Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
Maisie |
Dear Nicey,
Hope that you are well.
I got married recently and for our wedding breakfast instead of the usual champagne and three course we went for cakes, scones, with and without fruit, jam and clotted cream, cakes, jam sandwiches, cakes, salmon sandwiches, cakes, wedding cake, cakes and as much tea as our guests could consume. Hoorah! It was a hit with all. However, imagine my horror when I saw my newly wedded husband loading his scone with cream and then jam! Well it was nearly the divorce courts right then. Apparently his whole family do it! Cream, being like butter. But I say, butter is like butter. Butter, jam, cream, it is the natural order of things.
We decided to have a look on your delightful site to see if you have the answer. We couldn't find anything obvious but
I dare say that this debate has raged in the past and as you were so helpful regarding the oat cake, cake or biscuit problem (you informed us it was actually a cracker) we wondered if you could help us here.
Yours, tea drinkingly,
Maisie |
Nicey replies: Actually that was the very first poll we ran on the site and it came down as 72% jam then cream 28% cream then jam. So your old man is not alone just out numbered three to one.
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Nessa Folks |
I’ve just turned 30, so to mark the occasion I had a proper tea party with proper bone china and proper cake and scones and clotted cream and strawberries and even proper cucumber sandwiches without the crusts. I thought you might like to see a few piccies. Note the Nice Cup Of Tea and a Sit Down book on display next to the cups. Everyone had such a lovely time, maybe next year we’ll do it again, but with biscuits.
Nessa Folks
Swansea
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Nicey replies: Hoorah! for you and your lovely tea party, I liked the candelabra at the back and the plucky blue teapot which still took part despite having a chip out its rim, good for him/her (blue for a boy? (oh no have I just started a debate as to the gender of teapots? (probably not))). |
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Jonny Cowbells |
Dear NCoTaaSD,
My wife Rachel and I are Londoners in exile in Tignes, a ski resort high in the French Alps. The French Alps, in common with much of mainland Europe, is not the kind of place where one can easily get one's sticky paws on one's favourite mass produced biscuits. A decent cuppa is pretty much out of the question as well, and we've taken to importing tea bags rather than put up with Lipton day in, day out.
The biscuit issue was more of a problem, but my wife's entrepreneurial streak encouraged her to bake brownies. This in turn led to a 'Tignes brownie off', resulting in said brownies becoming available in a local cafe, Le Lavachet Lounge. Walnut brownies are a favourite, but 'orange and white chocolate chip' have been spotted, as have 'cherry and kirsch', and the flavour changes every week.
I occasionally report on the brownies in my blog and a recent post was entitled "Nice cup of tea and a sit down" after your good selves. A reader posted a link to your site and commented that if Rachel's brownies were ever to get a mention there, she'd know they'd truly hit the big time.
It's my wife's birthday in April (the 12th) and I'm sure it would make her day for her baking to be recognised in such an internationally renowned place.
Obviously I'm biased, but I'm sure I could find vaguely independent verification of aforementioned brownie quality.
Great site - keep up the good work.
Kind regards,
Matt
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Nicey replies: As I too have endured many a cup of Liptons tea a mere mountain away from you I have some empathy for your wretched plight. Mind you living in the middle of Espace Killy and looking like the season could make it through to the start of May this year tempers my anguish somewhat.
Still well done to Mrs Cowbells for her resourceful baking. I have to say I do like the whole high altitude baking thing in ski resorts even if much of it is enforced on chalet maids. |
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Andrew Birks |
Dear Nicey,
I am new to your "sitting down tea drinking" thing, I was introduced by my girlfriend Rosa (which explains the address). However, the whole concept is more than familiar, as I do like a nice cup of tea and a sit down- especially on my return from a hard day down't Mill.
There is something I would like to bring to your attention.
I see Mr Kipling has had an honorable mention, but I don't see anything regarding the Manor house cake.
OOOOh! sweet, fruity and substantial, but without the weight of the old fashioned fruit cake. Washed down with a nice cuppa......
I just thought I would let you know... I am also quite partial to chocolate chip cookies, although that is another story.
Keep up the good work!
Andrew.
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Nicey replies: Oh yes the Manor House cake is the professionals choice, I like the big sugar crystals on top. Its relationship to say a mini-Bakewell is somewhat akin to one one of those sit on lawn mowers that the council use to do the verges to a flymo that you got from B&Q for fifty quid and plug via the kitchen window.
I could be wrong but I think Manor House is the name of the Mr Kipling bakery |
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Tim Roser |
Hi Nicey & Wifey
It's fantastic to at last see a focus on one of the roots of our great culture, custard.
I for one suffer at the hands of a wife who is neither interested in:
1) Biscuits
2) Custard
3) Cake
4) Chocolate
and who has sought to indoctrinate the children in the ways of 'salad' and 'organic vegetables' and eschews the cornerstones of what I consider to be the point of eating, biscuits and custard.
I have however been stealthily making proper powder custard when the wife is away and feeding it to the children. With cake, and biscuits, and pie.
Personally I am currently veering heavily into chocolate cake made with Green & Blacks, liberally covered in warm custard, and mixed up a bit so it goes super gooey. This is a triumph, as I personally have to make the cake myself and the children help me by licking the bowl, spoons etc and then stuffing as much down their faces as possible. Any 'slops' that fall on the floor are immediately handled by our Border Collie, who becomes stealthy and ninja-like when the cake process is underway, darting from under the table as soon as a 'splat' is heard.
My wife has many other fantastic qualities, and one should not condemn for a lack of interest in tea, biscuits, custard and chocolate and cake.
However, as she has a degree in Philosophy, I am attempting to convince her that her position is Absurdist, but she simply implies that she doesn't like it and that fact leads to Existentialist Tension running through the household, which is to be welcomed.
Personally, I am not convinced. I just want biscuits, cake and custard.
Thanks
Tim Roser
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Nicey replies: Hoorah for you, the kids and the dog!
We also eat lots of salad and organic vegetables (we get a big box delivered every Thursday morning). Wifey too is not fussed on custard which we see as a positive advantage as it means more for the younger members of staff and me. She very sensibly slopes off at pudding time leaving us to it, whilst she marauds around the internet sorting it out.
Mind you Wifey has taught herself how to make cakes now which she is extremely proud of.
Cooking proper puddings with your kids is something you should be proud of too, and your too Wife even if she's not keen on them. |
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