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 |
John Dolan
Tunnocks Tea Cake Review |
Dear Nicey,
Your lovely website has caused quite a stir here at the University of Cambridge.
We were wondering if you could settle a long-standing argument and help us find out which chocolate tea cakes were the ones which had a bit of jam in them?
One of our Scottish staff proudly announced that it was Tunnock's, but the evidence on your site disproves this. Another colleague reckons it was Burton's but they no longer have the bit of jam, another swears that is was Marks & Spencer's own brand but they also no longer contain the jam for some reason, possibly the egg white / gelatine makeup of the mallow.
We would dearly love to source a supply of any tea cakes which still contain the jam, irrespective of manufacturer, egg white/gelatine mallow or real/imitation chocolate casing.
It's the jam that's important to us historians.
Best wishes,
John |
Nicey replies: Well I had a lovely bike ride through the collages the other day so if you had spotted me you could have asked me then. Burton's definitely have red goo inside them I wouldn't exactly call it jam I've always thought of it as part of an alliance which includes the red stuff that goes on top proper ice creams. Having said that you don't see that as often as you used to. I haven't had a Burton's for a little while now but did look at a pack the other day and it still depicted jam in them.
Lee's a Scottish brand also definitely has jam in them too.
I have never encountered a Tunnocks tea cake with jam in it and personally as I said in the review I don't see that it is possible, but would happily be proved wrong. |
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Andrea
Tunnocks Tea Cake Review |
Dear Nicey,
I was quite surprised to read that Mark and Mandy were struggling to identify biscuits with marshmallow as Australia has its own version - the might Arnott's Chocolate Royal. This is a circular plain sweet biscuit, topped by a thin layer of jam, followed by marshmallow and dipped in chocolate. The chocolate can be milk or dark and the marshmallow can be pink. They do tend to be brought out for special occasions only, which is maybe why the name is so fancy. The name is much more sensible than that of "teacake" as while it is a tad pretentious, the item is not creating confusion between biscuits and currant buns.
Having read much about the Tunnock's Teacake, I would like to see a comparative review of this favourite and the Chocolate Royal - a bit like the Tim Tam and Penguin review.
Regards
Andrea |
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Mark and Mandy
Tunnocks Tea Cake Review |
G'day,
We stumbled onto your site today whilst trying to settle an arguement that arose at Morning Tea this morning. Morning Tea is a regular event down here. Not every morning, but little excuse is needed to set one up. Births, retirements, small wins on the lottery, remembering the Queens Birthday etc all qualify as events worthy of a Morning Tea. The formality of Morning Tea can vary considerably but, as a general rule, if people are Standing Up rather than Sitting Down then the event is considered as formal. Indeed, there may even be a "Speech". A short speech appropriate for a Formal retirement Morning Tea might be "Thank you". A longer one might be "Thank you very much". If it is a Sitting Down Morning Tea then any attempt to make a speech would be considered rude. If there is no acceptable reason for having a Morning Tea then colleagues generally have to make their own arrangements to have tea in the morning. But the provision of biscuits and Lamingtons under such circumstances is usually woefully inadequate.
Our arguement was based around trying to establish the identity of a confection consisting of a small circular biscuit base, topped with a dome of marshmallow, the whole being covered in chocolate. Some think there may have been a layer of jam between the biscuit and the marshmallow. I'm not so certain about the jam, but, as we probably had supermarket "own brand" inferior copies (almost certainly from the Co Op), I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment. One colleague who thinks they visited England once, but it may have been Denmark, reckons they were called Twinkies. But that just makes me think it must've been Denmark as no red-braced, stripey shirted son-of-Maggie marketing whizz bang would've come up with anything quite so silly.
Here's hoping you can help.
Mark & Mandy
Hobart
Tasmania |
Nicey replies: Mark,
Thank you for that lovely description of morning tea and the mention of Lamingtons.
The name you seek is simply 'Teacake'. I admit that's not a terribly accurate or descriptive name given their splendour. Also there are flattish currant laden buns that also lay claim to that name.
Here is a picture of some that I took to reveal their inner workings. Burton's I believe, but Lee's a Scottish bakers perhaps make better ones. These have the gelatine based spongey marshmallow and can be safely injected with jam as seen here. The mighty Tunnocks teacake has egg white based mallow which is basically uncooked meringue, and shirks any mauling around with jam.
Closer to you in Tasmania, I'm sure Kiwi bakers Griffins produce Teacakes. |
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Jane Purdon
Tunnocks Tea Cake Review |
Hello Nicey and Wifey
It was very of Andy Ley to ask after me. I am delighted to report that the Tunnocks Tea Cake Fountain Experiment was an enormous success. I carefully chose the correct time of day and atmospheric conditions and asked a doctor to be present. I pierced two small holes in the teacake exactly 180 degrees apart. I used a straightened paperclip. This gives exactly the right amount of control over the size of the hole you are making. I also have lots of paperclips on my desk, which is handy. I then carefully raised the teacake, with the holes correctly aligned, to my lips. I blew. I then carefully lowered the teacake and turned it round to examine the hole opposite to the one I had blown in. The medical man and I were enormously gratified to see that a stream of white foamy gooey stuff had emerged from the hole and was snaking down the teacake.
Sadly I have stopped being a high powered lawyer in that particular PLC kind of place and have come to be one in another PLC kind of place where, would you believe it, they stopped giving staff free biscuits and started giving them fruit instead.
Jane Purdon |
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Andy Ley
Tunnocks Tea Cake Review |
Nicey, Wifey, Et al
Hello again, I thought I would put my two pennys in to the Suitable spoon debate.
The other day I was making a cup of tea, and as i came to stir it, I looked in the draw to find there were no clean teaspoons. Now normally in such situations I would steal the dedicated sugar spoon my mum keeps in the sugar bowl (it's not allowed to go any closer than an inch above the cup, incase the spoon gets damp, turns the sugar in the bowl damp and lumpy and all human life ceases to exist, or something like that) however it seemed that someone (probably my brother) had already done this.
With no spoon in sight, and my cupp fast approaching stewing stage, I scrabbled madly in the draw, only to stumble across a Heinz Baby Basic spoon that my nephew uses when he comes to visit (by Basic spoons are brightly coloured bendy rubber things that young kids can safely stick in their eye without fear of going blind).
With no other viable alternative in site I grabbed this spoon expecting disaster, yet as i placed the spoon into the mug and proceeded to stir, I noticed that the slight give in the spoon was making it stir the tea far more efficently than a metal spoon, and whats more, the spoon would bend out of the way of the tea bag instead of snagging on the bag and dragging it around the mug. The end result was a tasty cuppa, it would seem that with the spoon bending away from the tea bag, the tea had more room to move, and blended with the water far more effectively.
So there you go, what I was expecting to be a thouroughly unsuitable spoon, actually made a lovely cuppa!
Yours
Andy Ley
P.S. Jane Purdon that I'm dying to know how you got on with the Tunnocks tea cake fountain, please enlighten us (well, me, I'm probably the only one sad enough to want to know) |
Nicey replies: I have been known to take the younger members of staff's former dinner spoons on picnics to deploy with the NCOTAASD thermos flask. They have the advantage of being brightly coloured so can be spotted in rucksacks easily. Also we get a nice 'we must be on a picnic' sensation from using lots of plastic gear. |
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