Sweet Contentment, Honey & Spice

We might bake a cake or prepare a pudding for friends coming round and I will add several sweet dishes to a savoury spread for a whisky experience but, on the whole, we eat fruit at the end of a meal instead of pudding. This was how I grew up too. In Africa we were spoilt with a choice of ripe juicy fruits and in Scotland we only ate puddings and cakes in the school holidays when our house was filled with friends and my grandmother had baked enough sweet treats to feed an army. My mother made some delicious puddings, including the best, chewiest meringues I have ever tasted, but she never ate them. She always preferred savoury things, but now that she has tragically succumbed to dementia her taste has changed. Perhaps, like the mind, the palate reverts to childhood, as my mother now devours sweet biscuits and cake whenever they are offered.