American Readers(and others too)

[Morai]

Culturally, the Isle of Man is interesting with the influence of not only the Vikings and the English, but also two different Celtic cultures, Scotland and Ireland.

Kinda off topic (sorry) but I do have family there, as well as in England somewheres. Unfortuneatly, I seem to have more Japenese influence than Manx. The closest thing I can recall here that resembles a seed cake, is a rice cake. If you buy them in a store, they're round disk like things where the rice has been baked and fused together.

When I think of sponge cake, I think of those infamous, fattening, and cream filled Twinkies!

[Rumil]

Thanks for the seed cake pic Sophia, that's exactly the sort I remember. Maybe I'll have to go on a cake-related shopping expedition sometime soon.

Meanwhile pio, Lalwende and formendacil have answered the Manx question better than I ever could!

[Nuranar]

And thank you, Rumil, for the "corny" ( ) clarification. (It was begging so hard I couldn't resist.)

Sophia, I love poppy seed cake! I'm hungry now...

Here's another cake question: Is "pound cake" the same all over? What about shortcake (as in strawberry)? Is there such a thing? We always use pound cake for strawberry shortcake - now that this thread has me thinking, it sounds strange.

[mark12_30]

Pound o' butter
Pound o' sugar
Pound o' flour
Pound o' eggs

= pound cake.

Modern recipes have varied, of course, but in the beginning, the above sufficed.

My mom the Mainer assures me this is so.

Do you think hobbits ate cake with their strawberries and cream?

[Mithalwen]

Being a sad bean counter, I can tell you that the difference between a cake and a biscuit is that when exposed to the open air a biscuit will go soft and a cake will go hard. So although a jaffa cake looks like a biscuit .. it is a cake...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A528040

[TomBrady12]

wow Sophia, your mother made that cake too? wierd...

I think up he-ah in the Noth, up he-ah in Waldo County Maine, we ah probibly the closest Americans to the Brits in the Country...Ayup

reading The Hobbit, I tend to think of cake being close to what Sophia showed, but I also think of things like Zucchini Bread, which is loaf shaped with a crusty exterior, and soft, but kind of heavy interior. It is spicey and sweet, i think it has a lot of cinnamon in it, maybe nutmeg, not really sure. Anyway, its good, similar to bananna bread i guess.

Nothing like corn on the Cob from Dickie Ingraham...ok im wandering

Anyway, all i really know is the hobbit makes me hungry!

Ohhh....another thing I might envision is brown bread, which, up here at least, is a traditional saturday night fixture to go along side baked beans.

TB12

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by TomBrady12

I think up he-ah in the Noth, up he-ah in Waldo County Maine, we ah probibly the closest Americans to the Brits in the Country...Ayup

As long as y'don't go too fah nothwest. Odd folk thataway. But not as odd as them newcomahs down by th' border. Yessuh. City folk. Lost in the Shiyah.

Ohhh....another thing I might envision is brown bread, which, up here at least, is a traditional saturday night fixture to go along side baked beans.

'Specially at pot luck suppahs. To be follow'd by Strahberry rubahb pie. Think Bilbo might like some?

Anyway, all i really know is the hobbit makes me hungry!

Pass the brown bread. All them dwarves'll take some.

And let's give Bilbo some o' that strahberry rubahb, and watch his face.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Morai

The closest thing I can recall here that resembles a seed cake, is a rice cake. If you buy them in a store, they're round disk like things where the rice has been baked and fused together.

We have rice cakes in the UK too. They are much beloved of women who sit and eat them at their desks with a look of pure disgust on their faces, and when you ask them what's the matter with their food they say "Ugh, I'm eating rice cakes, they taste horrible and dry, but they are low fat!." I like them myself, especially with tuna on them, and I always think they smell of struck matches.

Originally Posted by Mark 12_30

Do you think hobbits ate cake with their strawberries and cream?

No, strawberries and cream are so nice they need to be eaten on their own. But a cake after a dish of strawberries and cream would be nice, it would 'fill up the corners' perfectly.