Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
Lynne McDonald
Griffin's vs McVities Ginger Nut Review |
Dear Nicey
I found this link to a charming series of Griffins commercials and thought you and your readers might enjoy them.
Kind regards
Lynne McDonald (a New Zealand fan) |
Nicey replies: Thanks for that. I liked the one that involves getting Toffeepops from your forehead to your mouth using just wild facial expressions, this is indeed first class biscuit advertising. I also got a strong craving for Griffins Gingernuts. |
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John Black
Club Milk Review |
The cutaway profile of the legendary Club Milk does look like the biscuits I remember from Days of Yore
But your review fails to mention whether it is still possible to nibble away at the chocolate and “Free the Biscuit” I recall that freeing the biscuit from its chocolatey coffin was the sole purpose of Club biscuits perhaps you can enlighten us on the viability of this technique today.
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Nicey replies: Indeed as I mentioned the biscuit is moulded differently from the old Liverpool built Clubs. Old style biscuits had round edge implying that they had been moulded on both faces, the new ones seem to be moulded on one side then scraped thus giving the flat bottom. This does mean that the chocolate seems to bond a bit tighter on the new ones but I still managed to bite off chunks as I mentioned. I didn't have enough of them under ideal circumstances to attempt the complete de-chocolating, but I would think it is possible.
Also the one in cross section was one of the few to make it out of Ireland. We had to leave in quite a hurry due to the weather, in fact there were floods in central Dublin the day we left. This meant that my strategic and comprehensive last big biscuit buy up didn't happen. The rather lob-sided one here made it out in the top pocket of my ruck-sack. |
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Nicky Bramley
Ginger Nut Review |
Nicey, Wifey, YMOS,
Two trips down memory lane after reading your site this morning:
Hiromi Miura's description of her biscuit-cake brought wonderful memories flooding back of my early courting days 25 years ago, when my Geordie boyfriend's mother used to make a very similar concoction out of ginger biscuits and a powdered fake whipping cream that you added to milk - neither I nor my Geordie (now) husband can remember the name of the weird stuff that encased the ginger biscuits. My (now) mother-in-law's other two puddings were arctic roll with evaporated milk, and tinned fruit salad with the very same evaporated milk. Culinary madness.
More nostalgia when I saw that you'd made welsh cakes. As my mother is Welsh I know that one welsh cake is never enough, and they definitely taste better with a big slather of butter on top, so I fear for your diet … If you ever need help to finish off a big pile of just-off-the-griddle welsh cakes, I'd be very happy to oblige.
Nicky |
Nicey replies: Morning Nicky,
I think the stuff was called Instant Whip, which must have harnessed the same sort of alchemy as Angel Delight to turn base cold milk into puddings, using nothing more than a whisk.
We shouldn't forget Sue's original message that prompted all this Welsh cake making. |
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Hiromi Miura |
Dear Nicey,Wifey and YMOS
It seems to me that "whether biscuit or cake" is still arguable topic in the U.K. And I wonder if the "Biscuit-cake" is popular in many other countries outside Japan. The "Biscuit-cake" is a familiar as a simple, easy, safe but delicious "home-made" cake suitable for beginners in Japan.
The cake doesn't need the oven. I'm sorry if you have already known , but I would like to try to introduce the "Biscuit cake", here.
(INGREDIENT)
* Rich tea/Marie type biscuits
* whipped cream added sugar ( Luckily,ready-made whipped cream is available at my local E-mart in Korea)
* strong brewed coffee (or milk), room temperature
(DIRECTIONS)
#1 Dunk the both faces of a biscuit lightly in coffee (or milk).
(Be careful not to make it too moist, please!)
#2 Spread some whipped cream on top of the biscuit.
#3 Continue piling with slightly moist biscuit and whipped cream alternately as much as you like, finishing with the biscuit.
#4 Fill the gap between biscuits and spread on top with cream, stylishly.
(If you prefer a "low-calorie" cake, you can skip #4.)
#5 Cover the yummy tower with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least three hours until the biscuits successfully change into a soft moist texture like a sponge cake thanks to the whipped cream.
#6 Adorn with your favourite fruit before serving.
If you create your cake longer like a log and lay it and then spread cream all over it, I think that your cake can be something like a Buche de Noel. To tell the truth, I have never baked even home-made biscuits and I know that my home-made "biscuit-cake" is extremely out of touch with elegance.
However, it was enjoyable for me to fix this cake. I hope many people will enjoy making your own "Biscuit-cake". By the way, as much as we the Japanese call the Biscuit-cake "cake", some people outside Japan may consider it "biscuit".
How do you feel about that, Nicey?
Cordially,
Hiromi Miura (seoul Korea)
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Nicey replies: Dear Hiromi,
I think that biscuits can be ingredients in cakes, as the digestive biscuit and ginger nut often form the base for Cheesecakes. So biscuits are quite prepared for this treatment. I don't think it can go the other way though. Perhaps the closest is the sponge fingers that get used in desserts which are very dry and brittle which have almost entered a state where by they could be used as biscuits. Even so that is no the same thing as smashing them up or treating them with a solution that would turn them into biscuits.
Perhaps some of the people outside of Japan should think about that, although you might have to do the translation again.
P.S. I like the strawberry on top, very tempting.
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Mary Ann Lund |
Dear Nicey,
I thought this 'Tidy Tippist' [sic] keyboard might be just the thing for the taking of afternoon tea at work
As you can see, the doily design adds a touch of refinement to proceedings, while the handy wipe-clean surface prevents dangerous tea spillage and the perennial problem of biscuit crumbs getting stuck between the keys.
With best wishes,
Mary Ann Lund |
Nicey replies: Yes those are some barking mad products. I think I could manage to live out the rest of my days with out a combined tablecloth / keyboard but I'm sure for others its a must have item.
I like the laptop bag designed to look like a rubbishy plastic bag to prevent thieves spotting it, but again I find myself perfectly able to imagine a future that doesn't include it. |
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