Crumbs ……

When our cakes came out of the oven they looked beautiful and we felt very proud ……. “This is how Mr Kipling and Aunt Bessie must feel every day.” mused Darrell

However, when we tried to get the cake out of the tins we suddenly remembered that we hadn’t greased them, we just assumed, that as they were black in colour, the tins were non stick, we were very sadly wrong.

Undeterred, Darrell thought that we might be able to salvage things by holding the cake together with some jam and then no one would be any the wiser, but as he started spreading, it only crumbled more.

They make it look so easy on the tele…… but obviously there is more to baking than meets the eye.

Needless to say we didn’t attempt any icing or fancy stuff.

But in our defence the cake was lovely, light and spongy and very nice with a bit of custard for pudding. But we have deferred our application for Come Dine With Me for a little while, as we don’t think we are quite ready just yet!

Our First Cake …..

After enjoying all the those cakes yesterday, we thought we would have a go at making one ourselves ….. how hard could it be?  But we decided not to be too overly ambitious and got a cake mix for our first effort, to save on all that weighing and measuring and technical stuff.

Not that I know a lot, but I told Darrell that I didn’t think we needed a potato masher to make our cake.

It took a lot of mixing, and both our arms ached but it looked ok ……

and tasted good too…….

So we put the mixture into our lovely monkey sized baking tins …..

….. and put them in a hot oven …… where we left them in the lap of the gods. All we could do was wait with trepidation and tightly crossed fingers ……. see how they turned out tomorrow ….

Exceedingly Good Cakes

It was very fortuitous that when I was helping out with a rush job of photocopying in the Reprographic Department of the Girls’ School yesterday that there was also a Macmillan Coffee Morning ……. and it would have been rude not to purchase a bit of cake!

However I got a little carried away!  But there again I didn’t want to upset the feelings of any of the ladies when making my selection, I just couldn’t choose one over another ….. so I felt compelled to buy one of each, thus making everyone happy, including me and Darrell.

For once I told Darrell to throw caution to the wind and that it wouldn’t hurt to forgo our 5 a day for once, especially as it was for charity. I gave Darrell the first pick and he selected a walnut muffin.

He then watched me as I made my first selection

Which was an exceedingly moist  piece of  cake which actually did contain glace cherries, apple and sultanas, how brilliant is that?

Darrell’s second choice was a morish slice of tea loaf, whilst I opted for a rock bun, both of which contained more sultanas ….. bonus!

We then selected a muffin each …… nom, nom, nom!

Followed by a slice of Cherry Genoa and a morsel of shortbread.

“Very nice” said Darrell as we washed it all down with a nice cup of tea.

“ It’s hard to decide which one was my favourite”

It has to be said that the ladies at the Girls’ School do make exceedingly good cakes"!

Tesco Bikers Jacket - Object of VERY Great Desire …..

I was idling away a bit of time on Clothing at Tesco, as often is my want,  when my eyes fell upon the most beautiful thing I have ever seen (only as far as clothing is concerned naturally).

It’s a Bikers jacket and it’s in my size ……. it’s just perfect ..

It says - Fashionable biker jacket with stud detailing
           - A trendy look for stylish monkeys

It’s only one tantalising click away ……. but it’s £12.00 and I’ve only got £4.17 …… what a quandary.

Because The Monkeys Love ……. Milk Tray

How do you select your preferred Cadbury Milk Tray chocolate of choice?

I like to pore over the menu, making an informed selection. I need to know which are the orange, coffee and strawberry creams because they make me heave!

Darrell on the other hand is not so fussy, he just dives in, as Joseph (and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) once said  “Any choc will do.”   But, I do know he has a penchant for a toffee and/or nut centre, so a cluster would be his prefered choice. I quote :- “A nut cluster is a delicious meld of my two most favourite centres” (Darrell, 12th May 2008)

Party Bags

I love going to parties, but always feel a little embarrassed when I am given a party bag as I leave, just being invited to a party is more than enough for me.

I am quite happy to take home a piece of cake to eat after my party food has gone down, but yesterday I was overwhelmed by the party bag I was given …… it was bulging with so much stuff.  I now know how it must feel to be a celebrity getting a party bag after the Oscars

I was given lots of sweets, a notebook and pen, some cotton buds, a razor and some tissues, as well as the lightest birthday sponge I have had in a long while.

I have used the pen and notebook to make a “To Do” list. The No.1 thing to do is to write and say “Thank You” for a wonderful party and party bag. Then I will share my party bag goodies with the people on my list.  The razor is pink, so I thought Lucy might like it to do her legs,  Auntie Jan loves Maltesers and is always doing stuff for us, and Darrell is a martyr to his ear wax so he will appreciate the cotton buds.  It’s good to share.

Making A Sandwich with Me and Darrell

Remember our window box where we were trying to grow salad leaves …… well the said leaves are now conspicuous by their great abundance!

Darrell and I have started picking or as we prefer to say “harvesting” them for our mid day sandwich repast.

We are getting quite adept at the culinary art of sandwich making.  We use wholemeal bread and a smidgeon of butter.

Followed by lots and lots of our wholesome naturally grown leaves, “Pile them all on Darrell”

Followed by ……. a squeeze of  salad cream and a sprinkling of salt ……

As they say on Masterchef “ You mess up at this level, you create an absolute crisis!”

5 a day heaven! Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom.

A touch or marmite ...... and it would be perfection on a plate.  Gordon Ramsey, eat your heart out.

Speaking of Jan the Fan ….

How spooky is it that she should send us a present on HER birthday! 

As usual it was beautifully wrapped, with little monkey and banana stickers placed strategically on the front and back …. which we took off very carefully so we can use them again.

Inside were two mousse bars, which Darrell first read  as “mouse” which had him in fits of laughter, his eyes were running, as was his nose, which wasn’t a very pretty sight, I can tell you. They are from Marks and Spencer, which is quite posh and so sweets from there are a real treat for us.

One is raspberry flavour and the other is lemon, so they count as two of our five a day, how brilliant is that?  We are saving them for a day or two so we can do a proper confectionary review on them, how exciting! 

Thank you Jan the Fan…..

Love Monkey and Darrell xxxx

Happy Birthday Jan The Fan

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Jan the Fan.  Happy Birthday to you! Hooray!!!!

Hi Jan, we are sorry we can’t be with you on your special day, but we’ve got a humongous rush job of reprographics at the Young Ladies School to do today.  However we got up extra early to light a candle and make a special birthday wish for you.

Darrell managed to blow it out on his fifth attempt, but I don’t think his lisp can help much in the blowing out of celebratory candles, bless him.

Anyway, we hope you like your present …… but, in the words of Sir Rolf Harris, Patron Saint of Animal Hospitals:-  “A monkey is forever, not just for the birthdays of ladies of a certain age”

A Slight Error in Communication…..

I owe Auntie Jan a HUGE, HUGE apology, because yesterday I sent her on a fools errand! I was thinking about Halloween and  texted her to see if she would look in Home Bargains for “a skelly-bob baby grow” for Darrell to wear on our Trick or Treat Charity Walk ….

But...... I pressed a ‘c’ instead of a ‘g’ and she went to both the Wolverhampton and Stafford branches looking for a “skelly crow”  ……..amongst the Halloween spiders, bats and pumpkins, thinking that skeleton birds were a new trend in Trick or Treat novelty items!!!!  I am soooooooo sorry!

 

But then how spooky is this ……. we found a skelly crow online, how very weird is that?  I wonder what Yvette Fielding and The Most Haunted Team would make of that? You can tell Halloween is coming as my Derek Acorah moments are becoming more frequent!