British Baking Part 9: Great Scot!

A day after I have the chocolate cake at The Cake Maker, I cannot rest until I have another piece. I told you already that I wanted to drive back down the very same day to buy another piece, but thought better of it. I go back to Golspie to see her and am feeling much more like myself. I ask her what the chocolate cake is called.

Being an American, I expect something like Deliciously Sinful Chocolate Cake or Velvety Chocolate Delight (we give these silly sort of names to everything at home).

She tells me "It's Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Buttercream Icing."

Ah. Again, I like her straightforward-ness. Allow me to speak for her: "I am the Cake Maker, I make cakes. It is chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I don't need a ridiculous name. My cake speaks for itself."

And it does. The cake is moist and light, and the icing voluminous, and whipped to perfection. It is neither overly sweet nor sickly. It is gorgeous.

I take another piece to go.

I go in again the next day. She comments that I am her best customer this week. We laugh. I introduce myself, tell her about my blog, and show her pictures of my baked goods on my mobile phone. She shows me some pictures on her phone too. We talk for a long time. She has shortbread cookies on the counter in the shape of scotty dogs, and I comment how wonderful they are. She gives me the Scotty Dog cookie cutter to borrow (!) and HER RECIPE to try (!!!) While reading off the recipe to me, she looks at me very sternly, directly in the eye and says "Butter. Real butter" and adds for emphasis "Only real butter."

Yes, ma'am.

She makes my day again.

I am giddy. I am touched by the generosity, and tell everyone the story over and over, because I am just stunned by how sweet of a gesture it all was.

I decide to give it a go, trying my best to make the Cake Maker, Debbie, proud. Here goes:

My dough. The dough is more moist than any other shortbread that I have made as of yet. And I've made it about 4 different times (it's one of my hubby's and his family's favorites).(If you've never made shortbread before, the dough tends to be crumbly and dryish).Secret ingredient: icing sugar (powdered/ confectioner's sugar)

Make-shift rolling pin (a plastic wrap tube)

More moist and sticky, I had to add lots of flour to keep it for sticking to the cutting board the next time around.

The funny thing about this is that she warned me this would happen

I made lovely, delicate circular ones too. The icing sugar makes it thin, crisp, and dainty.

My son (and I) love the Scotty dog cutter so much that I make another cookie recipe with it too.

And it's quite comical because the cookie cutter isn't from Scotland or the UK at all.

It is from America.

 

British Baking Part 8: Helluva Day, Intro to the Real Cake Maker

British Baking

Part 8

A Helluva Day

with

An Introduction to the REAL Cake Maker

My day did not start out well. I had been trying to shake a cold thoughtfully given to me by my son. Every single cold I have had recently has been accompanied by the most tremendous sinus pressure around my right eye. Most of the time the pain has been under my eye along the cheek bone, but this time it has migrated up underneath my eyebrow, right in my eye socket. What a delight.

I ask my sister-in-law, Clare, about sinus removal surgeries. She, being a migraine sufferer, empathises, offering that she too has wanted to go all "Greek Tragedy" on her eye while having a migraine, but has been glad she didn't. This makes me laugh in a sad sort of way, but no massaging or warm compress would relieve me of the dull continual ache. I imagine (ok, I know) being around me was not very fun (my poor husband can verify this).

I use many of these. They are huge. 4 ply. My son could use them as a blankie.Apparently, not for dainty ladies. I am hurt about what this says about me.

My friend, Kendra, recommends that I see the chemist (pharmacist). I do. She listens patiently, tells me that I can take Ibuprofen for the pain, but to inhale this. Just a little, in hot water to make a vapor. Huuummm...I decide that trying can't hurt.

I add this to boiling water in a big bowl and I am skeptical. I breathe in, and Good God Almightly!!! It knocks my socks off. I stagger backwards and start crying, the vapor is so strong. It burns my eyes, the hairs on the inside of my nose and any possible bacterial or viral issues I might possibly have in my sinus.(I recommend using it, the problem went away, but see the amount in my hand? Use a 1/4 of it. And close you eyes whilst breathing in!)

While feeling sorry for myself and the severe pain I am suffering (do you feel sorry for me?) I decide to check out what the Cake Maker has to offer. I drive down to Golspie, go into her store, and look at what she has on the counter. I probably would have been chatty with her had I been feeling a little more like myself. I see a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I take a slice to go. I also pick up a child's chef hat and spatula for Nicholas.

The trip into her shop makes my day and I completely forget about my sinus:

Reason #1: Baby Chef lovin' his new cooking supplies

How could this NOT make you smile?

"Cooking" his teddy bear cake

Sampling. Yes, that's quite good.

Always the showman, Nick shouts Ta-Da!!!

And Delectable Reason #2

It looks and smells marvelous

Approximately 1.2 seconds later...

...and another second after that.

It is the best baked good I have had here. Period. I contemplate driving back down to get another piece. I decide against it only because I think it would be embarrassing. I settle on going back in tomorrow.

I must meet this woman.



To be continued...

 

British Baking, Part 2: The Cake Maker

British Baking

Part 2: The Cake MakerBefore setting out on our journey to Scotland, I made the conscious decision not to bring any cookbooks or recipes with me. I wanted to bake traditional British and Scottish dishes, so not bringing along American recipes made a lot of sense to me. Within a few days of being here, I undertook the task of finding a cookbook, or...four! We had taken my son to the lovely Dornoch Bookstore to supplement his little library, and I, too, got to supplement mine. I found a series of small books that are compilations of recipes from a magazine aptly named GoodFood. I immediately snatched up three of them: GoodFood 101 Cakes and bakes, 101 Tempting Desserts, and GoodFood 101 Cupcakes and small bakes. Perfect, I thought. I also found an adorable children's cookbook, Usborne Farmyard Tales Children's Cookbook, that I purchased with the notion that the recipes would be simple and that Nicholas could help make them (he loves helping Mommy).Wonderful, now that I was armed with recipes galore, I came home, and eagerly flipped through pages folding down the corners of the ones I hoped to bake (there were a lot, trust me). Then I set about the task of seeing what all my kitchen was stocked with in terms of bakeware. As it turned out, not much.I went to a local store that my sister-in-law refers to as the Five and Dime where the proprietor, an weathered older tattooed man asks "what can I help you with Love?" I explain to him that I am looking for baking cups and spoons. He looks truly bewildered.Hum... Not easily deterred, I say "you know, to measure teaspoons and tablespoons?" He points me over into the children's medicine section to see if there are any of those little, tiny measuring cups for measuring kid's cough syrup.Oh dear.He sees me flummoxed. I try again explaining that in the States we have cups and spoons that we use to measure things when cooking. He retorts with "here we use these big measuring jug sort of things." I sigh, and thank him for his help. I've gotten no where though. I think to myself " It can't be true. Surely, people have something to measure teaspoons and tablespoons with. Right?" Next, I ventured into the neighboring village Golspie and stumble across a new bakery, the Cake Maker.

Well, that certainly is straight forward, why on God's green earth didn't I come here first? Aimee, you moron.

I saunter in, happy, happy, happy. My kind of store. They have shelves with some cookie cutters and such, but no measuring spoons, cups, or muffin tins. I ask the girl if they had any to which she replied no they didn't. Where can I find them? She looks at me as if I were three-headed, purple, dancing the jig and asking her to marry me. She had not the slightest idea, and looked at me like I'd escaped the insane-asylum for even asking.

Wait a second, I am in the Cake Maker's, right?

Oh God, it turned out the poor thing was just in to help her friend for the day. I think she could tell I was incredulous. She very kindly took my name and phone number down to have her friend call me to order anything I might need. Still, I have nothing.

A little beaten down now, I decide to give it one last go. A few doors down, is Lindsay's, a combination gift/ hardware/ housewares/ toy store. And Eureka! They have everything: cups, spoons, baking sheets, tins for bread, muffins, etc. I leave with many items and am content to commence my British Baking experience.



And here is the irony after all of that the first dessert I ended up making here didn't require the use of an oven at all. That's right, you heard correctly.

It was Strawberry Trifle from Nick's children's cookbook and the cakey bits, or trifle sponges the call 'em here, you buy at the local grocer's already baked for you! Arrggghhh!

Oh well, it was mighty tasty though.

Delicious, juicy, flavorful strawberries

Lemon Zest. I never thought to use a grater to zest a lemon but it is wonderfully efficient. I am throwing my good-for-nothing zester away when I return home.

No baking required Strawberry Trifle