#1 Red Velvet Slippers

Hannah: Hello and welcome to the first episode of Flour Power, a baking podcast with two 20 somethings waffling through our twenties together. We're so excited to be sharing this project with you.

Lotty: Each episode we choose a recipe to make together, despite being over 150 miles away from each other. While we're baking, we share our favorite things that we found recently, whether that's a new recipe or a book, or just something intriguing we've discovered as well as sharing a couple of little fudge ups because we're human, not perfect, and we make little fudge ups sometimes.

Hannah: In this episode, our very first episode, we are making red velvet cupcakes and sharing our origin story! So we each have our ingredients laid out and mostly ready to go.

Lotty:  I've turned on the mixer. Always a good start turning on your mixer.

Hannah: Mine's handheld.

Lotty: ah, see I've got an ancient behemoth that is probably from the 1980s.  It's not electrocuted me yet, so it's doing well.

Hannah: Well, there you go, that's what counts. Mine's brand new and that probably makes it terrible quality.

Lotty: Well, we'll, we'll have to see. I mean, I’ve already had one mixer blow up on me in the past. Not this one, but that was an experience! So hopefully we won't make it two for two. Okay, so my butter and sugar are nice and light, fluffy, so I'm going to now add my eggs.  And then I'm going to be beating them again.

Hannah: Right. Got there. I've got my butter and sugar together. Managed to drop my phone into the butter and sugar mixture while trying to record it for content, which is about right for me.

Lotty: I guess that's our first fudge up of the episode.

Hannah: that is, that is the fudge up on camera.  And I reckon it's recorded me dropping my phone into the bowl and then being like, oh! Right.  Turn the mixer up to high speed and slowly add the eggs and beat

Lotty: …the sides down and then

Hannah: Right…

Lotty: Next, we will be mixing together the cocoa and getting that lovely deep red velvet color.

Hannah: separate bowl mixed cocoa powder, red food coloring and vanilla extract.   I bought a really, really, really like thick red food coloring because you have to use loads of it to get actual red. I bought two tubes just in case one wasn't enough.

Lotty: Yours is going to be like violently blood red.  So cocoa powder...

Hannah: Yeah,

Lotty: and three tablespoons of water.

Hannah: they could be period cupcakes! Like celebrating menstrual health or you know,

Lotty: I think our original plan was Gal-engine’s day, but like menstruation is a very important topic.

Hannah: It could be like the blood of my enemies.  Oh, or, or what is the, the water. The water of the womb is thicker than the blood of the covenant.

Lotty: …Other way round. But yes, blood of the covenant is thick than the water of the womb.

Hannah: Well, that's what this represents.

Lotty: Basically, the family you choose is more important,

Hannah: And I would argue you are the family I have chosen. So

Lotty: Aww! ditto.  I mean, like I'm a sucker for found family in reality and in fiction, I think my favorite people I would consider found family, you know?

Hannah: this does look like straight up blood, and I still think it needs more red. You know?

Lotty: I mean, it's a red velvet cupcake. You can't really have too much red.

Hannah: I don't know. This looks pretty like…

Lotty: Ooh,

Hannah:  I reckon if you smeared this on a wall, someone would call the police!

Lotty: [Laughs] we're making a baking podcast, not a murder mystery podcast.

Hannah: No, but my favorite thing of the week - which is actually an excellent time to bring it up, is this audio book that I listened to called Killers Across the Table.  I'll add the authors into the description, but basically, it's like an FBI agent who like sat and had chats with famous serial killers in like a non-accusation [sic] way, just to genuinely understand what made them tick and in the least creepy way possible.

Sometimes they've got valid points or they make like logical next moves. Like there was a guy who like imprisoned a girl cause he out of anger, killed her boyfriend and then was like, well what the fuck do I do with her now? And was like, well I have to kill her because if I don't kill her then everyone will find out.

And like you can see the logic in that.

Lotty: I can see the logic, the logic's messed up, but I can see the logic.

Hannah: Like you can see where he dotted the i's and crossed the T's.  I'm not at any point saying he was right to, but I can see where he came to that conclusion.

Lotty: You know, that's actually reminding me a little bit of the protagonist in the book that I'm reading for my book club.

Hannah: Yeah.

Lotty: I'm not very far through it at the moment, but I recently. started reading a book called "Yellowface" by RF Kuang, which I hope I'm pronouncing correctly, where a white American author steals the manuscript from an Asian author who’s just had a very unfortunate accident and just passed away. - and passes off the manuscript as her own work once she's edited it and finished it.  And she receives critical acclaim from it because it's essentially like half plagiarized.  I'm just getting to the point in the book where the repercussions are starting to catch up with her and all the time that she's, I mean - spoilers probably for those who haven't read it – but all the time that she's like going through the editing process and the publishing process, she's justifying every step of like, oh, my friend Athena (the dead author) would've wanted me to do this. You know, the manuscript was just going to sit there wasting away, I am contributing to her memory.  And it leaves the reader wondering, you know, she's making a valid point, but does that make her correct? 

Hannah: No, and that's the, the same vibe as this book

Lotty: yeah.

Hannah: about serial killers is like, it talks about the psychology and how they get to this like, conclusion.

Lotty: Hmm.

Hannah:  But then it also talks about how some serial killers have helped create profiling techniques to help find other serial killers.

Lotty: hmm.

Hannah: So, they basically like created the template on which the FBI can now find and profile people based on who they've killed and why, which allows you to then prevent unnecessary future murder happening, or they pinpoint what in their childhood changed them, for example, so that you can see a kid where something happened to them and go, okay, well this happened.  They need some more support because this is what happened to someone else.

Lotty: I'm going to stir the… the blood mixture. I can't turn around the camera in this, but look at that.

Hannah: [Laughs] Nice and bloody.

Lotty: Blood velvet cupcakes, anyone?

Hannah: Yeah, Valentine's Day, but make it death.

Lotty: I mean, personally speaking, I think we should be trying to move away from a prison system.  I've done some research on prison systems in, for example, like the Nordic countries and honestly, they look so like comfortable, like they look like the kind of place one would go and come out. better, you know, rather than coming out more traumatized.

Hannah: 100%. And the aim should be rehabilitation, not punishment. Because a lot of acts, I agree, there are things that are totally unforgivable and people do horrible things to each other, but I'm not being funny. But people have always done horrible things to each other.

Lotty: Yeah. It's -

Hannah: we'll always -

Lotty: one of those parts of human nature. 

Hannah: People will always do horrible things to each other. And I'm not saying that it's okay cause I don't think it is, but then you have to understand where that comes from, like…

Lotty: You have to understand the why to try and prevent it, in the future. And by rehabilitating someone and trying to fix the root cause, it makes it a lot better. Like the reason Norway's prison system is so decent, they have such a low rate of committing second or multiple offenses is because people go back out with the skills they need to, to survive in the world, whereas places like the UK or the us, I mean, so many people either stay in prison far too long or they end up repeat offending because they have, they feel like they have no other option.

Hannah: Exactly. And you can see where they came to that conclusion… On the topic of blood, I have gotten blood all over my cookbook, and by blood, I mean cake batter,

Lotty: I, I was going to say, do you need -

Hannah: but for once,

Lotty: - first aid?

Hannah: no, for once it's not all over me, it's just all over my house. So, I'm spotless! But my house is not so much. But that's okay though.

Lotty: Usually, it's both.

Hannah: Yeah.

Lotty: I do have it over my hands, so I'm not doing great my end with my track record. 

Hannah: Like I think my hands are going to be stained like this, because it’s food dye.

Lotty: …occupational hazard.  Yeah.

Hannah: You can dye your hair with food dye.

Lotty: Oh, I should try that!

Hannah: Right? I've chucked the flour in and mixed it. All I need to add now is the vinegar and bicarb mixture.  And I am good to put in cupcake cases… and oh, it makes a fuzzy sound. Fuzzy, fizzy.  It's effervescent.  How weird.  I've not made these since we were kids

Lotty: I think I've made them with my partner once or twice. He loves red velvet, which just goes to show how good a taste he has.

Hannah: I have not made these since we were children, partially because I lost my Hummingbird Bakery book - which I reckon is at my parents' house. So, I bought another one because I couldn't possibly live without it. And there's so many good recipes in it. And when I got it, I was like, oh, this is great. It's not got any stains all over it. And the first time I baked something, I've just got red food dye all over it.

Lotty: It shows that it's going to be a very well-loved cookbook!

Hannah: Oh, definitely. And I intend to bake more stuff from this cookbook together.

Lotty: Yeah.

Hannah: I think that could be really nice.

Lotty: I think that'd be wonderful. I've got this fantastic cookbook that I was given last year by a TikTok-er and YouTuber called B Dylan Hollis called “Baking Yesteryear”, which is all sorts of weird and wacky recipes from years gone by. And when I say weird and wacky, I mean weird and wacky. I’ve done a couple of recipes from them, but there are some quite bizarre ones in there. There's chocolate sauerkraut cake - which surprisingly, has the same texture as coconut. Yeah. You don't taste sauerkraut! There’s a Jello poke cake, there's lime Jello fudge in there somewhere, which worked really well. There are all sorts of very fun cakes. There's a… there's a Watergate cake in there, which I think has something to do with the Watergate scandal, but I don't know enough about American politics to really comment on that… but there's just all sorts of brilliant recipes in there, and a couple of clangers right at the end for fun.  But yeah, there’s… it's quite a fun little cookbook really.

Hannah: I am excited for us to just do more baking like we did as children together while doing this. Like I remember that time that, do you remember those cupcakes that my nan made that were horrendous?

Lotty: Oh! [Laughs]

Hannah: The house just smelled bad for so long after where she always baked with self-raising flour, so she decided that the recipe must have been wrong, and we were like, what? Five, six? something like that. Not old enough to tell her that she was wrong.

Lotty: No...

Hannah: she put two heaped tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda in with plain flour and made what looked like Yorkshire pudding with chocolate chips in them - but were cupcakes and they were vile!

Lotty: Somehow, they looked better than they smelled, which is saying something.

Hannah: Yep. And I tried one and my mouth tasted like soap for the longest time!

Lotty: Oh my gosh, I don't think I tried any… think I very conveniently went home about that point.

Hannah: You were like: “Oh, I think I'm being called for dinner!” [both laugh] I think the kitchens smelled bad for about three weeks after that.

Lotty: Yeah… I think we were baking round at mine for a bit!

Hannah: I am going to try and do something fun that I saw on the internet, which is try to make heart shaped cupcakes.

Lotty: Oh, adorable. My friend tried that the other day., some of them, she told me 50 50, like half of them turned out beautifully. Half of them turned out looking like little mushrooms.  Which of itself is still very cute.

Hannah: I'm happy with that, you know, so we're just going to wing it and see how it goes.

Lotty: My life motto.

Hannah: I'm good at winging it.

Lotty:  Yeah, I've got to say this mixture a really lovely velvety color. Now I just want to double check something with you. Did you mix the bicarb and the vinegar together first, or did you put it straight into the mixture? Like as separate…

Hannah: I put it straight into the mixture

Lotty: Okay. That's good to know.  So, I'm -

Hannah: - because that's what it looks like it's asking me to do. I don't think it was awfully clear.

Lotty: I think you do a roll at the top and then two flat pieces at the side. I think.

Hannah: That's what I'm trying… Mm. This is not very easy.  I'm a girl who needs easy.

Lotty: Yeah, I'm just sticking to round cases. If I want hearts, I can decorate on top with them.

Hannah: I bought little heart shaped sprinkles to go on top

Lotty: Cute!

Hannah: Because I thought that would be really, really cute.  But I also want to try and make heart shaped cupcakes, at least like half and half.

Lotty: Yeah.  Cool. It's foaming.

Hannah: Ooh, yeah. I know. It made a really weird sound. But I feel like if any cupcake was made to be heart shaped, it was red velvet…I don't know if this is going to work… You can buy heart shaped cupcake cases. Why did I not just buy one of those? [Laughs]

Lotty: I think just like the recipe for red velvet cupcake itself, trust the process.  Like red velvet is one of those things where you, you look at the ingredients and you think buttermilk? Vinegar? And you just wonder whether it's even going to taste vaguely cake, like let alone be a cake. And then it turns out wonderfully.

Hannah: I am just going to do it for I think three, because the two that I've done do not look great. I'm not going to lie.  So, I am going to just do it for a couple, because then if they don't look that good, it doesn't matter.

Lotty: You can call those the test pieces. You and your partner can just share them as like, you know, there's the baker's dozen.

Hannah: I can take them to the office as an oopsie.

Lotty: Exactly.  I don't think these will survive going to the office. I'm going over to my partner's tomorrow

Hannah: That is where they shall be devoured.

Lotty: Yeah. I, I doubt that I'll come home with a full box, let's put it that way. Or even it’s more likely I'll come home with an empty box.  These will not see the office.

Hannah: [Laughs] Whereas I’m in the office tomorrow 

Lotty:  I'm not until Thursday,

Hannah: Thursday is my first day at home.

Lotty: Oh, see, I, because the UK is under yet more train strikes as of recording, I couldn't go into the office today, which is one of my normal days in, so I went in yesterday morning instead, and it wasn't too bad actually, Mondays are a fairly quiet day. Tuesdays are normally the busy ones. 

Hannah: The traffic today was absolutely vile. I was fuming.

Lotty: Oh, my goodness.

Hannah: It took so much longer than it should do.  I decided to have a lie-in rather than going to the gym before work like I normally do, because I knew we'd be up late doing this.  And that is late for me cause I'm a little baby and I go to bed at like 10:00 PM but that's because I get up at 5 45. So, I think it's understandable.

Lotty: I still can't do that. I still have not discovered what it takes to be a morning person.

Hannah: No.

Lotty: I discovered that it's actually worth getting up a little bit earlier than just, rolling out with bed and just going, because I had to take an earlier train yesterday and had time miraculously in the morning to like, sit down at a cafe before I needed to be at work and have hot chocolate before my walk to work, which honestly wonderful. I ought to do that more often, but normally, I'm always rushing out the door, trying not to, like, to drop anything.

Hannah: So, then you are in such a rush, you don't even get a chance to do anything like that.

Lotty: Exactly. I think most of the time I remember breakfast, but to, the detriment of at least one other thing at any given time.

Hannah: See, the only way that I ever remember breakfast is by having it already made. So, I have porridge for breakfast on days that I'm in the office and I make two lots of porridge on a Sunday night for Monday and Tuesday, and two lots of porridge on a Wednesday night for Thursday and Friday.

Lotty: That's a very good idea.

Hannah: And that works pretty well for me because I do oats and oat milk and then just chuck it in the fridge and then I just take those to work and microwave them

Lotty: That's a brilliant idea. Do you add anything or is it just the oats?

Hannah: I just put chocolate chips on top because they'll melt

Lotty: Lovely.

Hannah: And I can keep some chocolate chips in my drawer at work, and then I don't have to remember anything else.

Lotty: That's ideal.

Hannah: Traditionally, I love a bit of just straight up sugary porridge, but I find with oat milk, it just doesn't quite taste the same as normal milk,

Lotty: Yeah. Yeah.

Hannah: and I really can't have normal milk anymore, so...

Lotty: I mean oat milk, like of all of these substitutes for dairy milk that you can have oat milk's my favorite, mostly because I can't drink most of the other substitutes.

Hannah: All right, these are probably ready to go into the oven.

Lotty: Nice! - as we'll probably discuss in later episodes: I have a nut allergy and a peanut allergy, which has caused no end of issues, but it does mean that if I want to switch from dairy milk to a different option, oat milk is my only real bet.  I think the only reason I haven't actually made the switch is whenever my Mum has come over who basically lives and breathes tea, If I don't have dairy milk when she comes over, she will give me the saddest expression. She just will not touch oat milk with a 10-foot barge pole.  Personally, I think she's kind of missing out, but you know, to each their own.

Hannah: Well, yeah, you never know what you don't know until you try.

Lotty: Exactly.  Ahh! Oh dear.  Well, I've just had my own little fudge up here - that did not want to go in the cupcake case.

Hannah: I've got some all over my counter.

Lotty: I - give it time. I will do that too!

Hannah: Speaking of fudge ups, my fudge up this week is that I managed to successfully buy a ready meal at M & S before 8:00 AM - I'd been to the gym. I was showered, I was dressed, I was ready. I felt like a boss.  I walked in there; I picked up a reduced ready meal. I felt like a queen. I was like £3.50 for lunch. Amazing. Doing a great job. Mac and cheese. Sounds great. So excited. Went to the checkout, paid for it. Went to work, put it in the fridge, having a great time. Went to microwave it and realized it was tin. [Laughs]

Lotty: Oh no, you didn't-!

Hannah: because it was one of those oven ready meals.

Lotty: Oh, no.

Hannah: Thank goodness I did not. But it was fine and it, it meant I like had to leave my desk at lunchtime and it was quite a stressful day. So, it worked out better than expected but still was not ideal because I spent this money on a meal, which I then, by the way, left at the office and is still there today because I was like rushing to leave today. And I was like, “oh, I need to remember that ready meal!” Anything I put in that fridge, just, it, it goes there to die.  Like if I don't eat it that day, it just, it comes out moldy. I just, I don't make the rules.  I forget that it exists.

Lotty: I have the same thing. I, don't tend to use the work fridge because I know I'll forget what I've put in there or what, whether it's mine and.  I would hate to just pick up somebody else's lunch. Like that would be my most embarrassing, like work nightmare, I think. So, I just take...

Hannah: See, I share a fridge with just one other person.

Lotty: That's decent. I share mine with about 22 other people and it's usually filled with milk and a couple of jars of like unknown pickle that's been shoved to the back I don't know who owns that. So just don't trust the fridge really.

Hannah: Understandable.

Lotty: I mean, my fudge up was also food related this week. So, I recently started ordering an organic veg box. cause you know, I'm trying to do a little bit more for the planet so I've started ordering this organic veg box from a fairly local supplier. and I'm on my second box now. Which box number one was great! I had like, I had potatoes, I had beet root, I had carrots, I had celery… like an awful lot of, root veg which I did some quite exciting things with. So, this week I thought, okay, I'll get myself a, quick meals kind of box, you know, meals in under 30 minutes kind of thing. So, salads, peppers, that sort of stuff, which is fantastic. I was very excited for my box and was eagerly awaiting when it arrived on Wednesday. I opened the box and I found yet another whole stick of celery, when I still had three quarters of the last box’s celery. So, my fudge-up was just… too much celery.  I don't love celery at the best of times. But I am trying to branch out in what I eat and trying to explore more foods. So, to try and fix the celery problem, I made myself a huge batch of soup last night, which turned out really nicely, actually very creamy. so, while I'm going to try not to repeat the celery incident, I think I actually like the vegetable now, which is a nice change.

 Hannah: It is a pretty good outcome.

Lotty: I'd say so, yeah.  And I've now discovered that I quite like celery soup.  So, win-win.

Hannah: It sounds like a win. I am very glad that it worked out for you.

Hannah: I'm pretty good at making little fudge ups.  I mean, as is everyone. My kitchen currently looks like I killed someone... Like if someone broke in right now and saw this mess all over my hands, the what looks like blood up the walls and I like fainted.  Immediately someone would be like, “her boyfriend's killed her! I dunno what happened. They have an argument. That's it.”

Lotty: [laughs] Oh my gosh.

Hannah: "We haven't had an argument! I just wanted cupcakes!"

Lotty: If your boyfriend burst in and was like, “Hannah, what have you done? There's this blood everywhere!” Like, no, it’s just cupcakes.

Hannah: Exactly that.  So, I thought I would share with you my, my Fresh Finds. So, my Fresh Find is my big water cups I have three of these.  I went from one to three in about a month.  It's not my fault! [laughs] I bought one and then I broke the lid slightly… so I gave it to my boyfriend because I love him… and I didn't want the broken one. I don't like having to fill cups up all the time, right? And it holds two liters. It's insulated, and they were like 15 quid. So, I bought one, instantly loved it. It went everywhere with me. It was always by my side. I only have to fill it up once a day to get my like minimum recommended allowance. I can fill it up twice if I feel like I'm being a boss and drinking two of these in a day? Perfectly hydrated. My skin has never been better.  So, then I bought a second one because it was holographic and I couldn't not buy the holographic one. Like are you kidding me?

Lotty: You had to get it a friend.

Hannah: It was a black holographic cup! Wait a minute, I have to get this for you because you'll see what I mean. It is everything!   It didn't take me long to find because it's now my sofa cup.  But look at this!

Lotty: Oh, pretty!

Hannah: You can just about see the rainbow shift. Okay, so this is my holographic one. This is me at home water bottle, and this is my Respectable Office water bottle, which I bought for my friend Natalia. And when she sees this, I did buy this for you and then decided that I thought I would love it more…! [both laugh] but I, it's, I bought you other stuff for your birthday, so it's fine! But I did originally buy this for you because it's gray and black and then decided that I wanted it.  

Lotty: My fresh find is something that you, or more accurately your partner recommended to me as we were preparing for this podcast, which are these two little earbuds.  They're JVC wireless earbuds. Now I've been a wired earphones only kind of person since I've had wired earphones, which is probably about 10 years at this point. ' Cause I grew up with a teeny little iPod, which didn't have a screen, and I was obsessed.  And for the longest time I thought, “oh no, I can't get wireless earbuds. I will lose them. I'm notorious for losing things.”

Hannah: Same.

Lotty: I'll be happy to report I've had these for about three weeks now, and I haven't lost them yet! They have been a game changer, particularly when going to the gym because I'm not great with things like bright lights and loud environments and lots of different people. And as you well know, the gym is full of all three of these things. However, I still want to get my workout in. I still want to get strong but hadn't really had the full motivation of going when I knew it was going to be a little bit of a sensory nightmare. These, I can just tune everything else out. Like I can put my little punk tunes on. I can just have some, some like emo or rock or whatever I like blasting in my ears while everyone else is listening to the kind of mediocre tech music that my local gym likes to play. And I can just lose myself in my music and take things at my own pace.  it's brilliant. Like it's actually made going to the gym genuinely fun, which honestly, I think that's pretty awesome.

Hannah: Yeah, I, I can't disagree. I remember thinking the exact same thing as you. And like the phone that I bought, I specifically bought it because it's the last Samsung model that has a headphone jack, which I now never use.  So could have just upgraded and spent the same amount of money on the newer model, but whatever, you live and you learn. And I was adamant that the whole thing that had like protected my phone from drops, you know, when you like drop your phone and the headphones cord saved your life. [laughs]

Lotty: Yeah.

Hannah: I do that all the time and I was convinced that without that I'd be screwed. Or I'd leave my phone somewhere or I'd lose my headphones because they were always wrapped around my phone. That was the thing that I feel like everybody did with their first iPod is you had your headphones always plugged into it and just wrapped around.

Lotty: Oh yeah definitely.

Hannah: For every time you wanted to listen. So, I was convinced, convinced that I would lose them. And I now have two sets because I love them that much. I have these ones, which is the original, like Samsung Buds. And I lost the case, because I was wearing the headphones into Tesco's. I find supermarkets a bit overwhelming. It's so bright in there, and sometimes it can be unbearably loud and I would find going to the supermarket so panic inducing, but I would go food shopping at 6:00 AM on a Monday because no other fucker is doing their food shopping at 6:00 AM on a Monday. It made me feel like I had my shit together, but also it was so much less overwhelming. 

Lotty: Agreed.

Hannah: And now I can go food shopping at a normal time, like a normal person and I could get the train, I could spend all day in town. I can go walk around the shops for. A considerable amount of time and not feel that worn down feeling that you get, especially if you're not neurotypical,

Lotty: Mm.

Hannah: Where like… just the noise of a day is just too much. And I wear one in my ear all the time while I'm at work. Half the time there's not even anything playing. The other half of the time there's an audio book because I find it really easy to continue to focus with something like that in the background,

Lotty: Yeah, absolutely. I, have need of a soundtrack most of my life. I like the idea of life being like a movie, so having my own little personal soundtrack to get lost in my own little world? I love that.  So yeah, earphones, particularly wireless ones are definite game changers.

 Lotty: Hannah and I can trace our friendship back at least 20 years at this point, which I personally think is pretty awesome. We originally met when her family moved in across the road from mine, and we'd waved each other across the street going to school. We went to different schools, but sort of had the same morning routine.  and I remember -

Hannah: Same morning routine! You used to get up when I left for school! [laughs] I would see you every morning as you opened your curtains. I remember thinking to myself, I wonder who that little girl is who wakes up like an hour after I do every day. [laughs]

Lotty: To be fair, my school was a lot closer than yours.

Hannah: Yeah. I don't know why my mom decided to send us to school so far away, but, she did. So, I always had a hefty commute to school and that never changed. I continued to find difficult and far places to live or go to school or work. Like I currently work 30 miles away from my house...

Lotty:  I could never, but yeah, so we’d wave at each other across the street. Hannah, about to get into her mom's car to go to school. Me probably still in my pajamas, waving from my parents' front window. One

Hannah: [whispering] Definitely still in her pajamas. Definitely not yet awake.

Lotty: [laughs] One summer I was going to have a little birthday party with some friends and little 4-year-old, me was like, “oh, I'm going to see if the girl across the road wants to join.” So, little me grabbed my dad's hand, dragged him across the street and knocked on her front door and invited her to my birthday party. And I guess as they say, the rest is history.

Hannah: We didn't know it then (Or I guess we did know it then, but separately) our birthdays are only three days apart, so we were born in the same year, three days apart. And we have had a plethora of shared birthdays since then, and probably we'll continue to do so in the future. As children, living across the road from your best friend is the best thing.

Lotty: I just remember constantly going, can I go to Lotty’s?  To my mom? And I imagine the same thing as, can I go see Hannah? Can I go see Hannah? Can I go out and play with Hannah?

Hannah: Oftentimes I would get home and not five minutes after I've dropped my school bags, I'd go, I want to go see Hannah. Can I, can I go over the road? And then I'd probably be out the door before they even said “yes” or “no”, or “dinner time’s at this time”. Like I just, I'd go over to yours I think practically every day after school. It was amazing.

Hannah: Oh, and in typical Lotty fashion, as is still the case, you would not remember what time dinner was or you wouldn't check what time it was and your mom and dad would have to come get you because you would've forgotten! [laughs]

Lotty: Every single time… 

Hannah: pretty much every single time.

Lotty: We’d be in the middle of something, then like your doorbell would go and it'd be my mom going, “you know, Charlotte was meant to be home about 20 minutes ago, right?“

Hannah: No, and we also used to do a thing where - Do you remember when I used to have the bigger bedroom? And it was across from your parents' bedroom, and you would come and look out the window to see if I was looking. This was before like phones and being able to like text each other on the internet. We were like 10 years old and you'd just, I would just stand in the window waiting.[Laughs] for you to come into your parents' bedroom, because then I'd wave at you and then we would decide whose house we were going to, [laughs] we basically had like sign language because our houses were directly opposite. Our parents still live opposite each other and are still like good friends and speak to each other all the time. So, we just used to wave at each other. I'm sure that our neighbors thought we were mad… with like dollies being carried from one house to another and trolleyed across.  I used to go to Charlotte's house with no shoes on ever. I don't remember ever putting my shoes on. If you were lucky, I came over in socks.

Lotty: But you would not go home in your socks. At some point, they would be lost at mine and show up in our laundry about three weeks later! [laughs]

Hannah: Yeah, or I would come over barefoot with bits of gravel in my feet because I decided that, and our road was, and still is filled with potholes, so it wasn't like perfectly smooth and nice to walk on. I used to like tiptoe across because it was painful, but it was too much effort for me to have to put my shoes on. And I was really bad with learning to tie my shoe laces, so I didn't want to sit there for five minutes, hang my shoes on, to like take them back off again on the other side. It was like 30 seconds across the road.  And the fact that I did not cut my feet on something is actually incredible.

Lotty: I think that's a small miracle. 

Hannah: You were much more intelligent and would put shoes on.

Lotty: it was, it was less that and more. I wouldn't be allowed out the house unless I had shoes on. Like no matter how much I begged, it'd be “No, no, no. You are putting your shoes on first.  Okay.  Now you can go.”

Hannah: that is a respectable choice.

Lotty: I mean, for my poor feet probably. Yeah. I do also remember, aside from carting dolls and teddies and stuff across the streets, day in, day out, we'd also cart like sleepover stuff, every so often. We’d have so many sleepovers.

Hannah: Yeah. We really would.

Lotty: At one point or another, it was probably as if we lived around each other's houses.

Hannah: Oh, yeah. I, I'm sure that when we were like 10 to like 13, it was basically every single weekend we had a sleepover. Unless one of us was doing something, it wasn't there.

Lotty: Oh yeah. I mean, I think this is possibly where my whole concept behind it taking a village to raise a kid comes from, because that's how I was raised and how you were raised. Like it would be the kind of thing where we, we were just coexisting in tandem. Like that just makes sense.

Hannah: Oh yeah. We were, we were so close to sisters without being sisters. Like we went to different schools. We didn’t usually have all the same hobbies like we did kayaking together. But other than that, we mostly did separate out-of-school activities.

Lotty: I was very musical and so like, I would usually be doing, ensembles, orchestras, choirs, either like during my lunch break or after school. And even then, I'd still try and come over to yours afterwards.

Hannah: I remember going to some of your piano lessons because I would beg to be allowed to go.

Lotty: Yes! It was great.

Hannah: and your dad would be like, "you can come with me to pick her up" and I'd be like, "yeah!"

Lotty: I loved that.  like, it would be the nicest surprise because I wouldn't know that you were coming. And so, like, you know, seeing you in my dad's car.  Would kind of just be the loveliest thing, after a lesson.

Hannah: My cupcakes have just come out. I'm very excited. The heart shaped ones they look interesting! [both laugh] We'll call them.  I'm glad I've not done all heart shaped ones.  I just remember having a childhood where you grew up across the road from your best friend has made us really strong friends. And I'm not going to glorify it and say that we've had the easiest friendship ever because we haven't. We've had ups and downs. We had like times in our teenage years where we didn't see things from the same perspective and we weren't on the same page. But because of that, I think we're stronger. We have a really strong foundation and you understand me and know me in a way that most if not all, other people just don't. And that's how I feel about you as well. I can look at you and be like. She's stressed.  Let me fix it.

Lotty:  [Laughs] Yeah. Ditto, like, we had a couple technical issues just before we hit record, I was getting quite flustered as I typically do, and Hannah was just like, okay, breathe. We'll get through this. We're doing wonderfully. It's okay.  And I think from, practically anyone else, that would make me feel like, I don't know… I'd feel bad for feeling bad, but when Hannah says it, it's like, no, it's actually okay. It's genuinely all chill.  We've got this like; I think we both believe in each other so much that we start believing in ourselves like by proxy.  and I, I love that about us.

Hannah: Definitely you are a, a friendship that has overcome so much and my life is infinitely better for having you in it.

Lotty: Aww.

Hannah: And we're, you know, like we're only just getting started. We're turning 25 this year. We're going to celebrate 25 with a bang. We're going to have a fabulous year.

Lotty: You know, I can't believe we're turning 25, like I know we're waffling through our twenties, but how are we already this, like at, almost at the halfway mark?

Hannah: we're not at the halfway mark. We're almost [laughs]

Lotty: I, I did say almost. [laughs]

Hannah: I'm not willing to accept that I'm turning 25.  I am not ready! I'm too young! I've been taking the mick out of my boyfriend for a really long time about being old, but now I am going to be old, but not old, but like older.

Lotty: Older. Yeah.

Hannah: But I, I've decided that this is, this is my year or our year of like doing the things that a stereotypical 20-year-old does. Like I've never been to a festival this year manifesting it. We're both going to two festivals. I am sold, I was saying this to Ash earlier. I was like, I just want to do things I was in a car accident last year. I have been in pain for about 10 months. My pain has not gone away. I am tired of laying on the sofa and feeling sorry for myself. I've done that. Ticked the box, right? I've done that. I've been in pain. I've cried about it. My body may never be the same again, and that will suck.  But what would suck more is for it to suck all the life out of me. I've always been rebellious, loud crazy, doing insane things that everybody else would be like, what are you doing? And then there's just me happily like hiking in the snow, like a crazy person. But I have like fantastic memories from doing things like that by myself or doing it with people that I love. And that kind of felt like it stopped because I couldn't physically do things.  And while I still can't physically do what I could do before.  There's no use in me just sitting, being miserable about it. Like I can record a podcast by making cupcakes with my friend.  Whether this becomes a big thing or not, we get to keep this forever.  And that means so much to me.  I may not be able to stand up for a long period of time anymore or walk around or do the hiking that I used to. Because I used to go on ridiculous hikes by myself at really early hours of the morning.  And it's okay if I can't do that anymore.  It's okay if it takes me a while to get back to it, but I want to start living again. I spent last year surviving 2023, the year of survival, 2024, the year of thrive.  That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do everything fun that I fucking want to, and it's starting here, starting now. I wanted to start a podcast. We're starting a podcast. I want to go and lay on a beach. I'm going to lay on a beach in March…I'm going to go to Germany in April, we are going to go to either Berlin or Hamburg because my partner loves Germany. I've started learning German. We'll get there, we'll do a GCSE in it, manifest it.  But like I, I want to fill this year with wonderful stuff.

Lotty: If the camera didn't pick that up. I just had a little anime moment where I opened the oven and my glasses completely steamed up. [Hannah laughs] I love that. I, I, I love being a glasses wearer. I've worn these things since I was about 12. I'm still not used to them.

Hannah: See, I wear glasses at work now.

Lotty: You do?

Hannah: just blue lights ones. I don't need any lenses.

Lotty: Lucky.

Hannah: but it really helps me not have headaches

Lotty: That's very good.

Hannah: or like the eye tiredness.

Lotty: The last thing you want is eye strain. because that sucks. I mean, mine is just good old-fashioned astigmatism, which, you know, it's one of those things really, but still haven't quite got used to the glasses despite wearing them over a decade.  But yeah, I think, I mean, 2024, get to do as much in 2023 as I really wanted to. Because I had bunch of different things happening in my life that I probably won't divulge on the podcast because it is personal. But it does mean that I didn't get to do all the things I wanted to do with my year. So rather than thinking I'm doing 2024 stuff to make up for it, I'm just, a nice fresh slate. It's a nice clean start where I get to do the things in 2024 that I want to do in 2024. Rather than going, it's 2023, 2.0. Like it’s, you know, 2023…

Hannah: It is definitely not. I'm just, I'm going to take, I’m going to take the lessons of 2023, which in all honesty taught me to like take a break, which is something I'm terrible at.

Lotty: Oh yeah, same

Hannah: But I had to learn to sit still because I have no other choice.  Like I couldn't do anything else. So, I had to learn to sit still and take better care of myself. So, you know, I’ll take the wins that I can get.

Hannah: Right! My cupcakes are out of the oven. I'm assuming yours are too.

Lotty: Half of them are, half of them have had another five minutes and should be coming out any moment.

Hannah: Amazing.All right, well we can start on our icing in a moment.

Lotty: Right. That is both batches of mine out the oven.

Hannah: Amazing.

Lotty: Oh, they're pretty...

Hannah: I know. And they smell really good. I really want one. I know I should wait. I don't want to.  I very strongly feel like I do not want to wait, but I also realize I probably should…

Lotty: They're looking fantastic.

Hannah: Need a bowl to do this.  I thought about everything I needed for the cupcakes and did not consider anything that I needed for the icing.

Lotty: You do at least have the cream cheese, right?

Hannah: Oh, I have all the ingredients. I didn't consider measuring any of it.

Lotty: This is the last bowl I have available, so going to see what happens. I'm also going to try using this fun little contraption that I picked up at a charity shop I think two pounds, which is this little hand whisk -

Hannah: I saw one of those in a charity shop, and I also wanted one, so you'll have to tell me if it's good, because then I'll go back to the charity shop. But I am going to use my electric whisk. 

Lotty: I mean, if all else fails, I will figure something else out, but we'll see how it goes…

Hannah: I am doing a terrible job at getting this cream cheese out. Definitely could have found an easier way of doing it, but I decided I didn't want to have to wash anything up, so I tried to just tip it upside down.

Lotty: Hmm.  Oh shoot. I should have brought some butter out. Completely forgot that you need softened butter

Hannah: So did I!

Lotty: I think I might need to incorporate the electric mixer

Hannah: I did the exact same thing as you. I am about to cover the kitchen like I did when we were younger. Like, there's already a dust cloud, and I've not even started yet.

Lotty: That's, that's impressive.

Hannah: although I do know a tip now, which I didn't back then, which is to cover your mixing bowl with a tea towel so you don't get icing sugar and stuff absolutely everywhere. Or you incorporate it slowly, which I, I do not do.

Lotty: Who has the time for that?

Hannah: People who have patience,

Lotty: Yeah.  Not me.

Hannah: Ah! What did I just say I should do and then didn't do? I got too excited!  I was like, “Ooh, baking!” Right. Let's do, here we go. We are going to wrap it… In the tea towel…Hell yeah! Definitely not perfect, but no longer powdery. I have still made a colossal mess, especially all over myself - you would think that by the time I'm an adult, I wouldn't be as messy as I was as a child, I’m sure you can remember I always got everything in my hair.

Lotty: Hannah, you only had to touch the flour bag for it to suddenly to be in your eyebrows.

Hannah: Oh yeah. I used to stain myself with paint before I had even gone to the paint table.

Lotty: this extended to painting. I think there are still marks in my parents' conservatory walls we did painting and like my parents' conservatory is this sort of...  Mediterranean terracotta, except in the bits where there are spatters of green and blue all along one of the walls where you and I were doing a painting session.

Hannah: You know who made most of that mess?  Me.

Lotty: I mean I definitely made some of that! …Am I using all of this icing sugar. It says 600 grams of icing sugar.

Hannah: I only used 300. 

Lotty: I’m… if I use 600 grams, I will use this entire box. And then some which like, it, it feels a bit excessive.  I mean, I, I have a generous sweet tooth, but even that feels a lot for me.  Yeah. Okay.

Hannah: all right. I have iced a singular cupcake.

Lotty: That's, I haven't even made the icing, so you're doing better than I am.  Did you soften your butter?

Hannah: No…

Lotty: Okay, good. cause I haven't either.

Hannah: I just madly whisked it and hoped for the best.

Lotty: what I’ll do then

Hannah: Oh, and I've just got cupcake in my icing. I've also made way too much of it. Like for the number of cupcakes.  I don't know. There's almost as much icing as there was cupcake mix.

Lotty: By volume? Oh my god.

Hannah: Yeah, that’s what I mean. Like I think there actually is too much.  I'm inclined to agree with you that usually I don't think there is such a thing, but there might be in this occasion. I'm going to ice these quite thickly.

Lotty: Okay, so I am going to try the tea towel method,

Hannah: Oh, do. It is such a lifesaver.

Lotty: right?  I have never tried this before

Hannah: you just have to wrap it and be careful to not get the tea towel in the bowl.

Lotty: That's my next worry is I get trapped in something. But like lots of stand mixers do come with like little guards. So yeah, I mean, maybe this one did, but I, it must have broken several decades ago.

Hannah: Some of these looks absolutely dear. Some of them look a little bit odd because one of my cupcake tins is just, it's tragic. The, divots for where you put the cupcake cases is far too small, so, they just spill out and end up making like a rectangular shape. So, I think I shall be investing in a second cupcake tin that look equally as good as the first one. I am having shit, tons of fun doing this. Like even if this podcast thing doesn't take off, I think we should come up with recipes to bake together sometimes, because it’s quite hard living away from your like best friend and like ultimately, I moved for the right reasons, but it's still hard to not be near the people that you love.

Lotty: Exactly. I, I was going to say we should do this more often.  then I thought, wait, we are literally going to be making monthly podcast episodes, but we can always do baking, outside of the podcast as well,

Hannah: And this has been like such a joyful experience so far.

Lotty: Yeah, and even all the work like leading up to this with like all of the stuff you have to make and all the things you have to research and buying the equipment and checking what program you want to use, it’s been nice to have something to focus on that isn't like a corporate job.

Hannah: I am totally loving just having something outside of my job that makes me tick

Lotty: Same here.  It's something I've been looking forward to basically ever since we decided “you know what, we are just going to do this.”  It's been so exciting, setting everything up for it and receiving the equipment, and sure there have been some technical difficulties, but what kind of life event doesn't have some little like, hiccup?

Hannah: Exactly.

Lotty: And like, I think we'll remember the hiccups for little learning curves.  Maybe they were annoying at the time, but really there's something to laugh about in the future, aren't they?

Hannah: exactly that. I am just beyond happy that we've started this, and everyone I speak to about it genuinely sounds really excited.

Lotty: Oh, same! I went to see my grandmother this weekend.  it's, it's actually her 92nd birthday today when we're recording.

Hannah: Aw.

Lotty: I know she had a lovely birthday.

Hannah: Tell her happy birthday from me when you see her next.

Lotty: I will, I will. Well, I was talking about the podcast and, and you and me. This weekend, when I went to see her and naturally being in her nineties, she doesn't know what a podcast is. It’s basically a radio show, a radio broadcast. And as soon as she understood what that was, she thought it was such a fantastic idea. And the moment I told her it was to do with baking and about shared memories, she just thought that was so lovely because like when she was more able, growing up, used to bake with me. Like I'd go over to her house and we'd bake together. You know, I remember her teaching me like how to cook things, how to do scrambled eggs all sorts. She used to make our Christmas pudding every year.  And things like that. And so, to get to share this idea with her was really quite wonderful. You know, she may never get to listen to this, or if she does, she probably won't really understand it.  But I think just even the idea of getting to share that was really, really wonderful.

Hannah: It is lovely and, for us, baking has been a really powerful thing where it's changed my life. Being able to have a really shitty day and make myself some cookies or bread. I love making bread.  All different kinds of bread. You name it, I'll do it flatbreads, pitta bread, normal bread, naan bread, although my boyfriend does a better job of that, but don't tell him any type of bread. I love baking and cooking and being creative and so it's nice to get to share that, especially as I get older and like time feels scarcer the older you get.

Lotty: Oh, that makes me feel old when you say that! I mean, I do think that cooking and baking are their own forms of therapy because you get to make something with your hands and of itself that's really satisfying.  And then you get to eat what you made and you go, “I did that, I created that.” So even when you have like the worst day on planet Earth or the weirdest day ever, you can come home, you can put some, throw some stuff into a bowl and mix it up and shove it in the oven for a bit, and suddenly you have something delightful after that day.

Hannah: Baking and cooking is basically sorcery, and I won't be told otherwise

Lotty: Oh no, I completely agree. It is, it is alchemy of the highest order that’s why I love it because you can take these seemingly disparate like items and ingredients and.  them together and they make magic.

Hannah: 100%.

Lotty: like it, it is alchemy.

Hannah: I've got little heart shaped sprinkles on them, and they're absolutely adorable. Look at it.

Lotty: Oh, they're so cute!

Hannah: And like some of the love heart ones look beyond odd, but this is the cute love heart one that actually looks like a love heart.

Lotty: oh, it's adorable.

Hannah: I have so much icing left, like it's actually crazy.  So, I definitely do not think I needed to make this much, but that's okay. I'm going to freeze it because you can freeze icing. I'm going to freeze it so that I can keep it for whenever I have like biscuits and I can just put a little bit on. 

Lotty: Oh saying that I have some chocolate cream cheese frosting in the freezer, I just remembered like just now when I went, “oh, you can freeze it.  Oh yeah, I did that.” So, bear in mind that if it gets frozen, you got to remember it exists.

Hannah: We'll deal with that hurdle when we get to it.

Lotty: For someone with object permanence issues, getting round to it is a very elusive concept. We get there in the end.

Hannah: This is the best. I have forgot how much I enjoy this.

Lotty: I just tasted my frosting and that is some dang good frosting.

Hannah: Cream cheese frosting is probably my favorite.  I would not have said that as a child, though.

Lotty: I mean, you were sometimes adventurous.

Hannah: Very rarely and only at your house.

Lotty: Which I don't know how they managed that. They, they had this gift where if ever I brought over a friend who happened to be a fussy eater or like happened to only like very specific foods, somehow, they would manage to get them to try something new and somehow, whoever it was would usually like it.

Hannah: Oh yeah.  There are are plenty of things that I would've never eaten without your parents and can I say some of them have stuck in my head forever. Veal parcels is a thing that I have never made. I don't even know where you would begin. I remember them being delicious.

Lotty: They honestly, that's some of my favorite food is veal parcels. You want minced meat? You want a veal escalope and you want some string. That's literally it.

Hannah: Well, definitely would not have eaten that except I did and I loved it

Lotty: my folks will be so chuffed to hear that.

Hannah: and it was, it's such a memorable dish - and arancini balls? There is nothing in that that I wouldn't eat, but I would've decided I wouldn't have eaten it. And I ate them and I really liked them. And I think it was one of the first times your dad had made them as well.

Lotty: Yeah, I, oh, I remember that. cause there's this Italian detective series that my family's all quite fond of called Inspector Montalbano. And -

Hannah: I remember that!

Lotty: Yeah, so it's set in Sicily and one of Sicily's, most famous foods or like Italy, Italy has various different variants of, this is arancini, which is basically balls of risotto rice, with various different things. Oftentimes cheese and ham, sometimes mushroom, sometimes other stuff, encased in in breadcrumbs and then deep fried. And it is delightful and they're very fun to make as well. And I do actually remember the first time my dad made them, and he was so, so excited that he'd managed to make them. And I remember when you tried them, you weren't quite sure at first, and then you gave them a taste. And my dad was so chuffed.  cause like my parents are both foodies and there’s, there's nothing that they love more when it comes to food than getting to share that food with someone else and knowing that that's somebody also likes it or likes it because of them. I think one of their greatest joys in life.

Hannah: I have grown to love food more for knowing your parents, and I'm not saying that I wouldn't have loved food anyway, because I reckon, I would have,

Lotty: Yeah,

Hannah: But there's definitely a greater amount of love there.

Lotty: They would be so happy to hear that. I think it's definitely one of those things that I'm very grateful to have inherited is a love of food and a curiosity about food. Always grown up knowing where my food comes from and learning about the processes behind it. So, my parents never shied away from taking me to a wet fish bar or to the butcher's or getting veg boxes with, deliberately wonky vegetables in, because food should be honest. And I think that’s an attitude that I still subscribe to and more so even now that I'm an adult and get to explore more foods.

Hannah: Definitely.

Lotty: It's something that’s been quite a formative part of my life is understanding where my food comes from.  as someone with an allergy, it's even more important for me to understand what's in my food, because some of it could literally kill me and has tried to do so. So, understanding what ingredients are and where they come from, not only fascinates me, but can literally save my life. it's something that I, I have gratitude to my folks for teaching me.

Hannah: And I have immense gratitude for them as well, because while I didn't obviously go everywhere with you, there were places that I went to, like we went to the fishery, fish farm, whatever it's called. I never would've gone anywhere like that without your parents. And I believe your parents took me to Elm Farm for the first time. And it’s not that I didn't understand where my food came from, but I don't think I had an appreciation for the fact that there were more options than the supermarket.

Lotty: Yeah.

Hannah: Because it's kind of sold to you as the only option. Right? And butchers and cheese shops and…  greengrocers are kind of, they’re given the impression of being for like upper class.

Lotty: Yeah, they quite often get seen as a luxury. I mean, I worked in a cheese shop once quite a while ago and the cheese shop are definitely more along the luxury end.  But I think the more accessible different options for food are, the happier people will be.  It's why I think farm shops are so vital, like communities to grow up around because food brings people together. That’s, I think one of the things that inherently makes us human is that we make food.  We don't just forage. We actually like go out of our way to cook things. We go out of our way to make things taste good, like we’ve made these cupcakes, not because necessarily they are going to save our lives or like give us particularly nutritional value, although I think there's nutritional value in eating something that makes you happy.

Hannah: Oh yeah, there is. There is soul food and then there is like nutritional food.

Lotty: Yeah, absolutely. Like you've got to think about the soul food as well. If you're just eating to be physically healthy not actually thinking about.  What that food's doing for you, like mentally, like, are you enjoying what you are eating? Does it make you feel good of yourself? Or you just doing, you just eating salads because you think you should?  And I think as -

Hannah: Yeah.

Lotty: - as you start actually subscribing to the idea that food is good for you, because it is food, not because it's got any inherent value nutritionally, like your body tells you about cravings because it needs something.  It's not temptation. It's like, you know you need more salt. Okay. You're probably low on electrolytes.  you feel lightheaded? you probably need more iron. You feel down and depressed? You probably need some sugar.  Like it’s, it’s our body's way of telling us what it needs and we should listen to that. And I don't think there's any inherent good or bad food.  And like that's, that's another thing my parents taught me is there's not really such a thing as a bad food.  Like there's no naughty food or off-limits food.

Hannah: I had a period of struggle with food in my teenage years, and I struggled to eat.  And I've regained a lot of confidence and power by making my own food and baking my own things, and I think the like art of cooking and baking is like a love language really,

Lotty: Oh, absolutely.

Hannah: which is why I am so happy I get to share that love language with other people like you. My boyfriend, he's learnt to cook since we've been together.

Lotty: My boyfriend could make carbonara and admittedly he makes the best carbonara. He could make scrambled eggs and omelets, and like basic student food, but he had never baked anything  before we got together.  Or like if he had, he was very, very little. He'd never gone out of his way to bake something.  And I remember back when I was living in my previous place, which the kitchen was even smaller than here, if you can believe it, it was a tiny little cardboard box of a kitchen.  I went out to work one day and he was staying back at the flat. And when I came home, he had made Anzac biscuits because he felt like it.  And like we'd done some baking and cooking together in the weeks previously, but he'd never done anything like baking on his own. But I got back to the flat and everything smelled of oats and golden syrup and coconut.  And he presented me these Anzac biscuits looking like the proudest person in the world. cause he had made them himself.  And I think like there's something so special about giving the gift of teaching somebody to love something.

Hannah: Hundred percent.

Lotty: I should have made about half of this icing. I have so much left. Look at this!

Hannah: So did I. That's what I mean. The recipe calls for way too much icing!

Lotty: Yeah. Like how much icing are they putting on their cakes? I’ve put a generous amount on each one. But like there's still so much left.

Hannah: I know. That's why I've frozen the rest of mine.We will have to try one together This cupcake smells delicious.

Lotty: Absolutely. Let me just sprinkle all my love over these. There we go.

Hannah: Mine have different amounts of love on each one, and I, I cannot wait to forcibly shove one at my boyfriend when he gets home tonight and be like, “you have to eat it! I made it with love. You have to eat it!” I've already got a box to take to the office and then a box to keep here because I don't want 'me all to go to the office, but it probably would be nice to give some to my colleagues.

Lotty: Yeah. There we go.

Hannah: Beautiful. Right. That's the most satisfying bit is be like peeling the wrapper off a cupcake.

Lotty: Oh, it's like unwrapping a present.

Hannah: Oh, it really is. Ready?  Cheers.

Lotty: [muffled] Cheers!

Hannah: Mm, hell yeah. This is so much better than I remember it being as a child.

Lotty: These are the best ones I've ever made.  Mm-Hmm.

Hannah: Oh, this is lovely. 

Lotty: That was worth the wait.

Hannah: Oh 100%. We really hope that you also make these cupcakes along with us.  I mean, take heed, make less icing… about half.

Lotty: Yeah, definitely do half the icing.

Hannah: These are wonderful.

Lotty: We will have every recipe up on our website along with transcripts for each episode, so you'll be able to find the recipe for the Hummingbird bakeries red velvet Cupcakes on our website.

Hannah: Thank you so much for tuning into Flour Power, you can find us on our Instagram at Flour (underscore) Power (underscore) Podcast or our website at www.flour-power-podcast.com, where you can find episode transcripts, recipes, and bonus content. Our episodes are released monthly via Spotify and on the website, and anywhere else we will figure out eventually,

Lotty: Thank you so much for listening. We have been Flour Power. Happy baking!