A sunny afternoon, I had just done some exercise, so thought I would start this recipe, then go for a shower and finish the cake in a leisurely fashion during the afternoon. Didn’t happen. Once I had started the sponge I kind of had to finish it, so it was a quick bake, needless to say I didn’t wait for the sponge to finish cooling down before I rolled it and wammo, not a good idea. It flopped and folded instead of rolled. 
Oh well, still tasted good and went down a treat. In fact, it was a public holiday so we had lunch in the sun with pancakes and fruit made by my daughter and that was delicious. The sun was bright, and it got me thinking about light, how important it is to us. It’s got so many functions, heat, illumination, guidance, protection, symbolism, spirituality, you name it. 
The moon was bright last night and as I looked at the stars I thought how everyone has their thing, their little bit of light that they want to shine into the world. Stars remind us of what we are reaching for: something bright to put into the world, but they also remind us of how far away our dreams are, how big they are, and that they are worth striving for. Now that’s deep! Onto the bake.
I made the licorice sponge first. I couldn’t get hold of any licorice essence so I chopped up some licorice and soaked it in boiling water.
I made the sponge with butter, sugar and egg whites, then added the licorice and food colouring (red + blue =purple), 
I couldn’t find black! 
I piped this in diagonal lines into the sponge roll tin. Then I whipped up the sponge – butter, sugar and eggs to the ribbon stage. Amazing how the texture of a substance can change just by beating and aerating it. 
I poured this over the purple stripes and baked for 12 minutes. 
Then turned it out onto the bench and flipped it over to cool. 
Meanwhile I made the butter icing- icing sugar and butter (funny that) and smoothed this over the cake. 
Then spread the jam over the top of the icing. I intended to leave this to cool while I went for a shower, but I forgot!! I got carried away and rolled it, 
and much to my disappointment it folded over instead of rolled.:(
Still good, edible and appreciated by all so that’s the main thing. Appearances aren’t everything are they. 🙂
