Cake app is child’s play

MY goodness, it’s the end of the world as I know it. Last week, my two-and-a-half year old granddaughter Amelia Peggy came along clutching an iPhone and told me she wanted to show me how to make a cake.

She pressed several buttons in that maddeningly confident way that all kids do and opened an app called Cake Doodle. Up popped lots of pictures of cakes, of every shape and size — “which one shall we make grandma?” pipes up the aspiring cook. I chose a three-tier chocolate confection. Ping, up comes the recipe, then the bowl. Amelia touches each ingredient on the list and, whoosh, they leap into the bowl. Up come the eggs, and Amelia taps the screen with the side of her hand to crack each one into the bowl.

Then she stirs all the ingredients around until well-mixed and turns the phone on its side to pour the mixture into the tin. Next it’s popped into the virtual oven.