Mothers Cakes and Confectionery

[Nick Armstrong]

Make it Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

[teamsaint]

Make it Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

any particular one ?.................

[oddoneout]

Thanks for that, jean. It never occurred to us that Mum hadn't invented Melting Moments; if I'd known I'd have made some of these when Dad was still alive!

(I suppose it DOES have to be lard)

Using lard would make the biscuits a bit crumblier(hence melting?). It isn't a large amount, so not that disastrous in the context of total naughtiness/undesirability, biscuits not being that high in the good nutrition stakes in the first place?
You could use the rest of the block to make bird feeders.

[oddoneout]

All Purpose ? what else would you do with it ?

As opposed to rich or very rich fruit cake such as would be used for Christmas or wedding cakes, which contain a higher fat to flour ratio,(and so use the creaming method) and also other items such as more fruit, spices, ground almonds, alcohol.
My Stork Art of Home Cooking book* has a recipe for Everyday fruit cake as you remember, 8 ozs SR flour, 4 ozs sugar,although using 4 ozs Stork rather than butter( as you'd expect!), 4-6 ozs fruit and 2 ozs mixed peel, 1 egg and 5tbsp milk. The higher proportion of flour means the rubbing in method is used.

* Somewhat taken aback to realise that it's 50 years since I was given it at school....

[Serial_Apologist]

Using lard would make the biscuits a bit crumblier(hence melting?). It isn't a large amount, so not that disastrous in the context of total naughtiness/undesirability, biscuits not being that high in the good nutrition stakes in the first place?
You could use the rest of the block to make bird feeders.

Excellent idea I'd never have thought of, so thanks for that, oddoneout - our feathered friends could probably do with a bit of enfattening at this breeding time of year, especially given the cold!

[Ferretfancy]

I make a Christmas cake every year from a recipe published way way back by Clement Freud in the Observer. Sadly, last Christmas I couldn't find it, so fell back on another version which was nothing like as good. Still, I do make a lovely cherry and ginger cake, and my Victoria sponges usually meet with approval. The trouble is that there are not enough survivors of my cookery to get through the quantity I produce. This is yet another age related drawback.

[Sir Velo]

For heavens' sake, can someone please correct the title of this thread. Jean might not mind but anyone coming across this forum is going to consider us an illiterate bunch!

[jean]

Well...I was trying to ignore the complete absence of fathers from the thread title, but since you mention it...

[eighthobstruction]

For heavens' sake, can someone please correct the title of this thread. Jean might not mind but anyone coming across this forum is going to consider us an illiterate bunch!

....no just dyslexic me

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If SirV doesn't behave, I'll put the apostrophe in the "cakes" (which is a lot more dangerous to the Systolic readings than is lard)!

[jean]

For heavens' sake...

It occurs to me to wonder how many heavens he thinks there are.

[french frank]

It occurs to me to wonder how many heavens he thinks there are.

Seven?

[Serial_Apologist]

Seven?

An infinite number, if Quantum theory is to be believed.

[ardcarp]

Back to cakes. I hope it will not sound callous or hard-hearted to say that my mother (now long deceased) was an appalling cook. And the appallingness of her cookery was evident, above all, in her cakes. Or should I say her cake, because she only made one per year, The Christmas Cake. Forget Stir-Up Sunday. Hers was made on Christmas Eve, usually around midnight. Mother was a smoker. Not a leisure smoker. A smoker-while-u-work. And the annual cake was definitely 'work' in her eyes, an arduous but obligatory labour. So the fag on her lips grew a long teetering cylinder of ash as she punished the mixture in the bowl. I'm quite certain fag-ash was a key ingredient. On the subject of ingredients, mother boasted that she had never used a recipe in her life. [Ditto for Christmas Pudding, which was made at the same time.] So without use of scales or measures she threw everything in with considerable abandon. Cooking was equally haphazard. The fruit always seemed to migrate the the bottom. The interior had a soggy and faintly raw flavour whilst the top was rock-hard and somewhat concave. Christmas morning was the scene of marzipan, icing-sugar and those little silver ball-bearings, which threatened to break your teeth even if the icing didn't get you first. I won't go on to describe the turkey and the roast spuds (shoved in together along with two packets of lard). Nor the sprouts which went on soon after. The meal didn't appear until at least 3pm. No-one dared complain.

I have to say that my mother was, in most other respects, a remarkable woman; a champion of women's rights ahead of her time, and one-time Mayor of her Town.

She lived into her mid-nineties despite the fags and the lard.

[Nick Armstrong]

Brilliant post, ardcarp!!