One of my son’s favourite childhood books was Margaret Mahy’s A Busy Day for a Good Grandmother.
The good grandmother is Mrs Oberon, summoned by her son Scrimshaw to deliver one of her cock-a-hoop blue borage honey cakes — the only thing that will pacify his crying, teething baby son.
Her journey — by trailbike, plane, raft and skateboard — involves navigating rapids, and fighting off hungry vultures and alligators.
Arriving to find Scrimshaw at the end of his tether, she not only calms the baby but teaches her son to make his own honey cake.
I was reminded of the book recently by Amanda at Silkannthreades, and began wondering what a cock-a-hoop blue borage honey cake might look (and taste) like.
I did find a recipe, but not only was it missing blue borage honey, but seemed to lack the ingredients one might expect in a teething remedy.
This is my first attempt. It’s flavoured with blue borage honey (naturally), as well as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and chamomile — to soothe.
It’s ok. The texture is good, but none of the flavours emerge strongly enough and it looks disconcertingly like gingerbread.
Definitely not a six-word post this week — but bookended thus.
So, back to the drawing board.
Posted to Debbie’s Six Word Saturday
It looks good. Maybe you needed to add actual borage flowers?
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I will try that if I make it again. 😀
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You have to experiment to get the flavours you want. Are you going to try again with this one?
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That’s true. I probably will give it another go.
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Intriguing how the original recipe didn’t have blue borage honey!!
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Have you got the recipe?
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oops I misread childhood book as recipe book!
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The recipe I found was created by someone who was friends with Margaret Mahy, so I guess she approved of it. It’s probably a nicer cake, but I wanted to play with the “teething remedy” notion.
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Looks yummy
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It is tasty, just doesn’t have much personality. 😀
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Looks nice all the same and nothing wrong with gingerbread 🙂
I love the sound of “blue borage honey cake” – maybe you just need to throw in some blue borage flowers?
And the book sounds fun too.
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The book is fab. It really turns the traditional story-book notion of grandmothers on its head.
I think you and Tracy are onto something with the idea of adding flowers. It definitely needs a more distinctive taste.
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It is surprising to learn how some precious memories about a book can trigger the desire to bake a cake, Hopefully your borage honey cake will taste better next time, Su.
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Thanks Peter. The book was a real favourite in our house 😀
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Gingerbread is good! I am always disappointed when something does not turn out the way I think it should….according to the recipe. You did get a lovely photo, though….
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Thanks. Gingerbread is good!! Problem with this cake is that it only looks like gingerbread — quite disconcerting when you bite into it 🤨
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A very promising start. I wonder if we have to take into account that flavors are usually mild for a baby. I am just now remembering that I used to make a delicious Ethiopian honey bread which was more cake than bread. I think it had some cardamom.
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Oops I got that wrong. Here is the link http://www.whats4eats.com/breads/yemarina-yewotet-dabo-recipe
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That’s a really good point about milder flavours. I suspect it might also mature in taste a bit with a day or two in the cake-tin. Thanks for the link — I’ll check it out 😀
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Thanks for the Margaret Mahy reminder, Su. Such a good writer. Sorry the cake didn’t quite meet expectations.
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She was wonderful. I read her “older kids” books in my 20s and absolutely delighted in the little kids stories when the boy-child came along.
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I read her older kids books too as a grown up. You feel her worlds are real worlds.
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That’s true. 😀
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I’m wondering what the blue borage honey tastes like? I’m a bit of a honey buff.
Leslie
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It’s got quite a strong taste; very floral and slightly musky — if that makes any sense.
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It does, thank you… 😉
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It looks good, but it does look like ginger cake, so I can see why that might fool the mind into expecting ginger. I love ginger cake – the stickier and gingerier the better.
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I’m with you on sticky ginger cake — I’m salivating thinking about it. 😀
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Well, it definitely looks good! Margaret Mary was such a good writer for all ages. I used to enjoy her teen books in the days when I was buying for the library.
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Thanks Anabel.
I discovered Margaret Mahy through her teen books, lent to me by the Big T’s mother who was a school librarian. As was Margaret Mahy before she became the Children’s Librarian at Christchurch library.
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Ah, we going her in a similar way then!
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Hey, I’m easy to please! And I like gingerbread 🙂 🙂 Have a good weekend, Su!
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Thanks Jo. You too.
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What a lovely connection between the book and this scrumptious looking cake! My mum wasn’t too much into baking when I was a kid and bought a honey cake that I always thought too dry and even a little bit bitter. But I bet yours wasn’t and I’d love to try a slice or two! 😄
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Thank you. I can’t believe it took me so long to try and figure out how the cake would taste.
This one was very moist, and kept really, really well without drying out. The flavour developed over time too, which was interesting. I’ll hopefully have perfected the recipe before you visit 😀
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I’m sure you will! And it is interesting how some foods develope more taste over time. Though sometimes it can be quite hard to grant them that time. 😉
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😂😂 that is so true!! xxxx
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Here isthe link to identify the pure honeyhttps://zheroz.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/pure-honey-test-how-to-identify-pure-honey/
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