Indulgence

Against a private festivity tomorrow, this afternoon I have made an Alberta date cake, probably for the first time since that noticed at reference 1.

I used the recipe from the Whitworth's recipe book again, and at the time of writing I think I got it right this time, doing everything in the right order. A first.

The mix was rather wetter, with its half a pint of water, than I remembered, which was fair enough. But it was also a lot browner than I remembered, which was a bit feeble given that four ounces of dark brown dates might have given the brain a clue. In any event, the scrapings from the bowl certainly tasted fine.

Snapped here fresh out of the oven, still in its tin. It came out of the tin - greased and floured before the off - without breakage, half an hour later. I think the darkening right is an artefact of the light or the telephone, rather than of my culinary art.

PS 1: we have walnuts at home, Californian walnuts in their shells, but were unsure whether they would have added up to the necessary four ounces out of their shells. Luckily, BH was able to buy some shelled walnuts from Sainsbury's when she visited yesterday - that particular home baking item not having been cleaned out. And having seen four ounces of shelled walnuts in the scale pan, I think the answer was no they would not have.

PS 2: still no further ahead with the name of this cake, with the cake shop I emailed in Alberta knowing nothing about it. The only new bit of information is that Queen Victoria's steam yacht on the Isle of Wight was called the Alberta, but we have failed to make any connection with cake. Amused to see that previous searches concerning dates got me into the world of Internet dating agencies.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/tray-bake.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/08/more-cake.html. The email.

Reference 3: https://www.crazycakes.ca/. The people in Alberta who had not heard of Alberta date cakes are still there, at Crazy Cakes, 1102 5th Avenue South Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 0V3. And not only do they not appear to be into the right sort of cake, they did seem to be connected to a scam which promises me an iPhone in return for my bank account details. The second time someone has tried this on me, a someone who has gone to a fair amount of bother to dress the thing up in plausible, Microsoft flavoured clothes.