No, I haven't made one - the recipe serves 20! I was in Fortnum's yesterday and I'm not sure that I'd have been tempted at £8.95 a portion - but anyway, they were sold out. Instead, I listened to this lively discussion
from the British Library about all things trifle-related ... I rather like the sound of the veal trifles and looked up the recipe from Garrett’s Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery (c1890).No, I haven't made them either! I haven't done any baking apart from a seed cake a few weeks ago: I do love a seed cake, they're due a revival.
London was buzzing yesterday. In the mood for some Jubilee bling, I headed for Sotheby's
rather splendid exhibition of tiaras (free to get in, always a plus for the common people!) and spent a happy hour wishing I could try them on! This is the Spencer tiara, very pretty. I think the daintier ones look classier, one would so hate to look nouveau riche, and I love the ones with delicate, trembling flowers that would catch the light as you waltzed across the ballroom.
But I was rather taken by this Third Wife's Tiara, that belonged to Loelia, Duchess of Westminster. I hope the pre-nup was tight as her marriage was described as 'a definition of unadulterated hell.'
For a moment there, Mary, I thought you'd been out buying tiaras and were sharing your finds!
ReplyDeleteYou've reminded me I haven't made a trifle for ages and must make one soon. The trouble is I end up eating most of it...it was ever thus. My dad was a seed cake lover and it's something I've never made but must give it a go - as long as I don't end up eating most of it!
xxx
Did you think I'd come across a really good charity shop, Vronni? Where the Queen sends her cast-offs? If only!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I did eat most of the seed cake - though I did have help from a friend - which is why I don't make it too often.
You see, I knew you were the slender, elegant type with thick hair which would look good in a tiara. I, by contrast, am not.
ReplyDeleteI've never even seen seed cake, only read about it in old novels. It always sounds a bit canaryish to me.
I was slender with long, thick hair ... in the dimly remembered past, Pam! I fear I might look Miss Havisham if I wore a tiara now!
ReplyDeleteCanaryish?? As in canary yellow? Or to nibble with canary wine? Or to leave out for the birds because you don't like it? I find that people start out wary of seed cake and then surprise themselves by liking it. (Unless they're just being polite!)
I looked at that recipe and thought it would take the best part of a week. A local cafe did a cheesecake version which I was excited to try, but it was also sold out...
ReplyDeleteI reckon a week is about right,Simon! I did see it in Fortnum's a few days later - I go in for the Tesco-level reductions! - but it was a roasting day and I thought it would be JUbilee soup by the time I got home.
ReplyDeleteI just meant that canaries eat seeds. Or I assume they do. Budgies do. Oooh, you go to Fortnum's? That sounds posh. See, I knew it.
ReplyDeleteI polish my tiara every time I go shopping, Pam! If I told you I was on the look-out for end-of-the-day reductions at Tesco prices, would it spoil the image?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly would. Leave me with my ideas of you. You're slim, with thick hair, beautiful powdery skin and a posh accent. I am very few of these, sadly...
ReplyDeleteI'm rather taken by my alter ego, Pam. She sounds very soignée.
ReplyDeleteWell of course. She's a bit like my lovely mum, though of course she had an Edinburgh accent, which doesn't come into the category of posh (which has to be English, somehow).
ReplyDeleteI've always thought an Edinburgh accent is very classy - and Miss Brodie wouldn't care to hear you imply otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI went to see the new Railway Children film yesterday. Wasn't terribly convinced by the casting of Sheridan Smith as Jenny Agutter's daughter - cut-glass to broad Yorkshire in one generation???? I'm sure Jenny would have tactfully jumped on those vowel sounds! As for the absent Phyllis being married to lizardy old Tom Courtenay ... I felt rather creeped out! Shortage of men after WW1 and she was desperate?????