I taught them to cook vidya4 - Flipbook - Page 32
30
Autumn Term
Other teachers have somehow removed them from their
registers and it seems this pair is mine, for whole afternoons
until they leave school.
‘Carol and Vicky – you’re going to make the Governor’s tea.
Here are the recipes, write a shopping list to buy the food next
week. This is the menu.’
I pass them a handwritten list:
Governor’s tea menu
Egg and salad cream sandwiches
Asparagus rolls with brown bread and butter
Fruit scones with butter twirls
Brandy snaps with whipped cream
Butterfly cakes with piped butter icing
Tea with milk and sugar
When I worked as a waitress in Wicksteed Park’s Tea Pavilion
in Kettering these are things we’d serve for afternoon tea. The
Park is famous for its crunchy brandy snaps which we serve with
a swirl of piped cream. Brandy snaps look impressive but are
really hard to make and I hope that Carol and Vicky are up to
the challenge.
The day before the tea party Carol and Vicky grumble in with
shopping baskets laden with golden syrup, Heinz salad cream,
boxes of eggs, punnets of mustard and cress and show-off cans of
asparagus. My elaborate Governor’s tea menu is a cunning plan to
increase my food stocks. After this first baking session, we’ll have
plenty of spare ingredients and I can use real butter instead of
that catering pack of County Supply Margarine that tastes of fish.
On tea party day the rest of the class busies themselves
making Swiss roll. Carol and Vicky must dress to impress as
someone might pop in to check the tea progress, and they won’t
want to see a scruffy pair messing with their food.