My Family's Obsession With Cream Tea

I must make it sound like my family are so posh. Really, its a Northener and a Brummy with 2 Derby speaking kids. Yet for some reason we all seem to have this "The Good Life" outlook on life. My Dad is the perfect farmer, to the point where he sometimes gets up at the same time as me on a saturday morning as I am off to work at 5.30, just to check the chickens. My Mum is just as a good a farmer's wife. We have had to build a special cupboard in a space where the computer was for all of the jams and chutneys that my Mum makes.

My sister is a typical 15 year old really. She is not quite sure who she is yet, trying to be cool with her side fringe, blackberry and annoying statuses on facebook, that are easy pickings for a bit of casual sibling bullying. However she is never happier than when she is sat on a ride-on mower. And the worrying thing is she is blooming good at driving it!

Anyway we are digressing from what I actually started out writing this blog about. Th essence of that long winded and pointless background was that we are country folk at heart, and because of this we spend our weekends chilling up the allotment. Today my Dad even bought some fuel specially for his petrol lawn mower so he could mow around the edges and when I got in from work I was greeted by my Nana and my sister and the smell of something baking in the oven.

After a whole morning of baking bread, this was to be honest the last thing I wanted, but there we go. I was informed to have a shower and then get the car ready (complete with camping stove and gas kettle) to take warm scones up to the allotment. Firstly, who on earth thinks of making scones? Secondly, who on earth knows how to make scones? When I asked my sister this she replied, in a teenagers grunt: "It came in a bag." Upon clarification from my Nana, apparently there a several shops around the country full of bins full of stuff like scone mix and bird seed. Apparently too, my family have nothing better to do than to identify where these shops are and tour the country buying scone mix.

So there we are sat next to a veggie patch full of funny looking plants, in the playing field of my old primary school no less, eating scones, jam and clotted cream and waiting for what seems like eternity for a kettle to boil on a gas camping stove. This part of the story links quite nicely with previous blogs: the tea was made in my new university mugs, which for some reason my Mum thinks I need 4 of... 1 for me and the rest for my imaginary friends I suppose...

That said, with the great British sunshine burning down onto us whilst we ate warm (either because they were fresh or because they had been sat in the sun, not too sure which way) scones and tea, like posh people. 

The fact that this appears to be the highlight of my weekend is probably making you think I need to get out more. And you would be right, had I not have this story to tell from the day before: http://tomstalkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-inaugural-university-preparations.html Yes that's right: University shoppping!

Thanks for reading!

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My Favourite Cake List

As a member of the male species I am mainly driven by food. If there is one thing which I going to make me get of my lazy arse it is food. And for me the best motivation food is cake. Naturally I have a lot of cake eating experience, this I cannot deny, I have given too much away by my slightly rotund tummy...

My cake expertise goes from the very most basic of Victoria sponges, classic school canteen pear or apple sponges, to the more exotic flavours of the lime and coconut cake (just no), raspberry and white chocolate cake (at first I thought the white chocolate chunks were lumps of butter that hadn't mixed in properly. Noob) alongside many other weird combinations of ingredients. 

The cake that I would always go for though is by far a lemon drizzle cake. I know this is not always the most popular choice but it really appeals to me. I sometimes find that chocolate cakes or Victoria Sponges with lots of butter icing are far far too rich. I think it is the acid in the lemon that breaks up that buttery richness and creates a really really nice cake. Also, the tradition way to serve a lemon drizzle cake is in only 1 teir, as apposed to the normal 2 on a sponge cake, thus making it much easier to eat without having to start messing about cutting it up with a fork, and also you get the full range of cake and icing all the way through, as apposed to having to eat you cake in 3 stages: The sponge, the jam and cream in the middle and then the icing. So the spread of taste is much more evenly distributed.

So those 2 things, the refreshing tang of the lemons, and the sponge: icing distribution ratio, make a lemon drizzle is the recipe, in my opinion, to the perfect cake.

For more ways to get to a man's heart, follow me on twitter: @peachy146