General Chat

Moi??
Not particularly cakes, but I do enjoy making puddings.
And I have never actually liked Battenburg cake!

Have a look at deliaonline for another recipe for the almond paste.

Joanna.
Thank you for that.
I do think YOU should make us all one lol. You sound like a seasoned cake maker

150g (5oz) Icing Sugar
150g (5oz) Caster Sugar
300g (10oz) Ground Almonds
1 Medium Egg or 2 Egg Yolks, beaten
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
½ tsp Almond Essence

Sieve the sugars into a bowl
Add ground almonds and mix well.
Add the egg, lemon juice and essence.
Mix together well, to produce a pliable paste.
If too moist, add more sugar, if too stiff, add more lemon juice.
Avoid handling the paste more then necessary.
Use as a coating for cakes.

Margaret, another version of almond paste for your cake.
I do hope you try your hand at making one.

Margaret, well that is a coincidence about your street, must make you fancy the cake everytimg you write your address lol Hope you can give the cake and almond paste recipe a try sometime.

Yuk, never eaten tripe lol Would have been something my parents had tho, they liked dripping on toast too lol I will eat liver but not keen on much else like that altho remember with one boyfriend years ago he liked stuffed hearts and I used to do those for us and I would eat them I suppose, I really can't remember! I was never too keen on preparing them I know that!

Lizx

Thats how my husband liked it.
Very good for you too. Low in calories and fat

Yum!!! Tripe cooked in milk with onions, in a pressure cooker! Food of the gods.

sorry he doesn't do haggis

Old Geezer - everything on your list (except yorkshire puds) sound like the meals our local farmer invites us for when he's slaughtered a pig!

My late husband adored tripe. Stinks when you cook it though

yuk only thing i would like off your list is yorkshire puds .lol
...................rose.......................x

Julia.
Your recipe sounds yum. Keep it in mind for when I finally get around to making the cake.

Old Geezer recognise the rest but Chorley Bags has me foxed. Is this a Manchester delicacy?

Almond Paste
1 ½ cups (8 oz.) whole blanched almonds
1 ½ cups (5oz.) sifted powdered sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp. almond extract
¼ tsp. salt;


Grind whole blanched almonds, a portion at a time, in electric blender or food chopper with fine blade (Yield: about 1 ¾ cups ground almonds). Combine with powdered sugar, egg white, almond extract and salt; work to a stiff paste. Store in refrigerator tightly wrapped in saran or disposable plastic bag.

Makes 1 1/3 cups (13 oz.) almond paste

Sparkly.
The presents were not worth it. Bottles of booze for instance. Problem was it was a special type that you cant buy in the duty free.
They were worried that the family might have written to ask if son in law enjoyed his treat.
I think I would have ditched the booze and explained to son in law it wasnt practicle to bring it. Im sure he would have understood.

As for that Battenburg cake and the almond paste.
I know you need a lot of almonds to make the real stuff.I wish I had the recipe for the stuff they use on the cakes in England.
You can make a mock AP using semolina and almond essence.
You are going to laugh but my street is called Battenburg. Now isnt that a coincidence?

pmsl Joanna, maybe I will make some and send you a parcel.
I can remember one Good Friday, in the days when the postman delivered on such days lol, when I was living in Cambridge. I went to the local bakery to get hot cross buns (again when you could only get them at Easter!!!) and when I got back the postman had left a parcel on the step, it was a shoebox full of my Mum's homemade hotcross buns, they were so much better than the shop ones lol


Margaret, the family must have had forty fits when they found out, as you say, excess baggage and a new holdall would have been cheaper! Hope the presents were worth having lol

Lizxx

You are right, Margaret, things do change so much, all the time it seems.
Wagon Wheels I used to love - well, those have changed too. Or perhaps it is just that my tastes have changed with age!!
I am sorry that you are longing for Battenburg Cake; could you not try making one as Liz suggested? I haven't tried it myself, but if you want I could look for instructions for almond paste. I don't think that it is too difficult to make.
You might come up with something that tastes even better than store-bought Battenburg!
Meanwhile, I have to really start thinking about having a go at Maltese pastizzi. Liz will keep nagging me 'cos she wants to taste one! She doesn't know my cooking!

Aotearoa.
My UK shop is in Browns Bay.Yes I have bought the Mr Kipling cakes including the small Battenburg. Not as nice as the big ones though.
I had a Rowntrees blackcurrant jelly not long ago. The UK shop sells them off when they get to the sell by date. Still $2 though. They are selling Marks & Spencers stuff at present.( Not food).
Its true you long for things from the past and when you finally get one its not the same because the recipe has changed.
Wagon Wheels for example were big when we lived in England.
Walnut Whips too not as good as they were.
HOWEVER still cant beat Cod and chips from the Magpie in Whitby

Thanks for that PSparklyD I had seriously considered making one myself.
Trouble is I would also have to make the Almond paste as the commercial stuff here is rubbish.
It takes at least 6 weeks for parcels to come by sea.
Recently a friend was in England. They went to the Canary Isles to visit son in laws family. The family who couldnt speak English gave them all these gifts to bring back to their son. The family in England also gave them gifts.

Had they realised it would have been cheaper to buy another suitcase and bring it in as excess. They left the gifts for someone to send by sea for them. It finished up costing them 200 pounds.

Just for you Margaret. I am off to bed now, night!
Lizx

Battenberg cake is a popular commercially produced cake in England. It consists of four square lengths of a butter cake or sponge cake. Two lengths are coloured pink and two left plain yellow, they are stuck together with apricot jam, so when you slice into it there is a checker board cross-section. The two tones are believed to mimic the marbled effect of many German breads and cakes. Finally a sheet of almond paste is wrapped around the outside.

Battenberg cake is originally thought to have been created in the late 19th century, although the first recorded mention of the cake was in 1903. It has been suggested that it was perhaps named to commemorate the marriage between Princess Victoria of Hessee-Darmstadt, granddaughter of Queen Victoria to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884. Prince Louis later took British nationality and Anglicized his name to Mountbatten.



Battenberg Cake

150 grams of butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3/4 cups of white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of plain white flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup of milk, approximately
red food colouring
1/4 cup of apricot jam
250 grams of almond paste / fondant to cover
Pre-heat oven to 175 degC.
Line sponge roll or shallow square cake tin with baking paper.
Cream the butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
Sift the flour, baking powder and fold into the creamed mixture.
Add sufficent milk to give a soft dropping consistency.
Spoon half the mixture into one half of the prepared tin as neatly as possible.
Add a few drops of red food colouring to the remaining mixture to turn it a pink colour, then spoon this into the other half of the tin, try to get the join between the two mixtures as neat as possible.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is well risen, springy to the touch and has shrunk slightly from the sides of the tin.
Turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Trim the edges of the cake and then cut into 4 equal strips down the length of the colours.
Gently heat the apricot jam in a small pan and stick the stripes of cake together,
one plain piece next to one coloured one, and then vice versa to make a checker board effect.
Brush the top of the assembled cake with apricot jam.
Roll out the almond paste into a rectangle the length of the cake and sufficiently wide to wrap around the cake.
Invert the cake on to the almond paste, then brush the remaining 3 sides with apricot jam.
Press the almond paste neatly around the cake, arranging the join in one corner.
Serve in slices

Hi Margaret, shame you can't get Battenberg cake, can you not try making it?

How long do parcels take to arrive, I would send you some lol

Lizx

Joanna. When we first came to NZ we noticed the sweets were not as sweet.

A friend who worked at the sugar mill said one country used sugar cane the other sugar beet so they really were not as sweet. Not as tasty either but after 35 years you forget. We do have a UK shop in the local shopping centre but everything is so expensive to buy.

What I miss is Battenburg cake. Love Battenburg. So does my daughter who was with us in England visiting. The UK shop cant import it because its shelf life is only 6 weeks so it would be out of date as soon as it arrived.
There was an Irish shop that sold it here years ago but it wasnt as nice. Cant even get it from there now as the shop changed hands and the new owners stopped making it