Comment personnaliser un gâteau acheté

Pour ma fête, parce que je me sentais vache et parce que je ne voulais pas le manquer, j'ai acheté un gâteau à Cook, au lieu de le faire moi même. Afin de le personnaliser, je l'ai couvert de Smarties, avec deux ou trois autres trucs achetés au magasin de bonbons local. Avec des macarons au chocolat, pour varier un peu. Ce n'est peut-être pas très élaboré, mais au moins comme ça il n'est pas tout à fait comme l'année dernière. Et je sais que le prochain gâteau de fête sera différent. Je ne sais pas comment je vais le personnaliser, mais il sera différent.

The best carrot cake?

I eat, or at least try to eat, following the seasons. When autumn comes, I eat hearty food and I also have seasonal desserts. For me, the most autumnal one might actually be the carrot cake. So come September, as soon as the temperature cools down a bit, I buy a carrot cake for the family, or a piece for myself. With tea on a cool day, it's just the ultimate comfort food, at least this time of year. Of course, you cannot go cheap: you need to find a really good one, or bake one if you have the skills (I don't).

Well, I am lucky, as I believe I found what may be the best carrot cake I ever ate (bare maybe this one). And in a chain, not in a quaint little café or shop. At COOK, of all places. But their carrot cake is really out there. Unlike a lot of those you can find in shops, it's very moist, not dry at all. And it's triple layered, thus very indulgent. And at £14.00, it's very reasonable for a cake this size. Since 2020, when I bought one just to try it, it has become an autumnal tradition in this household. My wife is not too keen on carrot cake, so she has very little, but Wolfie and I just wolf through it. So yes, maybe it's the best carrot cake ever.

Gâteau de fête personnalisé

C'était la fête de ma femme il y a quelques jours. Comme je ne suis pas un très bon pâtissier et que mes gâteux, bien que mangeables, sont souvent pas présentables, j'ai acheté un gâteau à Cook, qui est toujours excellent et très riche. J'ai quand même décidé d'y ajouter une touche personnelle, avec petit loup: des petits chocolats en coeur et surtout des Smarties. Ca donne de la couleur et de la variété dans ses saveurs.

J'ai 4IIBI ans

 

Voici mon gâteau de fête, acheté à Cook parce que j'avais la flemme, et parce qu'ils font vraiment un excellent gâteau de fête. Les chandelles ont été rajoutées par petit loup. Je voulais mettre le chiffre 4, puis quatre chandelles, pour faire 44, mais il a insité pour que l'on ajoute le B. Alors j'ai 4IIBI ans(!). Pourquoi il a ajouté la chandelle en B? Il aimait la chandelle en B. J'avoue que c'est quand même bien cute.

The crab apple jelly of Wild at Heart

There is a COOK shop now in the little town where I live. For those who are not from the UK, Cook is a shop specialized in ready meals, mostly frozen meals, but not only. It is fancy food, especially for frozen meals. It is also quite pricey, but from time to time it is nice to eat a fancy meal that you don't have to cook. As my wife and I both love their meals, we decided to pay them a visit and get a few things from there. I found among the things they sell that is not frozen and not made by their company this crab apple jelly from Wild at Heart. at £3.99, you can see it is quite a pricey product, especially for crabapple (I write crabapple in one word, not sure which is the correct spelling). In my parents' place, they have a crapabble tree that gives us plenty of fruits every two years, sometimes every year, and my brothers and I used to pick them up to make crabapple jelly. You can see the crabapple tree on this post and the crabapples in the making here. We have enough crabapples to make dozen of jars and more of jelly, and at a far cheaper price than these.

So I was reluctant to buy the jelly, but in the end I did it anyway. Because it is getting at that harvest time when I would usually pick up crabapples and because I wanted to enjoy them on toasts. I was also curious about the product and how it would compare to the home-made stuff I am so fond of. So I had some this morning with my breakfast. It is indeed quite nice. That said, it is not quite a nice as the crapabble jelly my family makes (I understand I am most likely biased). The Wild at Heart version is more like a jam than a jelly, truly: a lot of it is liquid and the solid part is rather soft, not as firm as what my parents make. At £3.99, it is rather expensive for a delight that a commoner could make just as well. But it was enjoyable to taste crabapple jelly on a toast all the same. And Wild at Heart gave me a brilliant inspiration: it says on the label and on their website that their jelly is ravishing with roasts, as an alternative to redcurrant jelly or cranberry sauce. And reading this it struck me: why did I never think about it before? So tonight we will have some on the side of our Sunday roast, which we also bought in COOK. And next time I am home, I will also accompany our Sunday roast with crabapple jelly.

Une observation sur les betteraves

Samedi dernier, j'ai mangé un sheperd's pie pour souper, l'équivalent anglais du pâté chinois (en fait le pâté chinois est l'équivalent québécois du sheperd's pie, avec de légères modifications, lisez ce billet pour en savoir plus). Je l'avais acheté chez Cook. C'était délicieux. Cela dit, pour accompagner, j'ai utilisé des betteraves fraîches achetées dans je ne sais plus quelle épicerie. Les Anglais vendent les betteraves parfois en conserve, comme ici, mais plus souvent ils les vendent dans des sacs étanches, pelées comme des carottes. J'ai déjà mangé des betteraves fraîches au Québec dans une salade, j'en avais un meilleur souvenir. C'est pas mangeable, des esties de betteraves épeluchées comme des carottes. C'était donc mon observation gastronomique de la soirée. Les betteraves, mangez-les en conserve.