheer delight”

My food lightbulb moment isn’t very glamorous. I wasn’t abroad, ‘finding’ myself in Asia when I stumbled across a life-changing laksa. Neither was the food in question anything very refined or technically challenging.

No, the food that changed me was a very unglamorous sponge cake. We’ve always been a dessert family, and on one rainy afternoon during my childhood, my mother decided to let me help her make a cake.

I’ll always remember her casually explaining that “it’s just 4 ounces of everything and two eggs”.  I will always remember how she helped me measure out the caster sugar, Stork margarine and self-raising flour, showing me how to fold in the latter to ensure a lighter sponge.

I don’t remember making any sort of icing – although I’m sure we must have done, judging by our inherited sweet tooth gene. I only remember the moment of sheer delight upon discovering that those four easy-to-remember ingredients could become something so incredibly, well, delicious. And by my own hand too.

My journey into the world of food began with a sponge cake and I will forever hold dear the sweet (and savoury) culinary delights that moment precipitated.