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 |
Monika Duhig |
Dear Nicey,
Thanks for the great site (and thanks to contributing readers/authors). As an Aussie living in your wet islands I came to adore the eccles cake and a hot drink, practically anytime, really. I wanted to know if any Brit company distributes eccles cakes down under - please, somebody......it is too tragic that I and my recently converted sister should be EC free. Specifically the Lancs company that makes them in Manchester and stacks them in a cellophane wrapping - can't think what the brand is and manufactured in Manchester is probably dodgy but whatever they had in them was utterly addictive (heroin?) but really, any EC of comparable quality will do
Ta
Monika Duhig
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Nicey replies: Monika,
Regrettably I don't think thats a likely scenario. Still maybe somebody knows different. As for the secret ingredient, I think its simply our old friend butter which makes the pastry so tasty.
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Jenni Booth |
Dear Mr Nicey
I do enjoy your site. I'm sitting here with a nice cup of green Lapsan Souchon from a specialist tea supplier on the New South Wales central coast (Cesar's) and a dark chocolate Tim Tam. (My daughter has eaten all the Tia Maria Tim Tams which I was planning to suck with a fresh brew of Cesar's Cuban Supreme coffee, but that's life as mother of a teenager.)
I am wondering whether you can help me. I spent two wonderful years on a working holiday in London back in the early '70s. During that time I became very fond of McVitie's ginger cake. I have never been able to find a suitable substitute here in Australia and despite many years of experimenting with various recipes I have never succeeded in recreating that wonderful combination of light texture, slight stickyness and rich, dark colour. If you consider it appropriate, I would be eternally in your debt if my plea for a recipe that simulates the McVitie creation could be posted on your site.
With best wishes
Jennie Booth |
Nicey replies: Jenni,
I can understand your plight, being stuck in a sub-tropical paradise, wanting nothing more than a slice of ginger cake from Halifax. Also as for a slight stickyness, perhaps its a fond 30 years of memory playing tricks, but the outside is the cake is like a blend of syrup and carpet tile adhesive, and will only usually be parted from its paper case if threatened with some sort of knife. All part of its unique charm of course.
As for a recipe, I don't hold out much hope. These things usually can only be made given the correct industrial cake plant. Maybe somebody will bring you one, but it might not take well to confinement in a suitcase. |
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Brian Barratt |
Esteemed Mr Nicey,
A local bakery, called ET's for some Italian reason, has started making Eccles cakes. I'm not sure if these qualify for mention, but here goes:
The texture is excellent, the fruitybit superb, but they have sugar sprinkled on the top. Shouldn't this be a cooked glaze rather than a raw scattering?
Ever your 'umble, etc.,
Brian Barratt |
Nicey replies: Mr Barratt
Bit of both I thought, although I would have expected an egg glaze to be mandatory. |
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