Eric Lanlard - Gateaux pour gâter, cakes to spoil you!

Being unemployed, I have rediscovered the background drone of daytime television. On my third day of jobless drudgery, as the sound of Prime Minister's question time slowly dissolved into two couples arguing over which dilapidated Yorkshire cottage to buy, I tapped away at my keyboard, engrossed in application form filling.

That is until a familiar gentle gallic lilt drifted in over the airwaves, whispering sweet words like "calvados" and "tarte normande" and "slowly spoon ze creamy chocolate into ze hazelnut caramel mixture". My eyes diverted from my laptop for a brief second only to find themselves face to face with not only totally divine human creature in the form of Normandy Master Patissier Eric Lanlard, BUT he's totally divine tv chef totty who bakes luscious, unctuous, devilishly seductive cakes to boot. Good lord, daytime tv has really gone up in the world.

The show is called Glamour Puds and airs on Channel Four, Mon 2:25pm, Tues-Fri at 2:55pm.

A good tip I've learnt, aside from how to wear a chef's jacket and make it look like an Armani suit, or fondle a palette knife like a catalogue hand model, is that when making tarte aux pommes normande, you should flmabée the apples in calvados after slow cooking them in butter. A fundamental flaw in my existing recipe that I shall instantly rectify.

He runs a small patisserie and cafè by the name of Cake Boy, where Mads and Guy Ritchie have been known to purchase their bijou tortes from, as have other celebs and politicos. I promise to make an excursion to discover this haven of Gâteaux and Gorgeousness. Until then, I advise you to take a sick day, turn over to 4 and appreciate a handsome man getting his hands covered in whipped cream in the name of fine patisserie.

Cake Boy

Unit 2 Kingfisher House
Battersea Reach (Off York Rd.), London SW18 1TX
020 7978 5555