Hello!
You know those days where your body hurts and you're just so tired and you're like [groans]
"This is poo, I just wanna give up on life."
You know what the best thing to do is? Bake a cake!
Yeah!
C: I'm gonna make your cake.
J: A special cake. C: It's a birthday cake!
'Cause it's a sugar-free, gluten-free,
low FODMAP birthday cake.
For me! Yaaay.
So, the original recipe says that we needed pecan flour.
J: But that is something that I don't think they even sell in England.
C: No, it doesn't matter. Look, it says here, "If you don't have coconut flour or pecan flour,
you can swap for regular flour instead."
C: What?
J: Sorry? Sorry, what? C: That doesn't make it gluten-free any more!
If you don't have the gluten-free substitutes, you could just not be gluten-free!
C: "Don't worry! Just use normal flour."
C: OK, well, we'll use almond flour instead. J: Yeah, we're gonna go with almond flour.
C: 'K. J: None of that rubbish.
J: OK, so not regular flour, but what are the other ingredients?
C: Er, right, let's list them! Ready?
C: Ready.
C: You're meant to say, "Ready"! J: Ready!
C: "Ready? "Ready" - I'm just talking to myself, yeah.
Slight drama in that I forgot, when our kitchen got re-done
(which you remember because we did a kitchen getting re-done vlog),
that one of my cake pans was mouldy, so I only have one
from my layered cake tin,
but it's OK because I have this Pyrex disc--dish,
which is the same size, so it should be OK.
Except Pyrex doesn't cook the same, because obviously it's not metal.
Mmm, close-up, close-up.
So I'm greasing it
with this coconut butter.
Yeah, Claudia had to check mumsnet just to make sure we could do it.
C: Whether or not Pyrex was even an option.
It'll be fine! Look. We'll put some Pyrex--we'll put some paper in.
I love baking cakes.
It's one of my favourite things to do in the world.
I don't feel like I do it enough.
C: No? J: No.
C: It's because I'm not a big fan.
J: See? Yeah! C: And you don't eat them.
J: If there were more people in this house who ate cakes, I would definitely bake a lot of cakes.
When we have children, I'm gonna bake cakes.
Lots.
All the time! It'll be amazing.
J: Why couldn't they have sugar-free tea? C: Unless they're rebellious children.
J: Well. I can make very nice sugar-free cakes!
They can just have some really nice sugar-free cakes.
J: Your face.
J: "Mm. I don't really believe that, Jessica."
C: Look. That's quite a lot of egg white.
J: Yeah.
J: OK, so the recipe says that we need 400 grams of SPLENDA®
but this is 200 grams!
J: Look at how much that is!
J: That's so much.
C: Shall we just not--shall we not...? J: Maybe we just leave it at that.
C: Yeah, maybe. J: I think that's OK.
J: And look at the size of the other ingredients!
J: And then the size of the sweetener.
J: Who wrote this recipe? C: I don't know, but...
J: We're not doing that recipe now. We're not doing that. That's not happening.
J: It's gonna be--
C: [Sadly] I failed. J: We'll do the rest--you haven't failed; it's not you! It's OK.
J: All right. We're gonna do a hundred and twenty...
grams of the sweetener.
That's what we're going with.
So we've had a little break in baking
so that Claud's Chicken Kiev can go in the oven.
J: Oop. There we go.
J: She's not feeling too good, so she's having a sit down on the sofa with the doggies
but poor thing. She's feeling a bit bad about it
because she wanted to bake me a birthday cake, which is so sweet.
But it's OK, because I always bake my own birthday cake. I think I have for as long as I can remember.
(But I don't mind.)
I actually love baking; it's really fun.
I used to make like 'crazy cakes'
for various things
Like I made a cake in the shape of a wave, because I was in a cheerleading squad called The Waves.
Yeah, I was in a cheerleading squad.
I know. How well did I do?
Not.
And...oh, my brother - I always made him amazing birthday cakes.
I made him a cake, I think, of the shape of a dinosaur once.
3D t-rex
That was quite cool.
Made...
oh, just loads of stuff, actually.
Oh, I made a cake for my little cousin that looked just like a present,
and it got put on a table with all of these other presents
and then when they cut into it, inside it was a rainbow layer cake.
And I once totally got away with,
for my English Literature coursework at A-levels,
we were supposed to do a presentation
about 'A Room with a View,' so I made all of the characters from 'A Room with a View' out of marzipan
in period-specific costume
and did a presentation on that.
And at the end everyone got to eat one, and they were very happy, and I got 100%
on that coursework.
Hellooo!
It is the morning!
Clearly, we stopped filming
because we both got really tired.
But the cakes look really, really good, and today I'm going to ice them and whatnot.
Probably have to do it with my cousin, because she's about to arrive, I think, any moment.
Any moment.
And yeah, I'm icing my own cake today. Claud feels so bad about this and I really--she really shouldn't.
She's exhausted because she's been working every single day
in January, pretty much six days a week.
And she's just really tired
and she really wanted to make the cake, but baking, to be honest...it's not her thing.
And I love baking, and I really don't mind.
But she was quite sad this morning, going out thinking that--
that I would be sad she wasn't decorating my cake, but I'm genuinely not!
It's genuinely fine, and I really enjoy cake decorating anyway.
And then I'm going to take it off to the pub
where we're going to be meeting lots of friends and family, and just having a little
impromptu birthday bash for me.
Which I'm very, very excited by!
Also, this is the only thing
you're going to see--
We have a packing/planning vlog, which I think is coming out a week today, so next Monday
because that's the day we're actually flying.
It's going to go all the way right up to when we're flying.
And we're showing you what is currently in my wardrobe right now,
but it is literally three dresses.
I've given myself three dresses and I've realised no cardigans, except this one
to last me for...
nine days.
But I...OK. Yeah. I have four pair of knickers,
three dresses, and one cardigan
to last me for nine days.
There are going to be lots of mix and match outfits coming.
[Group singing 'Happy Birthday']
J: Yay! [Group applaud and cheer]
J: Yaaay. C: Yaaay.
J: Thank you!
J: Oh!
Z: Oh, my God! J: OK!
J: I feel... Z: That is enormous.
J: I feel like I should've made a bigger...