Yes Please, Mr. Kipling

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a cake snob.  I don't care if it cost £0.70 or £12.  If it tastes good and it's in the form of cake, I'm probably going to eat it.  "Wow," said my mom on Skype.  "Wow, what?" I asked, irratibly.  "I hope you're working off those calories you're consuming.  You've been baking and eating cakes every weekend!"  I'm pretty sure that she's unaware that I feed 80% of such cakes to the office and John (who, even after a while, despite his love of carrot cake, declines the 8th slice).  However, I took her criticism concern to heart and started training for a 10k (which I do plan on running ... sometime).

Last night, John and I accidentally had Christmas dinner.  I say "accidentally" because we didn't mean for it to happen.  You see, over the weekend, M&S had this great deal on roasting joints - £4.99 for honey glazed ham, bacon and stuffed turkey, and pork with crackling, to be exact.  So we kind of went crazy.  And then, John decided to make roast potatoes and parsnips last night (because he's only slightly obsessed with parsnips).  And we had some frozen peas (no brussel sprouts, which are traditional here at Christmas time) on the side.  AND, in the absence of cranberry sauce, we substituted it for Bramley apple sauce, which worked just as well.  But because I didn't know John was making the roast potatoes, I had stopped by Tesco to pick up some mash instead and on my way to the till, something caught my eye.

It was that lovely red box above (ok, it wasn't exactly the same because technically, I bought Bakewell slices, not Bakewell tarts), with an accompanying yellow sign that read "SPECIAL: £1.00".  Despite all the cakes and cookies I had eaten in the past week, something told me that I we needed these Mr. Kipling treats.  Now, in case you're unfamiliar, Mr. Kipling produces some of the tastiest, individually packaged grocery-store-type cake slices and tarts known to Britain.  And I'm not being dramatic.  My particular favorites are the Bakewell tarts (or slices), which I'm pretty sure you can't get in the States, and which have an almond and cherry jam filling.  Oh. My. God.  It's seriously, so good (so good that John ended up having one slice last night and I had three, then polished the other two off for breakfast this morning.  Um, oops?  In my defense, they're only little ... ).  But Bakewell tarts are only a fraction of the wide array of baked goods Mr. Kipling has to offer: Viennese Whirls, Mini Bramley Apple Pies, French Fancies, Manor House Cake, Victoria Mini Sponge Cakes, Angel Slices ... my chances of becoming diabetic (for genetic reasons) are basically a no win situation.  So while I should really curb my sweet tooth now, I can't help but think that I should actually enjoy such sweets now, as I won't be able to one day.

What a depressing thought.  I need some cake to cheer me up.

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