I am not religious, although sometimes I have a sharp desire to go to a non-fluffy, guitar-free Church of England service (the Advent Parade at York Minster, for e.g.). I do however like to celebrate the Baby Jesus (dead, alive, about to rise or risen) by baking: I like the stories that are in all the cakes and buns; the spices and the fruits and the ancient-ness of it all.
There was nothing particularly mystical about my hot cross buns, apart from the fact that they tasted ancient about 10 minutes after coming out of the oven. They were lukewarm and faintly irritated rather than hot and cross, and are destined to become the bread in a bread and butter pudding. (If you have never made them and wondered what that white stuff is that makes the cross, it is - most of the time - just flour and water.) Here is a picture:
I was also grasped by a desperate desire to make a Simnel Cake, but couldn't find the bottom of my 20ins cake tin. Instead, I made these Simnel Cakelets (O how I hate that stupid "...lets" thing) out of the Guardian, ignored the icing/marzipan animals/chocolate eggs thing and stole the marzipan balls thing off the original Simnel Cake recipe. Result: we have 11 small cakes to take chez the mother-in-law tomorrow. (There were 12, but we ate Judas Iscariot.) Here they are:
It only remains for me to wish you a delightful long weekend, whether or not you will be exposed to marzipan balls.
Pip "Saffron in that?" Pip
NWM
There was nothing particularly mystical about my hot cross buns, apart from the fact that they tasted ancient about 10 minutes after coming out of the oven. They were lukewarm and faintly irritated rather than hot and cross, and are destined to become the bread in a bread and butter pudding. (If you have never made them and wondered what that white stuff is that makes the cross, it is - most of the time - just flour and water.) Here is a picture:
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It only remains for me to wish you a delightful long weekend, whether or not you will be exposed to marzipan balls.
Pip "Saffron in that?" Pip
NWM
6 comments:
These look VERY tasty. I made cauliflower fritters. Which do not feature much in the Easter story.
Ali xx
I was just thinking about making quichelettes for brunch tomorrow! I'm American, so we have neither marzipan nor a long weekend. ):
I made tortilla. Isn't Jesus a Spanish name?
Dearest Non-WorkingMonkey,
I was just listening to a song mix I made two years ago. Please fervently thank the self hair-cutting French-Canadian veterinary histopathologist for Dayvan Cowboy by The Campfire Headphase (both song and video).
Also: "They were lukewarm and faintly irritated rather than hot and cross..."
Pure genius, Monkey, pure genius.
Thank you forever,
Icy
Dayvan Cowboy is still in my top ten list of best ever songs.Yeah !
Sorry, from The Campfire Headphase, by The Boards of Canada, of course.
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