Thorsen’s Lemon Cake Recipe – A Delicious Cake from the Future To Quieten That Annoying Person

Hello, it's Thorsen  from The First Sense novel again. I’ve got this guest-blogging-from-the-future-thing down to a fine art now. 

If you’ve read The First Sense novel, you’ll know my recipes not only aim to please, but I tailor some to cure my customers’ psychological illnesses, annoying habits or negative traits - but I'm careful my customers don’t know what I do, so not to be labelled a ‘psyche saboteur.’   

The First Sense author, Nisha P Postlethwaite, tells me several people asked for the recipe for my lemon cake from the novel. I’m flattered, this cake not only tastes divine, but with a little bit of extra special thought, it can be used to shut up overly-talkative people, or those that have nothing good to say. I come across quite a few people like this…I suppose it’s human nature to talk more than necessary (except for when it's important). 

Anyway, this lemon cake is deliciously moist and the fragrant woodiness of the lavender cuts through the sweetness, and dulls any sharp tongues (lavender will always do this if used by the right hands). If you can’t make the lavender shut up who you want to, you'll just have to try a gag instead.

Thorsen’s Special Lemon Cake Recipe 

In this recipe, you can also replace the lavender for rosemary if you like. I often use rosemary to calm neurotically inclined or slightly disorientated people (I get quite a few like that in The Edible Remedy Café, especially around the time of a full moon).

So. Start by preheating your oven to 200°c/Gas mark 6. Grease & line a 30cm round tin or loaf tin. In a large bowl, beat 185g golden caster sugar with 185g of unsalted butter until pale in colour. Beat in 6 free-range medium-sized eggs, one at a time. Add a heaped tsp. of lavender flowers (Nisha says that the sun you actually had in Britain this year has ended and so lavender flowers might not be available - so use dried lavender flowers instead; they’re just as good).  

Grate into the mixture the zest of 2 large, unwaxed, organic lemons (reserving a tbsp. of zest aside). Fold in 300g of ground almonds. Sift in 150g of self-raising flour and mix well. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin. Bake for 35 minutes or until the cake’s a lovely golden-brown colour & risen. Leave the cake in the tin to cool. 

Meanwhile, heat 150g of golden caster sugar in a pan on a medium heat with the juice of 2 lemons until the sugar’s fully dissolved. Insert a fine skewer into the cake and make holes all over it, then pour over this syrup, and once absorbed, carefully remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool.

To make the thin icing , add 250 grams of sifted icing sugar to the juice of an organic lemon, adding a little bit of water if needed. Pour the icing over the cooled cake and sprinkle on the reserved tbsp. of lemon zest and half a tsp. of lavender flowers.

And to Add a Bit of Piece & Quiet…

I realise I’m sharing a long-held secret with you, but it’s not like it's going to ever catch with me or my customers because I’m further in time than you are (and you need the right hands to accomplish this part):

To add the quieting element, cut an eighth slice of the cake. Visualise your subject talking absolute drivel as normal, then introduce a more palatable thing coming out of their mouth – I usually think of flowers - until you can picture that person talking with no noise coming out. Hold on to that image for a moment. 

Take a deep mind-clearing breath, then serve the slice of cake on crockery imprinted or painted with cypress leaves (to strengthen the quietening element.) A piece of cake customised in this way can make a person shut up (or a negative person speak sweetly) for about a month. If the person can eat another eighth of the cake you can prolong the peace for another month and so on.  

Ok, that's me done, but I'll be back soon with another recipe. I’ve got to go help a customer in the future with his ergophobia, or fear of work. I've been deliberating for some time about curing him because he spends a lot of his free time eating at my cafe... but I know it's the right thing to do.

Some of my favourite lemon cake recipes from your time are:

Nigel Slater’s Lemon & Thyme cake  
Nigella Lawson’s Lemon Meringue Cake

Martha Stewart’s Sour Lemon Cake

Regards, Thorsen 

The First Sense is available from several online retailers

More information about Thorsen and his previous blog from the future

The Writer’s Cats - A Tale of Two Personalities

For the last few weeks in our house, we have been trying to integrate Saphie, our tiny tabby kitten, with Hendricks our two-year-old cat. There have been many endearing and hilarious feline moments, but to be honest, many more trying ones. Saphie still crawls on my lap to sleep while I write at my desk, occasionally shredding a piece of paper or hiding a pen – all quite charming.

Big cat, Little Cat

Yet since my last blog on introducing a little kitten to a big cat, we have found the big cat, Hendricks, to be the very least of our worries. After a couple of weeks, Hendricks stopped whingeing about little Saphie and became more intrigued by the incredible speed she could move at and her endless capacity for play; he soon realised he had a little playmate for those many rainy days to come. 

As for Saphie, she followed Hendricks around the house in awe, trying to mimic his actions. It was not long before Saphie’s confidence grew. Did I say ‘grew?’ Well, it actually soared to unbelievable heights. Even though she is less than a quarter of his size, Saphie now stalks Hendricks, chasing him from room to room, biting at his tail and ankles and wrestling him to the ground at every opportunity. She will wait until he is asleep, then showing him the ultimate disrespect, climb up and stand on his head to nip his ears. 

The more we pull Saphie off Hendricks, the more persistent her naughty behaviour becomes. So we move her to another room to cool off for five minutes, after which she returns to being a well behaved, purring fluff-ball…. for a short time.

Poor Hendricks is far too soft and sweet natured to rise to Saphie's provocation. I’ve been told it’s very much up to Hendricks to tell Saphie off, especially if he does not want to make a rod for his own back, but all he will do is give her a gentle bop on her head, leap to a height she cannot reach, or hide in a paper bag. So all we can do for now is distract and supervise the two.      

 

Hendricks hiding from Saphie

My novel The First Sense is available from several online retailers. Please visit my website www.nppostlethwaite.com for more information. 

The English Lake District & Cumbria… an unlikely source of inspiration for science-fiction?

On the Cumbrian fells

The English Lake District and Cumbria was the main source of inspiration for my science-fiction novel The First Sense. I’ve lived in Cumbria for twenty years but it got under my skin in the first 12 months. 

In The First Sense, Cumbria is the fictional ‘Lakes City.’ It retains natural beauty juxtaposed with futuristic urban architecture and culture. ‘Lakes City’ is known as ‘The Green City’ of Britain, and ‘The City of Sport,’ as it has a large number of unusual outdoor sports on offer, along with those we are more accustomed to now.  

So was The Lake District and Cumbria the only source of inspiration for my novel?

No. Here’s a list of the rest:  

Longing, love and loss. (So that’s three things, but they often come together, although not necessarily in that order)

Slivers of other cities: Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Bergamo, New York, Bruges, Oslo and Aarhus
Human intuition – something we all too often defer for conscious reasoning.

My love of creating recipes - when I had my restaurant Eclectic, one of the best things was coming up with new recipes each week. Good ingredients are magical because of their endless combinations.   

In my previous blog, I listed my favourite places in Southern part of the Lake District, now for North Lakes:

·   Wastwater. It’s such an unforgivingly serious and lonesome lake. This lake makes you feel like you’re the only person left in the world as you gaze into its deep, dark waters. Wastwater is the deepest lake in England and once named the ‘UK’s best view’ in The Telegraph .While you’re there, be sure to visit The Wasdale Head Inn at the head of the lake for a hearty meal and to replace the fluids you should have lost on your mammoth hike/climb/bike around Wasdale. 

·   For me, one of the most scenic drives in the Lake District is to Keswick from Ambleside on the A591. This road winds past Rydal Lake, Grasmere and Thirlmere before reaching the town of Keswick. Once there, I head to Café Bar 26 with my husband to work our way through the wine list and tapas. Sometimes this is followed by a performance at the Theatre by the Lake (it is what it says)

·   For absolutely fantastic food, steaks and a great selection of ales, I love Tweedies Bar at the Dale Lodge Hotel, Grasmere.

    The drive over Kirkstone Pass - with an altitude of 1,489 feet – has heart-stopping views. The Pass connects Ambleside to Patterdale and is aptly known as 'The Struggle.' At the top sits Kirkstone Pass Inn, the third highest pub in England, complete with a bunkhouse.

·   For pure decadence and old-fashioned glamour, you can’t beat Sharrow Bay Hotel for a champagne afternoon tea while gaze right out at Ullswater lake from your table. The calorific guilt can be worked off afterwards with a stroll in their beautiful hotel gardens.   

·   For camping with a difference, try a timber built, insulated ‘camping pod’ at The Quiet Site,Ullswater. These pod-like huts are beautifully crafted and suitable for all weathers - in fact, the moodier it is outside, the cosiest they are inside. While you’re there, don’t forget a walk up to the nearby waterfalls at Aira Force - take note of the trees on the way up, some of them are straight out of a fairy tale!

Another blog on Cumbria I am loving at the moment is Lake District Life by Chris Shaw  (twitter name @cragchris or @grasmerevillage http://www.Grasmere-village.co.uk Her blog contains some absolutely stunning photography from around the Lake District.

My novel The First Sense set in the Cumbria of the future is available from several online retailers. Please visit my website for more information. 

Life Changes, Wallpaper and Changing Seasons

 As the seasons shift, the reoccurring theme of the last few days has been ‘change’ – notably in the careers and homes of the people around me, as well as my own.

At the weekend, my husband and I transformed a light and airy bedroom to a moody dreaming-room  with flocks of birds across the walls. The bird theme seems to have escaped from the cover of my novel, created by the very talented graphic designer Anna Cleary . 

I must credit the wallpaper to K& K Designs - available from Roger Austin Interiors and the wallpapering skills to my husband (who remained very patient and calm throughout.) 

The finished bedroom 

On Friday, I attended a fantastic evening of prose, poetry and music run by Spotlight in Lancaster. The significant change was it marked the leaving of a talented writer, poet and friend: Miss P – who is moving to the ‘mean streets’ of Oxford to study  - our sad loss, their huge gain. Miss P writes and recites raw, edgy poetry that is also darkly humorous, and you find yourself belly-laughing as you listen, yet fascinated by the compelling narratives of her poems. 

The next Lancaster Spotlight date is the ‘Spotlight’s Litfest  Open Mic Slam’ – I will definitely attend again, and give it three minutes of prose.

Sailing on Lake Windermere

Yesterday, I observed the changing of the seasons from a different perspective - from the water. Thanks to a dear friend and his yacht, The Scurvy Dog, we spent a glorious six hours sailing along Lake Windermere. 

I love discovering the secrets of the land from the water. It was a gloriously warm afternoon,  superseded by the biting Autumnal chill of the evening. We watched the sun slowly bleed pink and gold into the green landscape until it darkened, then we tick-tacked back to Lakeside, Newby Bridge.

N P Postlethwaite is author of The First Sense eBook 

You can visit my Webpage  for more information