Our master, our creator, our mentor Mr. Luke Hills was cake club supremo this week.
 
As the producer of Cake Club, we expected good things. He didn’t disappoint.

Brought to the table this week was an orange and poppy seed cake with the added extra of melted terry’s chocolate orange pieces. I know, it was a surprise for us as well. The cake was moist and not too sweet. The only downside was, we all agreed, not enough chocolate pieces. Those little delicious extras really made the cake and unless you were lucky enough to have a  big chunk in your slice the cake could have been lacking. More Terry’s we cry!

All in all, a very good effort. We ate, we drank milk and we were indeed merry.
 
Well done Lukey. On to next week.

I’m taking over the reins today to blog  about week 5 of cake club.

We have had trials, we have had tribulations, we have experienced joy and we have experienced pain but nothing compares to this week’s emotional rollercoaster. It was Emily’s week. She has never baked. We weren’t even sure she would bring anything in. Behind her back we would whisper ‘underdog’ and I personally had her down to be the loser of Maxus cake club. After my disastrous week last week, I was miserable but I always thought, ‘Hey! Don’t worry, Emily will be last.’
 
How wrong could one baker be.

She brought in honey cake. Little cakes tasting like heaven. We were all secretively crest-fallen. Not too sweet, but just right. Moist in the middle, a slightly crunchier exterior and an after feeling of wanting more. I hate to say it, but Emily is now one serious contender. She is the most opinionated of us all in the club and I am ashamed to say, I was hoping she would fail. She didn’t.
 
She called our bluff. She played the game.

Next week, the inventor of Cake Club one would say – Mr. Luke Hills. Things are hotting up – I can’t wait. Can you?

On Tuesday the 8th of March it was National Women’s day. Hurrah!
 
As we all know, the Suffragettes campaigned for women’s right to vote and International Women’s Day honours the work of the Suffragettes, celebrates women’s success, and reminds of issues still to be redressed.
 
The first ever International Women’s day was held on the 8th March 1911, so this year the Metro decided to run a poll of who the British public think has been / is the most influential LONDON women over the last 100 years. The competition was tough. You had Princess Diana, Tracey Emin, Emmeline Pankhurst (leader of the Suffragettes) Dame Judi Dench and Margaret Thatcher. Any one of these women undoubtedly could be called the Century’s Most influential woman but who did we pick? With a staggering 70.9% of the votes, we picked Leona Lewis, 2006 X Factor Winner.
 
As a slight feminist (when I say slight, I like a man to open a door for me but hell no, he shouldn’t get paid more than me) I find this disgusting. Disgusting that the Metro even put her in and disgusting that we voted her the winner.
 
So, although I am very proud to be a London women, I am very ashamed that Leona Lewis is at the top of our lists. My heart is bleeding – Baboom.

Now, I truly believe men and women should be equal in everything, sport viewing included but the one sport that doesn’t seem to have a huge female fan base is Cricket.

I like my sports but I will tell you the knowledge I, as a girl, know about cricket. It goes on FOREVER. It is slow. There’s this thing called ‘leg before wicket’ that is shortened to LBW but apart from that all I know is there is a bat and a ball involved.

Maxus, as you will be aware, have moved into a swanky new office with all new mod cons and the one thing that is an eye opener is how well received our new TV’s are. We have one everywhere. We can pick whatever we want on them but for the last week the screens have been dominated by… you’ve guessed it. The bloody cricket. Indeed, it’s the cricket world cup and I am sure it is interesting for some people but unlike other sports that have managed to get a following from both genders; cricket remains predominately male.

I understand The Cricket World Cup has grown as a media event with each tournament. The International Cricket Council has sold the rights for broadcasting of the 2011 Cricket World Cup for around US$ 2 Billion to ESPN Star Sports and Star Cricket. The tournament is being broadcasted all around the world in about 220 countries. These are massive figures and very impressive considering that only 1 in 325 (approx.) women take any interest in the sport at all.

I’m asking my girls, can any of you tell me the appeal? Please. If Maxus are anything to go by, it’s purely a male sport.

So..What are you you all doing next Tuesday? Work, maybe an evening drink?

Well Lindsay Lohan will be surrendering herself to the Centrury Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. California, where she will start her 90 day prison sentence for repeatedly violating the terms of her probation following her 2007 drug charge.

Am I the only one that thinks that this will be possibly the best thing to happen to Lohan since she started to derail at the age of 19?

Her live court hearing was watched by 2.3million people online. This – and don’t quote me here – is probably 10 times as many people that have collectively paid to see Lohan in anything prior to Mean Girls back in 2004.

Since becoming jail bait, Lohan’s career has rocketed and she is finally famous for being something other than Samantha Ronson’s girlfriend.

A-List celebrities are giving her advice, TV Channels offering up millions for interviews and even her lost love Samantha has met her for a secret dinner somewhere in the hollywood hills. Seriously, I bet she is loving it.

So, what do you think? Will this be the reinvention of Lohan? Well, in 90 days we will see. Enjoy your time in the Big House Lindsay, just don’t drop the soap.

Ok, well I’m not going to write about compulsive eaters but I am going to have a little rant about cheaters.

Tiger Woods, Vernon Kay, Ashley Cole, Little Mark Owen… the list is endless.

Now, I don’t want to tarnish every man with the same brush but come on boys. What happens? You wake up one day lying next to Cheryl Cole or Tess Daly and you think… God, you repulse me. You have a great body, a beautiful face, you look after my children & support me but I am going to ruin it all by cheating on you with the nanny / page 3 blonde / any girl that shows me affection, and then, if that is not clever enough, I am going to leave a string of texts / illicit photo’s behind so you can find out?

Is that how it happens?

I am not naive enough to think that beauty is everything and I am sure that you don’t get as much attention as you used to and maybe even the spark that – 3 years ago was very prominent and very exciting has dulled but what I can’t understand is why you risk everything for, well… nothing. A stroke of the ego, a compliment and you’re gone. Flash forward 3 months and it’s tears, remorse and public displays of guilt-ridden apologising. The best outcome, your wife stays, but never trusts you again. The worst outcome is you lose, literally everything.

So, can someone maybe explain something I’m missing? Or, girls, are we just better at hiding our affairs? Do we cheat like men but are more clever? Or do we rationalise things in our head so the pros of cheating are too weak compared to the cons? I need answers.

ITV1 has a new drama and it’s promising to be the new Cold Feet.

Married Single Other is a six part-er with and ensemble cast featuring amongst others, Lucy Davis (The Office) and Ralf Little (Two Pints and Royal Family)

First aired on February 22nd it made a promising start with 6.2 million viewers and a 25.5% audience share in the 9pm slot however, I am cynical and dubious about it ever becoming or having the success of the highly acclaimed Cold Feet that had 5 series and won 20 major television awards during it’s 6 year stint as one of ITV’s major rating success stories.

I have watched both episodes and I have to say I am not hooked. Yes, there are 6 of them, and yes, they are all friends but that is the only comparison I can make between MSO and Cold Feet. The casting director must have been having a laugh or on medication when he decided on the role of Ralph Little as the ’stud’ because everytime I see him on screen with his circa 1993 M&S suit and his greasy boyband hair i find it completely unbelievable that he has girls swooning over him. Also, Babs’ the middle aged married lady stuck in a rut with her gambling addict husband is the Malteser advert girl. She will ALWAYS be the Maltese girl and therefore it’s very hard to concentrate on anything she is saying when she is trying to act.

Maybe I am being a little harsh, give it time I hear you say, but frankly I have a feeling this may be Married Single Other’s first and last outing at ITV1.

What do you think?

If you haven’t seen the many advertisements and if you haven’t heard the hype for the new American show Glee then….where have you been!
Glee is the latest sitcom to come out of America and it aired on E4 last night.

I had sky plus-ed it, because obviously, I work in media and therefore I am out every night partying and networking but low and behold, I found myself, bathed and fed by 8pm and ready to watch it.
Glee is a show about a high school glee club (for those of you not American, Glee Club is our equivalent of a choir club) that is failing and in need of a new, cooler type of person to join. Think High School Musical for adults. This is no normal Glee Club – this is Kanye West Singing, attitude bringing amazement.

I wont spoil the fun, but Glee was a huge hit for me. If you didn’t see it last night make sure you 4oD it or catch it again on E4. It is not one to miss.

I am on the bench with Christmas as a whole. I like it as a holiday away from work and as an excuse for the general public to just be a bit nicer but we all know Christmas is the best when you view it through the eyes of children.

Seeing kids get excited could not fail to bring a smile to even the most scrooge – like of human beings and the creatives behind the newest Christmas advert for John Lewis  obviously knew this because this year, they have (in my opinion) delivered a belter.  

The concept is simple but effective: children opening presents that are gifts that you would give to a grown up and being ecstatic about it. The tag line is: “Remember how Christmas Used to Feel? Give someone that feeling” and believe me, by the end of the ad you remember how good Christmas felt.

The final selling point for me was the beautifully sung version of ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ by Taken By Trees.

Watch it and let me know if it made you feel as happy as it made me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8_-5RWjxZo

Well, I am surely not the first person this morning to put hand to keyboard and write about this weekend’s X Factor results. Twitter, facebook and numerous blogs are filled with ecstatic / outraged X Factor fans feeling happy / sad of last nights outcome.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I see a certain (tiny) amount of appeal for the big haired, high-top wearing duo that is Jedward and I think the onslaught of abuse they received at the beginning of the show was over dramatic and uncalled for but musically, Lucy Jones was better. Everyone that has two (or even one) working ear drum knows that Lucy is in a different league to the twins but her getting voted off by the public was not the shocker, it was Mr Simon Cowell choosing to take it to the public vote.

Like most people I know, I have a weird ‘thing’ for Simon Cowell. He is nasty and pompous but that has always been counter-acted by the knowledge that he could pick talent. Whatever he said or did I knew that he appreciated music and could pick the talent from the talentless.

What a hypocrite. 

‘I will leave the country if John and Edward win’ was just one of the comments Cowell exclaimed after one of the performances by the twins. Words like mockery, ridiculous and talentless were constantly uttered when asking for his opinions of the two and then, stop the press! Britain like them? They bring in the ratings? You could almost see his brain thinking – Simon Cowell + Jedward = another £10milllion house? And that’s what I feel was in the forefront of his brain last night. No longer was he a talent scout, he was a sell out.

Lucy Jones will no doubt fade into oblivion now, like most reality TV stars do, but to have her 5 minutes of fame cut short because of money making opportunities and to always be remembered that Simon Cowell sent her home in favour of Jedward must be a bitter pill to swallow. Simon has lost my vote but what about you?