Dorset apple cake

Needing to find a use for a really big cooking apple from a friend's garden, I decided on a cake, and used this recipe from the Channel 4 website. As always, there were differences, due variously to availability or otherwise of ingredients, personal preference, and lack of competence:

• I didn't have quite enough butter, and the remainder was made up with vegetable oil.
• My giant apple was a shade underweight too. Remainder made up with a tasty eating apple from the Dig box.
• No lemon. Zest of a very old tangerine I found skulking in the bottom of the banana tree (yes, I continue to call them tangerines.What of it?) Juice of a bottled lemon.
• I get a bit confused about sugar. The types of sugar I have are brown sugar, and white sugar, both of which I used.
• Ground mixed nuts, not almonds. There may have been some almond in there.
• No cinnamon? I should coco. 2 tsp of cinnamon, my good man.
• I don't even know what dredging is, so that didn't happen.

I reckon it could have withstood 15 minutes or so further baking (at fan 160°C) which I suspect may have given it a bit more solidity. That said, it was in two silicone loaf tins, not the recommended cake tin, and furthermore I don't know the first thing about baking so who am I to say. As it was, it needed to be cut into fairly thick slices to maintain its integrity. This was, of course, a real shame.

It was tasty. Exceptionally scrumptious and moist. I may do it again the next time a really big apple rolls into town.

No more Globe

Well, I said a few posts ago I would write about Globe Delivery, the local takeaway, but I wasn't expecting it to close down in the meantime.

I think it's closed down, anyway. You might think it'd be easy to put a note on the outside of the shop; something on the website; even just a sentence on the wall of the Facebook group, but that's never been the Globe way. They've always had two main roles; to provide delicious food from various world cuisines, and to baffle and frustrate those who might wish to buy it from them. During the nationwide freeze in January, during which various people found it difficult to get to work for a few days, Globe stayed shut for several weeks. They once shut for two or three months due to an 'electrical fault', clearly of unprecedented and inexplicable severity. For about the last year, whenever you tried to order by card, the machine was out of order, unless you claimed not to have any cash and said you would have to order from elsewhere, in which case, it was miraculously and instantly fixed.

However, the food was delicious. They offered Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Thai and Japanese food, and seemed to do all of it extremely well. The pizza wasn't the normal deep-pan, stodgy takeaway fare, but thin, crispy and Pizza Expressy. The starters were all lovely, with the Suppli and Chiles Con Queso particular favourites. The jewels in the crown, however, were their burritos and wraps. It's hard to get a good burrito round these parts (the only place that springs readily to mind is Barburrito on Piccadilly Gardens) and Globe's were as good as I've had. I really want one of their Beef Chimichangas right now. Them boys was tasty.

It's difficult to see why it would have had to shut down, if well-managed. It was always busy, and everyone I know loved Globe. Friends from further afield in Manchester were known to come round purely on the proviso that there was Globe in the offing.

Farewell, Globe, you magnificent idiots. You are already missed.