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Sue Northcott	Welsh Cakes I got this recipe from my father's mother, Mary Blethyn, who had it from her grandmother in Hendy Gwyn (Whitland), Pembrokeshire. 1 pound of Flour 6 ounces of Sugar 6 ounces of Fat (1/2 lard, 1/2 butter) (I generally use all butter these days, though) 1/2 a teaspoon of raising powder a pinch of salt 1 large egg a generous handful of dried fruit milk to mix Rub the fat into the flour until it's like fine breadcrumbs. Mix in all the other dry ingredients. Beat the egg well, add gradually to the mixture. Add the milk until you have a stiff, manageable dough. Knead well. Turn out onto a floured board and roll out to 1/2 an inch thickness. Cut into rounds about 2 inches across. Cook on a well greased plate (a thick frying pan will do if you don't have a bakestone) over a low heat until brown on both sides. Some people sprinkle them with sugar or let them get cold and have them with salted butter, but in my house they don't even reach the serving plate. I like them warm and still soggy in the middle, preferably a bit burnt too. Some strange people even go as far as leaving out the fruit and spice, then cut them down the middle and fill them with jam. This is a ‘jam split’ and is an abomination, so we won’t delve too deeply into that
	Nicey replies: Sue as you know we hardly ever, ever put up recipes on NCOTAASD as we would soon wind up swamped with them. However this is definitely one time when we happily bend our arbitrary rules. We used to borrow Aunty Marilyn's griddle (and recipe too) and make a big batch of Welsh cakes. They definitely cooked best on the griddle, but with St Davids day a month away now I may well see if our big frying pan is up to the job.
MK Young Dad's Cookies Review	hi! Bought your book and love it, though I'm Canadian there are so many similar cookies between Canada and England (thank you Peek Frean!). FYI, Dad's Cookies can be shipped to the UK via canadaonly.ca. I was looking for the Dad's chocolate chip in a white dough, which are hard to find in Canada now, though the oatmeal are still easy to find. My personal madeleine are those gorgeous Playbox(?) cookies I had when I was little, but no one seems to remember: square, coverered in hard, coloured, thick icing with a picture stencilled on (clock, etc.). Tasted divine!! Were they Engish or Canadian? Thought they were Peek Frean (strange, the Peek Frean brand name is still used in Canada but not in UK). Thanks, MK Young
	Nicey replies: We certainly remember the late Playbox biscuit, which other NCOTAASD readers mention frequently too, and have an entry in our Paleolithic Biscuits section which has a nice picture of a Playbox tin. Peek Frean in Canada was a conseqence of the thriving export business in British biscuits to the now commonwealth nations in the early part of the 20th century. Peek Frean based in Bermondsey South London, built a bakery in 1949 in O'Conner Drive, East York, Toronto, and started supplying 'fresh baked' biscuits into the local Canadian market. When Peek Frean, Huntley and Palmer then Jacobs merged to form Associated Biscuits the brand began to take a bit of a back seat in the UK as iconic products from all three jostled for attention. However in Canada which lacked this sibling rivalry Peek Frean continued to be the recognised brand. Take overs by Nabisco, then Danone kept the names both here in the UK and in Canada. The last set take overs saw Danone selling Peek Freans Canada back to the Kraft Group who owns Nabisco too.
Romie	Please tell Mark I have had good luck removing tea stains with baking soda and a damp cloth. The mild abrasiveness is enough to remove the buildup, but not enough to damage the china, and it rinses clean with no aftertaste. Perhaps in addition the mild alkalinity interacts with tea's mild acidity, but I hesitate to make such a grandiose claim. I believe this is one of those tricks that is passed down by great grandmothers, or in my case a little old lady at my mother's church. It has the advantage of being easy, cheap, and immediate (no soaking needed). Regards, Romie
Sue Northcott	Hi Nicey, Have a Welsh Cake & make a difference! It's Bobath's "Bake for Bobath" week from the 1st to the 8th of March. Bobath Children's Therapy Centre Wales is a registered charity that depends on donations and the fundraising efforts of their friends and supporters to enable then to see every child with cerebral palsy who needs them. At EDS's office in Swansea we'll be organising a cake trolley on the 29th of February (a bit early, I know, but there you go.).I'm sure we'll be downing plenty of tea too! If anyone would like to organise something similar they should email 'fundraising@bobathwales.org' for an information pack. Every little helps!
	Nicey replies: Sue, Of course we could really use your Welsh Cake recipe so that we can all join in.
Nicky Bramley	Lemon juice is very good at removing tea stains from mugs, and leaves a slightly more pleasant aftertaste than bleach or washing powder. Although you may well disagree. Our household was overwhelmed with gifts of biscuit selection boxes this Christmas and New Year: we have several to get through before their expiry dates (which all seem to be in March). I may have to sacrifice my biscuits to a higher cause and bring them into work for my colleagues to polish off. If I do, should I admit they are leftovers do you think, or just bask in the fact that they'll think me extremely generous? Nicky Bramley
	Nicey replies: Nicky, I think you are in danger of projecting overly complex physiological states for the people who will ploughing through your free biscuits.
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