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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Joan McSwiggan |
Hello Nicey,
I have just discovered your website.I can't believe it ! I am the world's biggest fan of tea,cakes and biscuits.
My partener recently had his 50th. birthday.We decided to have a garden party. We had an urn, supplying endless hot water for mugs of tea. On top of that we had mountains of scones, clotted cream and home made jam, as well as platters of cupcakes.
Everyone was blissfully happy.
(P.S. Yorkshire tea rules.) Joan.
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Nicey replies: Joan,
Thank you for that lovely picture of the cup cakes. It sounds like a charming event.
And talking of small cakes and tea urns. Wifey and I manned the tea and cake stall at the school fair last Friday and that little lot would have traded at 20p each which at rough first count comes to £22.80. Unfortunately due to some bad planning and people neglecting to write SOLD on some of the cakes we did manage to sell a few twice, although both Wifey and I were prepared to fight our corner if Sir Alan dragged us into the board room. |
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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. |
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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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