Bringing Retro Back - 200th post! + Charlotte White Book Bundle Giveaway!

To help me celebrate 200 retro-tastic posts I've been chatting again to my Deliciously Decorated favourite cake designer, modern-day Fanny Cradock, Charlotte White, and she's only gone and dressed-up as Fanny for the occasion! 

Photography - Jez Brown Styling - Sarah Dunn 

Fanny thought she was Bringing Retro Back in the 1950s-1970s, and now we look back at those times as 'retro' - what does 'retro' mean to you and why are we obsessed with bringing it back?

Funnily enough, when I think of retro food, I think of Findus Crispy Pancakes and Birdseye Potato Waffles! I think that the element of nostalgia is irresistible to us - it seems to be in our nature to look back to the recent past through rose-tinted glasses. We do this with fashion and music so why not with cuisine too? Fanny lived through a great deal of social change as well as the huge impact of rationing, which I genuinely believe is still felt in some generations - my own Father was born in 1954, the year that rationing ended, so it should have had no effect on him but his capacity for sugar makes me wonder if my Grandparents made up for the years of scarcity with plenty of sweet things in their house.

Photography - Jez Brown Styling - Sarah Dunn 

You always dress so glamorously, and back in the day Fanny was renowned for her sense of style - how did it feel to dress as Fanny Cradock? Did you suddenly start to beat your assistants with perfectly ordinary spatulas? 

I was completely rubbish! I couldn't stop giggling! I am far too silly for this. I tried to channel Fanny's short shrift but would catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and corse up completely. My photographer, Jez Brown and stylist, Sarah Dunn, were no help either as this was the most bizarre thing we had ever done as a team! Jez is used to photographing pin-up girls and Sarah more often makes me up to pass as one, rather than a middle-aged woman. Plus, it didn't help that Sarah's German Shepherd, Suki, kept barking because she didn't like the look of me!

Fanny loved cakes that were bright colours and looked over-the-top in the impressive stakes - there were always neighbours that she never really liked very much to impress - what makes a stand-out cake design for you? Fanny's golden rule was blue icing for cakes, green for potatoes - what are your signature colours?

I completely agree with Fanny that a cake should be impressive and I love a brightly coloured cake. Some of the ingredients and equipment that we have in the kitchen now would make her green with envy - as green as her potatoes! I'm not sure if I have a signature colours so much of what I do is bespoke and created for an occasion. I get through a lot of white sugarpaste! Funnily enough, I do use a great deal of blue! I use an airbrush from Squires Kitchen to create ombre effects on sugarpaste and their colours are so interesting and vibrant that the only limit we have is our imagination now. Also, because food colouring pastes are more intense and less chemical tasting, we can create rainbow coloured sponge cakes. Fanny would have loved a rainbow cake!

Photography - Jez Brown Styling - Sarah Dunn 

We are seeing a lot of festivals, TV shows and so on Bringing Retro Back - which are your favourites and how do people relate to the retro themes? 

My favourite festival each year is the Twinwood Festival in Bedfordshire - it was part of the reason we moved here from London! It's three days of vintage shopping and music held on the air base where Glenn Millar took his last flight from. I've even been known to get involved in a Cockey Singalong in The Nag's Head pub on site... I was lucky enough to demonstrate for Kenwood in their kitchen theatre at The Goodwood Revival last September and can honestly say I've never felt more at home in my life. I loved working in the retro kitchen set with some of Kenwood's heritage products on display. Fanny would've loved to have access to the kitchen technology that we have now!

Fanny never wore an apron when she did demo's, and never had a spot on her ballgowns afterwards. Is this a realistic ambition? 

I always end up with cornflour on my boobs. Every time. It's just the way I am built! I've learned never to wear black for demonstrations for this reason. I've had chocolate buttercream all over me and have done the stand-mixer-icing-sugar cloud too, but that's all part of the fun of live cookery! When I am in my won kitchen and baking for orders I am fully aproned up. You can always tell if I am getting cocky if you see me demonstrating in a white dress...

So, if you were to style a cake à la Fanny how would it look?

I would want to create a cake that was glamorous and over the top. It would be adorned with pearls and diamonds and folds of taffeta in sugarpaste. It would be entirely fabulous and a little out of place in a modern setting, like Fanny. The icing would be blue.

Well, here's my go - it's Charlotte à la Fanny. I'm celebrating my 200th post with Charlotte's Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Icing. If you fancy winning a bundle of both her brilliant books, which will help you do a much better job than I have, just leave me a comment below telling me your favourite colour for icing and fill in the Raffelcopter thingy-ma-jig which will randomly select a winner. You must do both. The lovely folks at Ryland Peters and Small will send the books directly to the winner. Good luck! (UK Entrants only) 

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