Gourmet Torbay: Cake Deccorations

I promised to talk about popcorn yesterday but instead I spent the day in A&E being prodded and x-rayed. I fell over on the beach and my ankle swelled up, I couldn't walk. Thankfully we got a lift to the hospital and, after a brief wait, I was seen too. I'm now on crutches, taking lots of painkillers and being thankful for the existence of the NHS (and Stephens parents!) . So let's get back to Vegan MoFo.

Startime Patisserie on Lucius street is visited by hungry tourists, hotel workers and a certain sweet toothed boyfriend of mine. But Gourmet Torbay isn't about the finished object, the Chelsea buns and chocolate brownies, it's about the ingredients. The Patisserie also stocks something I'm very thankful I can get in Torquay: colouring paste.

I am not a no-artificial cook. I prefer the shocking bright colours of food colouring in my icing. I started with liquid and quickly found it a waste of time. The colours are nowhere near vivid enough and the liquid ruins the consistency of the icing. And then I read about pastes.

They are more expensive, but you use such a tiny amount that it hardly matters. I stick the end of a chopstick in the paste and then into the batter and it's done. Perfect.

And conveniently they can be bought from the Patisserie along with little people, colouring pens, lustre dust and - feared by Girl Guides everywhere - edible glitter.

These cupcakes are coloured Autumn Leaves, for a leaving party (no pun intended) at Guides. One is left virgin, for the girl who is allergic to yellow.