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 |
Nicky Bramley
Ginger Nut Review |
Nicey, Wifey, YMOS,
Two trips down memory lane after reading your site this morning:
Hiromi Miura's description of her biscuit-cake brought wonderful memories flooding back of my early courting days 25 years ago, when my Geordie boyfriend's mother used to make a very similar concoction out of ginger biscuits and a powdered fake whipping cream that you added to milk - neither I nor my Geordie (now) husband can remember the name of the weird stuff that encased the ginger biscuits. My (now) mother-in-law's other two puddings were arctic roll with evaporated milk, and tinned fruit salad with the very same evaporated milk. Culinary madness.
More nostalgia when I saw that you'd made welsh cakes. As my mother is Welsh I know that one welsh cake is never enough, and they definitely taste better with a big slather of butter on top, so I fear for your diet … If you ever need help to finish off a big pile of just-off-the-griddle welsh cakes, I'd be very happy to oblige.
Nicky |
Nicey replies: Morning Nicky,
I think the stuff was called Instant Whip, which must have harnessed the same sort of alchemy as Angel Delight to turn base cold milk into puddings, using nothing more than a whisk.
We shouldn't forget Sue's original message that prompted all this Welsh cake making. |
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Lindsey Sykes |
Dear Nicey
I wondered whether, in time of reduced calorific intake you have considered the caramel snack a jack. OK, these are not real biscuits as we know them, but, when needs must, a jumbo carmel snack a jack is, I find, an acceptable alternative. Although it is not truly of dunkable quality, I have found it does dunk fairly well into a slightly cooled down cuppa (you have to snap it in half first because its, well, jumbo, and you can only let it soak for about 7 - 9 seconds or risk disintegration, but at only 51 calories for the size and sweet taste of it I think it well worth a visit. I prefer not to dunk mine nowadays, instead I enjoy it with a lovely cup of spicey tea and topped with some sliced banana (the snack a jack that is).
With regards to Wifey and YMOS,
Best wishes,
Lindsay Sykes |
Nicey replies: I'm not sure under which circumstances I would find myself getting aquatinted with such items. It would have to be properly introduced I think as otherwise it seem that I had arrived there out of desperation, which obviously would be a bit undignified (no aspersions cast over your enjoyment of said items ). |
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Hiromi Miura |
Dear Nicey,Wifey and YMOS
It seems to me that "whether biscuit or cake" is still arguable topic in the U.K. And I wonder if the "Biscuit-cake" is popular in many other countries outside Japan. The "Biscuit-cake" is a familiar as a simple, easy, safe but delicious "home-made" cake suitable for beginners in Japan.
The cake doesn't need the oven. I'm sorry if you have already known , but I would like to try to introduce the "Biscuit cake", here.
(INGREDIENT)
* Rich tea/Marie type biscuits
* whipped cream added sugar ( Luckily,ready-made whipped cream is available at my local E-mart in Korea)
* strong brewed coffee (or milk), room temperature
(DIRECTIONS)
#1 Dunk the both faces of a biscuit lightly in coffee (or milk).
(Be careful not to make it too moist, please!)
#2 Spread some whipped cream on top of the biscuit.
#3 Continue piling with slightly moist biscuit and whipped cream alternately as much as you like, finishing with the biscuit.
#4 Fill the gap between biscuits and spread on top with cream, stylishly.
(If you prefer a "low-calorie" cake, you can skip #4.)
#5 Cover the yummy tower with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least three hours until the biscuits successfully change into a soft moist texture like a sponge cake thanks to the whipped cream.
#6 Adorn with your favourite fruit before serving.
If you create your cake longer like a log and lay it and then spread cream all over it, I think that your cake can be something like a Buche de Noel. To tell the truth, I have never baked even home-made biscuits and I know that my home-made "biscuit-cake" is extremely out of touch with elegance.
However, it was enjoyable for me to fix this cake. I hope many people will enjoy making your own "Biscuit-cake". By the way, as much as we the Japanese call the Biscuit-cake "cake", some people outside Japan may consider it "biscuit".
How do you feel about that, Nicey?
Cordially,
Hiromi Miura (seoul Korea)
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Nicey replies: Dear Hiromi,
I think that biscuits can be ingredients in cakes, as the digestive biscuit and ginger nut often form the base for Cheesecakes. So biscuits are quite prepared for this treatment. I don't think it can go the other way though. Perhaps the closest is the sponge fingers that get used in desserts which are very dry and brittle which have almost entered a state where by they could be used as biscuits. Even so that is no the same thing as smashing them up or treating them with a solution that would turn them into biscuits.
Perhaps some of the people outside of Japan should think about that, although you might have to do the translation again.
P.S. I like the strawberry on top, very tempting.
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Louise Morgan
Romany Creams Review |
Kia ora Nicey and Wifey,
Had heard about your web site quite some time ago when the hubby and i were still living in the UK.
Glad to see you are still going strong.
We live happilly in New Zealand and my favourite biscuit out here so far has to be the 'Kingston' by Arnotts - it sort of reminds me of a Gypsy Creams from years ago in Scotland, where i was born.
However, it is about half the size of a Gypsy Cream and the biscuit halves are more golden coloured but the Kingston tastes very nice especially dunked and is kind of more-ish as one is never quite enough and i usually end up eating about two or three quite greedilly and quickly the minute the tea is poured!! Oops - i have to limit them and look at them longingly in the packet or i could end up turning into a biscuit! Hahah!
Thank you for a really good fun web site.
Louise and Lez
Auckland City
New Zealand |
Nicey replies: Yes those Kingstons are fairly much the same idea as the Gypsy Cream, which made a brief come back here a year or two ago. They are made under licence by Arnotts from Bakers of South Africa, and we reviewed them a good while ago now.
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Lou Phemister
Digestive Review |
Hi Nicey,
I'm wondering if anyone can help me with information regarding the birth of the digestive biscuit. Growing up on the southside of Edinburgh I was always told that Robert Middlemass invented it in his quaint biscuit factory on Causewayside (now long gone along with the lovely aroma). All the written history i have seen suggests its creator was Alexander Grant of McVitie & Price down in Rose St., which may be true, but as history is always writen by the victors i am naturally a little suspicious.
Lou Phemister |
Nicey replies: It seems that you have more local information on this than us, who as you have keenly observed are reading from the history books so to speak. I'm perfectly prepared to keep an open mind on such matters. |
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