This was the letter. The envelope was addressed to 'The Literary Editor, Quadrant Magazine'.
Behind that note you can see parts of the story that I'd been meaning to submit to Quadrant. I'm quite proud of it: it's titled 'Sex and Sclerotica', and my favourite line is:
"Bloom goggled, and, as so often when that happened, his glasses began to film up. He took them off and absent-mindedly began to clean them with the letter of resignation he had kept on his desk for the last 20 years."
Leaving that on the table for the time being, I set about making the gingerbread. I got the recipe from, would you believe it, doing a google search and ending up on the ABC website.
I sifted Self-Raising Flour, cinnamon and ginger together into a bowl before mixing in some brown sugar:
Mmm - lardiferous!
I used margarine instead of butter - I prefer that in cooking. After this was melted on the stove, I mixed in treacle, milk, and an egg:
(Note: just looking at this photograph, I'm gargling in a Homer-like fashion. Just thought I'd throw that detail in.)
I also chucked in some raisins that were lying about the place. Because, you know, I'm a rebel, dude, and I do what I like.
All I had to do after that was mix the ingredients together and throw them in a greased cake-tin. The tin went in a 160 celsius oven for about half an hour. Actually, since the oven is in Fahrenheit, AND the Fahrenheit markings are hard to read, it was pretty much guesswork.
The results! And the best way to eat them (in my opinion)?
Fresh out of the oven with butter and black coffee! (By the way, if Rupert Murdoch is reading - Rupe, hope you notice the subtle product placement I'm doing for your paper. Want to pay me?)
Gingerbread's almost gone now, but you can make some of your own by finding the full recipe here. Enjoy!
11 comments:
Egad, I had no idea quite how radical you are. You start with raisins, you end by storming the Bastille. Here's a thought (but feel free to ignore it - there's no need to improve on culinary perfection): what about tossing in a liberal handful of semi-dried ginger and figs?
If I putted more fruit in (especially ginger) I'd be tempted to cut down on the amount of spices I put into the cake in the first place, as in that case it would be provided by the fruit.
Er, why not just make fruit cake then?
Spicy fruitcake, though, not just your garden variety rum-sodden job. Good for the circulation.
It's a tempting suggestion. I've only ever used powdered ginger in cooking, what would happen to the semi-dried ginger - would the spices absorb into the rest of the cake, making it taste a bit like orange peel?
It would only taste of orange peel if you introduced orange peel, wouldn't it? Ginger and fig are pretty unorangeappealing. But, really, no need to go messing around with something that's already exceptionally scrumpy. (Take it from me.)
No gingerbread men in your house, I see. Not even a gingerbread person.
How politically correct is that!
Where's the fun in not being able to decide whether to eat the head or the arms or the feet first?
It tastes nice though! Ginger probably has mild addictive properties... I'd feel ostentatious cooking things like gingerbread men, since I mostly cook things for myself.
But as for political correctness - all I can say is things certainly were different before all these new-fangled changes...
The universe is saying that gingerbread is delicious! Cheers!
Doubtless you completed your Dude Food with a bowl of yo-gurt.
Not quite, I drank some hip-drop while listening to trip-hop.
Post a Comment