Bake back control

Chef Hannah Grant is back with a new cyclists' cookbook that might change your perception of cake forever

- John Whitney

One of the most popular - and unlikely - reality shows of 2022 was Netflix's Is it Cake? Here, master bakers presented a series of everyday items such as handbags and sewing machines. Contestants had to guess which one was the ostentatious cake creation, and which were the real thing. The show was either the highwater mark of reality television or the point at which it started to eat itself. From this writer's perspective, gorging on a sewing machine feels like a fitting end for the genre.

The concept of the show came to mind as Cycling Plus chatted to Danish chef Hannah Grant about her new cake book for athletes, The Cake Cook Book, when she was recalling how one of her food testers, a British cyclist, had fed one of her creations with the highly unusual base ingredient of celeriac - to his daughter and recorded it on his phone. "She loved it," says Hannah, speaking over Zoom from her Copenhagen home. "And then you hear the mum giggling in the background, breaking the news to her as to what it was actually made of. The girl then starts to backtrack on liking it. This was the fun part, getting them to enjoy cake without them understanding the ingredients. It's not what you think it is! I like to push people's perception of what is defined as cake."

Sweetening the deal