Grumpy Old Man

As well as cracking on with Christmas baking we've been busy sending out this month's Cake Club cake. For September our members will be receiving an Almond Fruit cake, which most people will know as a Dundee cake. I was interested to discover ad that way) that the recipe has been around since 15th century and was said to have been developed to please Mary Queen of Scots who didn't care for the cherries found in rich fruit cakes of the time. Not sure if that is true or not but it's a nice story anyway. The name Dundee cake and the distinctive almond decoration didn't appear till 19th century when the famous Scottish marmalade making company based in that city, Keiller & Sons. began making them. It started as a way of keeping their workforce busy when the Seville oranges they used were unavailable and they soon discovered it was a handy way of keeping their workforce busy when the Seville oranges they used were unavailable and they soon discovered it was a handy way using up excess peel.

A hectic week included the usual last minute scramble to get the website updated to match with the mailout of our new autumn/winter brochure, which should be landing on customers' doormats this weekend. Why is it that every time you need one of these techy guys to sort something in a hurry they're away snowboarding or jumping out of airplanes or something similar? Whenever I've called in to see our tame geeks in person they seem to be so laid back as to be almost comatose, yet as soon as they they leave in the office they turn into action men. Just wish they'd show the same kind of energy at work occasionally!