During the course of photographing this book, the mother of a very old friend of mine, Fiona Golfar, died, and this recipe is both a memorial to her mother, Joan, and a gift from her family. For this is the very cake (see photo opposite) made by Fiona’s Auntie Ruth. She sent me the recipe, too, with the title Auntie Ruth’s (“Shiver”) marble cake. “Shiva” (the alternative spelling) is the traditional Jewish period of mourning, and she suggests that a marble cake is customary, perhaps because, as she said, “it looks so jolly in contrast to the bleakness.” With respect, I’m not sure: to me it looks mournful, and I like that. I wondered, perhaps fancifully, whether originally marble cakes were thought appropriate in anticipation of the marble headstone that was to be erected. I make marble cake in a ring mold, as the circle is also significant. There is a cycle that continues but – after all, the cake is sliced and the circle broken – another that has ended.

I hope Auntie Ruth doesn’t mind that I have fiddled a little with her recipe, and I thank her, and the shade of Joan Golfar, for allowing me to have her shiva cake for my book.