My story starts with apples & some very unexpected pears.
I have in my garden a somewhat misshapen apple tree, variety unknown. Possibly, maybe Pink Sparkle? The apples it produces are very special, they have pink & red speckled flesh & every year, as Autumn approaches I get excessively excited at the prospect of their harvest. I’m not alone in this, it’s a family thing now, when it’s time to harvest, sheds are clambered on, squirrels are dueled with to get every single last one of these beauties. And there’s a waiting list of people wanting them… Hmmm…
This year to add to the excited, the pear tree has put forth some joyous bounty, something so rare, it’s only ever happened once since we became custodians of this miniature orchard. There were 8 at last count. but curiously there seems to be a few missing. More curious still was finding the very top & stem of a pear outside my French doors one day last week. I’ve either got squirrels with a twisted sense of humour (which would not surprise me) or invaders of the more human variety, either way, pear scrumpers! How very dare they!
There’s been a steady stream of windfalls this week, although some are beyond help, given they’ve bounced off the shed, the wall, possibly the back of the Mini, maybe the back of the house & then unceremoniously smashed onto the path, not even the squirrels want them. The rest have used for cake.
The problem I had though was which recipe.
I have I would say, the best part of 50 cook books, this is not a confession by any means, one should never feel the need to confess to owning large numbers of books in my humble opinion, especially in areas of interest. I feel the same about shoes too but that’s a whole different story! Getting back to cook books, I know I had a recipe for apple cake, for an 8″ tin, with sultans & wholemeal flour but could I find it? Well no…
I looked through my favourite – go to books , you know , Mary, the WI, Julia Duff, a few recipes but not the one I was looking for.
I looked through the files of my own recipes … Nothing
I even looked at Delia…. Zilch
We needed Apple Cake so I settled for a Dorset Apple cake recipe, very nice I’m sure but not the one I knew I had. Got distracted, had to make tea, apples were tucked up for the night.
But in the morning, something very odd happened.
I’ve been extensively sorting out cupboards (which boardly speaking covers the entire house). I was looking through a load of paper work, all sorts of stuff, pirate maps, children’s painting, drawings, birthday cards, coloured in table clothes, you know the usual stuff & there right at the back was a recipe I’d written years ago, for Apple cake.in the back of a box I hadn’t looked at in years. It was the one I was looking for… Spooky…
It was a sign, well a recipe, so I made it!
Really need to read through new/old recipes before I make something, although some of my greatest mistakes have some of best discoveries, but perhaps not this time…
Windfall apples for some reason tend to be on the small side at the moment, & complete buggers to peel, de-seed & chop. Note to self, maybe wait for larger apples. No just make the cake, MAKE THE BLINKIN CAKE!!!!
And the we wait… for what seems like ages…
So whilst we wait a little natter. Something that has happened a fair bit over all the time I’ve been baking is people asking for my recipes. I must admit it’s not something I normally do, although I am always surprised & deeply flattered.
There’s lots of reasons why I don’t. And you can ask any baker who has spent time developing their recipes, sometimes for months, sometimes years, that it’s very precious to them, something they have worked hard to create, to improve upon time & time again, to ultimately to perfect. I feel a little bit like that. I’m extraordinarily proud of the recipes I’ve developed over the years, my lovely lemon drizzle, my delicious chocolate sponge, & particularly my gingerbread recipe. I do get laughed at because they’re top secret & believe me they are! Especially the gingerbread but there is an other reason.
What if I’ve not written it right, what if I do something I’ve not written down, what if it ALL GOES WRONG!!! Now that, that is quite a scary prospect for me.
So for the time being, unless I write a book, of course, it will all remain quite secret! Well the bit I can remember because that’s how secret some of my recipes are, even to me!!!
Anyway, on with the cake. It’s cooled enough to cut, well not quite but I’ve waited long enough! I do my usual ‘hmmm, not quite right, needs more this, less of that, not quite sure it’s perfect’ make notes, eat another slice (bakers privilege) to just be sure.
Make another tomorrow.
And just to clarify & again in no way is this a confession but 50 cook books was a little on the slim side of things… Roughly.. er.. 128…
My name is Nokomis, I am CocoaNoko & I AM addicted to books!
beginning to feel like Summer has slipped away & Autumn is forcing its way in, causing all sorts of niggling & unrest. I mean there we were, enjoying blue skies, balmy days & balmy nights, bbqs & evening drinks on the terrace, & suddenly it’s Autumn! Don’t get me wrong, I love Autumn, all those magnificent colours, comforting plates of food, cosy nights in by the fire, but I just wasn’t ready to give up the summer dream… And apart from anything else, it’s still August, technically a summer month for goodness sake! It is pleasing to see the shops are still attempting to sell summery products though, bbq charcoal, not a hint of Christmas just, I don’t think they’d dare just yet! (Yes, I did write the ‘C’ word, couldn’t help myself!)
