In the midst of grief, food can often be the furthest thing from our minds. But for Olivia Potts, it was a humble banana cake that lifted her spirits in the days after her mother’s death. Returning to London after the funeral, the then-24-year-old barrister was eating a lunch of leftovers on the train when she realized the comfort that food can bring in times of turmoil. In the weeks that followed, she took up cooking for the first time, baking cakes at home after work. The methodical certainty that came with following a recipe was a soothing balm. Soon she had traded the courts for studies at Le Cordon Bleu and today, six years later, Potts works as a writer and wedding caterer, with A Half Baked Idea, her memoir on grief and cake, published in July 2019. Here, she explains why we re...