Phil: Being a bloke, the whole cupcake thing always struck me as a bit “girlie”. The cakes are always pretty colours, not something that would appeal to macho types such as myself.
Take today’s example. It’s a sort of peachy orange colour, smells of fruit and to top it all, has pink sprinkles. Short of being bright pink, could it be any more feminine ?
Despite this, it’s perfectly nice cake. And I speak as someone who has eaten a lot of cake in his lifetime. Maybe I’m going all metrosexual in my confectionary preferences, or perhaps I’m just greedy and will eat pretty much anything.
But is there such a thing as a cake for blokes ?
In the book world, it’s easy to see who reads what. If it’s got guns, gritty soldiers or Andy McNab on the cover then it’s a blokes book. Pink stuff, flowers, a cartoon of a woman or some shopping and it’s girls that are the target market.
Our book though is a bit like the orange cake. It isn’t very girlie but definitely has chick-lit running through it. We’re not daft, this is the biggest market in the world and targeting it makes sense. Realistically, I don’t like stuff about guns or gritty soldiers and I’m not called McNab so I’m not going to bend my writing in this direction. Mix that with someone who does like a bit of shopping and fashion but could lay out Bridget Jones with a swift right hook, bake for a few months and out pops a sort of chick-lit lite story. As we say, she will enjoy it but he will read it and have a laugh too.
Just like the cake. She might buy it but it won’t stop him wolfing it down.
