It was a summer evening, nothing special about the day. She bought all the ingredients and said that she’ll make the lemon tart. So I told Emily that she better get on it because I expect to have some cake for breakfast. I went to dreamland with a happy smile on my face.

The morning dawned and I went looking for some cake but there was none to be found. She didn’t make it. Damn her and her empty promises! I will never trust Australians. All they do is raise your hopes and expectations but when push comes to shove they never deliver.

I decided to take matters into my own hands. I don’t need her! I can make my own bloody cake.

That’s how it started. I made my first lemon tart from a cookbook and it was a great success.

Soon afterwards I decided that I will make every recipe from that book. It’s another item on my bucket list. I’ve tried other cookbooks but some recipes ended up costing me about $50 each and were too fancy for my taste. This book was different.

Fast forward about 5 months… today I made the last recipe from Merle’s Kitchen by Merle Parrish. I’ve made cakes, puddings, slices, desserts, sponges, cupcakes, scones, bread loafs, biscuits and cookies – a total of 103 recipes. Most of them turned out really well but I had several epic failures too.

Every time I call my mom she asks me about my diet. I always tell her that I eat cakes and such. It’s also the food which has fueled my marathon training.

Mmm… carbs!!!

About a week ago I ran 42.2 km on one of my training runs and added another 80 km in the next 7 days. That’s the power of cake!

Ivar the MasterChef

Here are the photos: