Saturday 6th April, would have been Mammy’s 99th birthday. I decided to honour her memory with a little baking.
I measured and mixed to my hearts content, while recalling memories of us working side by side in the kitchen of my youth. “Did you light the oven?” I could hear her ask. We used gas for cooking back in those days.
Lemon drizzle was my cake choice for the day and being in ‘mammy’ mood I made enough for two cakes. While they were in the oven, I decided to make a batch of biscuits. A biscuit recipe I have used so often that I could make it blindfolded.
Famous last words…
I hope mammy left the kitchen when the cakes were taken out of the oven. They were well risen and golden. My tray of biscuits were ready and in they went to bake. Fifteen minutes was enough time to turn my hands and mind to clearing and washing the cooking utensils.
I became aware of a peculiar smell and it took a moment to realise it was coming from the oven… I turned to see smoke rising from the oven door. Switching off the oven, and opening the door gently, my biscuits were no longer there. I was looking at a cooking tray, covered in smoking dripping liquid with only the chopped nuts and cherries recognisable.
My heart sank. I hate waste. Where had I gone wrong? I went over the steps I had taken several times and still cannot work out what happened. All I learned is that I am human and humans can have disasters! 🙁
So, you will not be getting that recipe any time soon.
Never mind, if you hurry on over there might be some lemon drizzle cake left, to go with freshly brewed coffee.
Lemon cake is one of my favorites! I made some peach cobbler tonight, which is my husband’s favorite. 🙂
I can appreciate an effort gone wrong. I used to be a whiz at some things in the kitchen that now go awry.
I learned to bake with gas also, but i cook with electricity today. Perhaps we should blame the new ways of doing things?
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I am happy you noticed the ‘tension’ in Hannah’s piece. I am amazed at her skill. Certainly did not get it from me. Dianne
Maybe you need to write the biscuit one down. Even old recipes I need to check now as I can leave out a vital. Easily distracted, a common complaint, your thoughts of mammy perhaps.
Our mothers shared the same year of birth. 1914. it seems like forever, doesn’t it.
XO
WWW
I find I can’t always recall certain parts of some recipes, drat. So my recipes are getting read a little more often. It’s just a little stumble.
Delores – Lemon drizzle is very light ans moreish! Peach cobbler, now that is one I had forgotten about, I must try it again.
Dianne – I am hoping it was a fluke, but I’ll have recipes to hand in future.
WWW – All recipes are recorded both on computer and in A5 plastic pocketed folders. Another coincidence – our mothers being the same age. 😀
Celia – I don’t bake cakes or sweet stuff every day any more, so keeping the recipe to hand will be the way to go from now on!
Mmm, lemon drizzle cake, one of my favourites!
Nick – I must remember that.
Yum yum! I love lemon. I stocked my freezer with bags of zesty lemon cookies two weekends ago. I’ll think of your lemon cake when I eat one after supper. Speaking of “wot hoppened” moments, I doubled the recipe, everything that is except the flour, two tins into baking I realized my mistake as the cookies (biscuits) spread too thin. I added more flour and all’s well. Your mammy was older when you were born I take it. My mother would have been about the same age this year.
Alice – The mixture looked fine when I put it on the trays, that is what made me cross. I do remember sifting the the flour and adding it. Never mind it is water under the bridge now.
Mammy was thirty three when I arrived, two years older than I was when Elly was born.
I don’t understand what went wrong with those bisquits. Did you not add flour to the mixture?
gigi – Yes, I added the flour. I’m putting it down to a fluke.
The recipe for the lemon drizzle cake really sounds good to me. Some of those older recipes really can’t be beat. I have recently been counting up the birthdays of some of my loved ones now gone, realizing that they would now be 100, or 105…big numbers, I guess just make me pensive. What a really lovely way to honor the memory. I have some delightful old family recipes I might try to revive in their honor, too. I’m sorry for the bisquit mishap, but I really feel a bit inspired. Thank yowl Debra
Hahaha! Yowl isn’t some strange American greeting. Perhaps I shouldn’t be typing from work? Thank YOU! ox
Debra – The lemon drizzle is a very simple cake to make. I like to mark the days of lost loved ones in some quiet way. Don’t worry about ‘yow’, I am a master of the typo!