Clarissa Writes: I can still remember the day in 1983, at the age of 36, when I obtained a new cooking job I very much wanted. As I was leaving the interview, my new boss remarked quite casually: ‘Oh and we always like to have a cake or two knocking about.’ I dashed in panic to my greatest friend saying, ‘I can’t take the job, I’ve never baked a cake in my life’ (that wasn’t true–I did when I was 11 and invented the Frisbee!). As so often before, she convinced me to try, and I spent a week in her house learning to bake. I went on to win a prize in a competition organised by that SAS of British cookery, the Women’s Institute… . The moral of this story is to reassure you that anyone can learn if they are willing or desperate enough. True pâtissières are born, not made: they have iced water in the veins of their hands, are thin and nervous from the strains of perfection and carry letter scales with their cooking equipment. I am not one of their number, but I get real pleasure from baking and I have learnt certain things.
