So… Saturday 2nd of February, a busy day; first I have my Gaelic class, then in the afternoon some dear friends are going to be dropping in for tea. A busy day but a very nice day. I know! I’ll try that nice recipe for Seville orange marmalade cake I saw in the Waitrose magazine.
So Friday night I make the cake, which is a strange recipe, cream the butter and sugar (I used real 100% butter not margarine) then add six eggs, then add 100ml of single cream, ground almonds, marmalade (home-made by my husband) and last of all the flour. I doubled the recipe so I could make a cake for my friends and buns for my Gaelic class. It only needed a short cooking time, just over 25 minutes and came out of the oven looking lovely. We tested one of the buns, and they were delicious!
So… This morning up early to ice the cakes with a special frosting and discovered that the recipe said Mascapone and I had bought crème fraîche… I’m sure it will do! I make the syrup to pour over the cake and while it is heating I begin to mix the crème fraîche (not Mascapone) yoghurt, marmalade and icing sugar… and it doesn’t work… it makes a delicious cold sauce, but it is not frosting and would just run off the cake. Thinks… I know, make a butter cream and add the runny frosting…
Why am I such an idiot? Do I not concentrate properly? Is my head too full of the people in my stories? I put butter and some of the frosting in a bowl, mix it and it splits – it looks like… split mixture, sloppy and with bits of butter bobbing about. I know how to make butter icing, why did I not do it properly? Who knows. I persevere, beating it more and more and it does begin to mix properly but when I taste it the texture is not right.
I glance at the clock… nearly nine o’clock already! The teacher will be arriving at nine-thirty! What to do? Think, think… Start again. I will make butter icing and forget the frosting and just add a little marmalade for flavour.
Hurrah! Sort of success! I quickly spread the result on the buns, onto the cakes, sandwich them together, more spread on top, voilá! Nearly nine-thirty, quick into the shower and get ready, trying to think some Gaelic thoughts. Oh no! I need to make some sandwiches for our teacher to take home – he comes all the way from Essex by train, he’s up at three (yes 3 a.m.) in the morning, he won’t be home till late, he needs a picnic to eat on the way home after teaching us all day…
I glance out of the window, no sign of any cars, people usually park outside our house before going to the village hall for the lesson… I glance at the clock… nearly twenty to nine…
A dreadful thought occurs… I check my calendar… Gaelic is next week…
Lois Elsden 
At least now you’ve had a practice and the buns will be perfect when you make them next week 🙂
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LOL, indeed – the buns actually are rather nice… some work to do on the frosting…. have you any good recipes?
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Oh dear. With me I’m told it’s age – frequently! With you … ?
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I’m blaming the people in my head!!
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You are a high achiever Lois. How very kind to make sangers for the teacher too! I have done things a week early, but also a week late (in my 20s)! It suits me to think it’s not age-related.
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I’ve always been like this, Philippa! Luckily yesterday was an in advance moment, rather than too late!! It was dreadful when I was at work, I often missed meetings, or arranged to see people and forget they were coming… I’d write it on loads of calendars and in diaries and then forget to look, or look at the wrong day, or think it was the wrong day!
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Sounds so familiar Lois! We were hosting a big family dinner in early December when the phone rang – a friend offering me a ride to the tennis break-up dinner….
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Ooops! I get the picture – I’m chuckling right now!
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This made me laugh, but unfortunately it’s all too familiar. I often wake up and don’t know what day it is. I have to check my diary every day to see what I should be doing and then write copious “to do” lists which I then tick off as said tasks are completed. However, all this organisation falls apart if I put the list down and can’t find it again or if I go out and leave the list at home. Oh dear! At least I’ve still got all my own teeth if not all my marbles!
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I took a list out shopping with me the other day, actually remembered to take it into the shop then found I’d written lime juice down twice… when I got home I realised I’d written it instead of baked beans… I do sometimes despair!! Time for a glass of something I think, not lime juice!
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Made me smile!
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Actually it did me too!
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At the literary lunch I was telling you about Virginia Ironside gave a very funny talk mainly about the joys or otherwise of being over 60. One of her friends has coined the phrase, “CRAFT moments” standing for sometimes “Can’t Remember A F***ing Thing”
The audience obviously recognised this as it was greeted with gales of laughter.
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Oh I like that!! Bari and i have many of those!!
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