CONSPIRATORIAL COOKS

Time for a ceilidh (that is Scottish term for a party which in our case is a musical evening with friends).

Iain bought a large salmon from the fishmongers in Milngavie and baked it whole in the oven in a tin-foil envelope having filled the salmon with lemon, butter and our garden herbs.

"This is my Baker's Hat"! Every Thursday I collect Ishie at mid-day from her primary school not far from our house. This afternoon she helped me in the kitchen to prepare for our party and she even helped me cut the grass with our brand new hand-mower (which cuts much better than our old electric machine ... now taken to the dump).

Earlier in the day I baked a coffee and walnut cake (Scottish Women's Rural Institute recipe which is simply a basic Victoria Sponge or White Cake to North Americans). She helped me ice it and arrange the walnuts on the top.

Da dah! She is great fun to have "helping"! We are very conspiratorial ... sharing secrets like "Cooks get to lick the spoon/bowl."

I borrowed the cake stand from Mairi. Ishie and I also made chocolate cupcakes ... again another secret we share: they are made from Tesco cake mix packets for 12 cupcakes costing 45 pence, i.e. next to nothing. We break up pieces of a really good chocolate bar (72% cocoa solids) and dump it in the mix.

We did a double batch: one for her to take home and one for me for the party. She carefully went through the packet of patterned baking cups picking out the pink ("for girls") ones. Then we had to ice the cupcakes with pink icing just to keep everything right!