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 |
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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A T Lewney |
Dear nicey,
i like to cook, and i like to bake, biscuits and cakes (tho really im crap at anything thats not sponge, but thats ok, cause i dont like fruity cake anyway much) but ive never come accross xanthan gum, can i ask you or her or whoever, what it is and can i get it in my local londis/spar/moronisons etc? and whats it used for other than the recipe provided, it all sounds very exotic
cheers
Al
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Nicey replies: Good question. Stuff beginning with X is rocket science by definition. I have never seen Xanthan gum for sale, but I have seen it in stuff, Sunny Delight for instance as you might expect contains it (I once read the ingredients of Sunny Delight to try and figure out if it was indeed as sinister as it appears to be). Whether or not they simply added it because it begins with X and they were working through the alphabet in some kind of sick ingredient stunt or maybe it is to do with 'mouth feel' which I think is the term for industrial chemists would use when building vats of Sunny Delight. Maybe it is part of the emulsification of the vegetable oil in the solution of sugar, and chemicals which is central to the production of Sunny Delight. Perhaps it is a by product of the production of Sunny Delight, which spontaneously gives rise to stuff that begins with X, and Sunny Delight itself is presumably a by product of detergent manufacturing.
You could try Holland and Barrett. |
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