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Your e-Mails

Brent Eades	Hello Nicey and Wifey, Am watching a "Biography" program on television here in Canada about the Rolling Stones. Was intrigued to learn that one of Mick Jagger's first audiences was a local friend, whose mum and sister "used to bring out Jaffa cakes and tea while Mick was singing in our house. She did love Mick's singing." So. Was it tea and Jaffa cakes that in truth launched the Rolling Stones? We may never know. But they played an, erm, instrumental part, it seems... Brent Eades Almonte, Ontario, CANADA
	Nicey replies: Actually it would be more shocking if Mick Jagger didn't like Jaffa cakes, and before we lower the tone of the whole site we should probably leave it at that.
Steve Worrall Jam Sandwich Creams Review	Without wanting to re-ignite the Jaffa Cake/Buscuit debate, I was grazing through my confection cupboard the other day and randomly selected three items to nibble on with a nice cup of tea. I switched on the telly, had a quick slurp of tea and proceeded to pick up one of my nibbles. It was with much amusement that I realised that all three items I had selected, whilst being entirely different products, were all based on the same basic fillings, to wit, raspberry jam and butter cream. The items i had chosen were (in no particular order), Fox's Jammy Dodger Mr Kiplings Viennese Whirl Morrisons Brand Butterfly Cake This set me thinking. The Jammy Dodger is definately a buscuit and the Butterfly Cake is certainly a cake, but there seems to be a grey area, a sort of transition zone, in which the Viennese Whirl sits, being a sort of hybrid Buscuit come Cake. After a period of reflection I related this to my wife, Tracy, who informed me that the Viennese Whirl was neither cake nor buscuit but a pastry and that I was stupid. Does anyone have any comments on the above? Steve Worrall
	Nicey replies: Right a great deal to get through here. First off that's a Jam Cream Sandwich which Fox's are building there, a Jammie Dodger is not only different not having cream, but is a built solely by Burtons. Its a bit like calling your Dyson Vacuum cleaner a Hoover. Sorry for the pedantic bit there but I would be remiss if I didn't wade in. Any how the Mr Kipling Viennese whirl is avery undervalued thing, and in a great many European countries would get away with calling itself what ever it fancied. Cake or biscuit they wouldn't really care. However in the UK it would have to be a cake, and not just beacuse as we all know, Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good ones, and he made these, but also because I don't think it can be classed as a pastry as it has raising in it. If it was a pastry I would probably just join a circle straight to cakes in the mighty NCOTAASD Venn Diagram of such things which is always open for a bit of a fiddling with.
Simon Wright	...in my new book, The Handbook of Organic and Fair Trade Food Marketing (published on February 19th) I just thought I’d stick it in the recommended websites appendix and see if anyone noticed. They didn’t, so you are in. The book is a £100 academic textbook in how to market organic and Fairtrade foods, more info at blackwellpublishing Keep up the good work ! All the best Simon Wright
	Nicey replies: Simon, Hoorah for academia and thank you for the mention! I was pleased to see that our book which is in Cambridge University Library warranted the creation of three of its own catalogue categories 'Tea -Great Britain - Humour', 'Afternoon Tea -Great Britain - Humour' and rather worryingly 'Cookies - Great Britain - Humour'. I assume that the Librarian involved must be American. Mind you Wifey informs me that apparently Trinny and Suzanna mention us in the back of their latest book so you are in good company.
Jim Fussell	Nicey, I was driving back home from Chester to Bristol on business yesterday. As with a lot of A roads there were quite a few roadside parking areas some of which contained the usual bacon buttie van. However, as I passed one such lay by I was amazed to see a van parked up selling solely biscuits. What a great idea. He was missing a trick though as he was not selling tea to accompany the biscuits and there were no seats to be found. I'm sure he's working on this to provide a more complete roadside service. Jim.
	Nicey replies: Hello Jim, How charming. I'm guessing from your description that would have been some kind of enchanted van, possibly with pixies (good or evil) knocking out the biscuits behind the scenes. Did the purveyor have a brightly coloured hat or suit and strange moustache, and a name along the lines of Dr Munchbiccie? Perhaps it was all part of a scheme to abduct IT professionals who have strayed too far from their offices and take them back to his magic castle. It would most likely be somewhere on the M4 corridor. There he'll enslave them in forced labour toiling to program some enormous back office system to administer afore mentioned magic castle using some evil technology platform (fill in your preferred evil technology - I'll take ASP thank you). Did you spot a very large net? Did the van play sinister yet spell binding ice-cream van music? So many questions - don't suppose you got a photo.
Keith O'Kane	Dear Nicey and the Wife, I wrote to you recently regarding our impending Tiffin competition which took place on Wednesday at 11:00. The idea for the competition was conceived by ?confirmed bachelor? Richard Heslop in an attempt to promote cooking as a manly pursuit. There were seven entrants on the day and seven judges, hand picked for their notable experience and expertise in the sampling of cakes, biscuits and other comestibles. The entries were anonymous to ensure that the judges remained impartial. The entries were judged on a number of factors including appearance, chocolate content, fruitiness, texture and taste. The judging was taken very seriously and the contestants were made to wait for almost an hour while the judged deliberated and conferred. Eventually, and somewhat surprisingly, first place and the prestigious ?Tiffing Cup? were awarded to my own entry, a traditional fruit based Tiffin made with cocoa powder. I can put my success down to the many hours spent researching the subject of cakes and biscuits on your splendid site. Second place went to 4 year old Oliver Lewis with an excellent first effort. Yummy mummy Nicky Lewis said that she was delighted with the result and we could look forward to Oliver?s entry in the next competition. Third place was awarded to ?Comedy? Roy Nash with a surprisingly novel entry involving salted pistachio nuts. First prize was awarded to entry number 4 (bottom left in the first picture), second prize to number 5 (far left on the second picture) and third went to entry number 1 (top right on the first picture. The winning recipe is shown below: Keith's Award Winning Tiffin 250g Digestive biscuits 125g Ginger Nuts 50g Raisins 50g Sultanas 50g Glace Cherries (cut into quarters) 50g Dates (chopped) 25g dried cherries 150g Unsalted Butter 30g Soft Brown Sugar 4 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder 4 tablespoons golden syrup Crush half of the digestives into crumbs and break the remaining biscuits into small pieces. Put the biscuits into a bowl, add the fruit and mix well. Cut the butter into cubes and melt slowly in a large saucepan with the sugar, cocoa powder and golden syrup. Keep stirring while the butter melts. Add the biscuits and fruit and mix well so that everything is well coated. Put into a 7" x 11" tray and spread with the back of a spoon. Allow it to cool before putting it in the fridge for about an hour to set. Remove from the tray and cut into 24 pieces.
	Nicey replies: Dear Keith, Thanks ever-so for letting us know the out come of the Tiffin competition on Wednesday at 11:00. We are hugely impressed at the number of entries their quality and the degree inventiveness shown by all who took part. Special congratulations of course to you the winner. Now generally as a rule we don't post recipes on NCOTAASD as it brings in floods of mails from individuals out there who think the whole site should turn into some enormous great cook book. There is quite enough of that already on the interweb. This is closely followed by those wanting tea reviews who think Wifey and I should deprive ourselves of much needed PG Tips and start drinking our way through random teas just so we can say how much we really want a cup of PG instead something we clearly aren't enjoying as much. However, as a mark of our respect for this magnificent achievement we shall publish your recipe, only the second one in our entire history. Well done to Oliver Lewis too, clearly an emerging talent for the future.
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