Thursday, December 13, 2018

asking for a friend

What do you do if you cobble together two recipes and bake the result and it's a Christmas present, and you are not convinced it's worked, and you take a secret taste from the bottom in the middle and no matter how hard you try, you can't convince yourself that it doesn't have too much baking powder in it? 

  1. throw it away
  2. give it to the birds

It didn't help that one recipe was metric and one imperial.

My mind is empty of all inspiration this morning as far as blog posts go, so here's a Christmas quiz I designed and blogged some years ago:

The SHCPS (the Sue Hepworth Christmas Personality Schedule.)

1. When It’s a Wonderful Life is on the TV, do you…
a/  watch it and cry at the end?
b/  watch it and cry liberally throughout?
c/   enjoy the film but feel there are loose ends, e.g. why is Mr Potter not indicted for stealing the £8000?
d/  rush out of the room as soon as the opening titles come on?
e/  rant about why they are still showing a black and white film from almost 70 years ago, especially when it’s post-war American propagandist hogwash?

2.  Christmas trees: do you…
a/  buy a real one, because amongst other things, you adore the smell of fresh pine?
b/  buy a real one only if it has a root, because you worry about the environment?
c/  buy an artificial one, because you worry about the environment?
d/  buy an artificial one, because you loathe and detest dropped needles on the carpet?
e/  buy an artificial one, because they’re cleaner, cheaper and altogether more practical? 
f/   hate Christmas trees because you spend ages putting them up and decorating them, and then two weeks later you have to take them down and put everything away for another year? 

3. Mince pies.
a/  do you use home made pastry and home made mincemeat?
b/  do you use home made pastry and bought mincemeat?
c/  you don’t see the point of making them: what’s wrong with ones from the shop?
d/  you think mince pies are old hat and bring the cool quotient down on your Christmas comestibles
if you ticked c/ skip the next question.

4. What others say about your mince pies..
a/  they’re a perfect balance – in terms of the amount of mincemeat and of pastry?
b/  they’re mostly pastry, and mean on the mincemeat?
c/  they’re very pretty?





 5. Christmas tree decorations. Are yours..
a/  all old ones that you keep and use year after year for sentimental reasons, no matter how tatty?
b/  a mixture of old and new?
c/  only the latest, most trendy ones?
d/  you don’t have a Christmas tree?

That’s it. If I carry on, you’ll be getting the same old questions that all these Christmas quizzes have – I mean, I’ve come across that last one before.

And now I don't have the time to score the thing. I have to check the store cupboard and see if I have enough dried fruit left (and crucially, cherries) to make a replacement cake.

8 comments:

Phoebe said...

Re the cake: doesn’t throwing it away or giving it to the birds basically amount to the same thing: won’t they just leave it if it’s inedible? Also, did you scrupulously combine the dry ingredients? Sometimes baking powder is not evenly distributed and maybe you got an unfortunate random taste. If that’s the case you should keep the cake and eat around those concentrations.

Sue Hepworth said...

Yes, the two options were the same. There is nothing to be done with it.
I tasted the mixture before it was cooked and it tasty baking powdery then, which is why I needed to taste a bit when cooked.
I made it as a present. I am going to make another one now. And I shall keep this one and if the recipient likes the present I shall say oh by the way, do you want to try this one? I didn’t think it was nice enough to give you but you might not be as fussy as me....

Anonymous said...

Nooooo, don’t do that. Give cake no. 1 to the birds, they’ll be very happy. Your friend aye not so much.

Sue Hepworth said...

I was going to give it as an extra at a later date. It's a keeping cake. A rich fruit cake.
I just can't stand the waste. I'm still wondering if there is something I can do to disguise the taste - or if I can use it for something else.
I'm a bit hampored in what I say about this cake because the intended recipient reads the blog....

Anonymous said...

Brandy?

Sue Hepworth said...

Brandy is a good suggestion if I had any. I only have a tiny whisky miniature.

Sue Hepworth said...

What do you know? My daughter just called in and tasted the cake and she said it was fine! So maybe Phoebe was right and I had not mixed it properly.

Anonymous said...

Am I imagining it or is Eton mess with added crumbled Christmas cake a thing? Jenetta