Thursday 12th October 2023

The landmark of this summer was that the Gay Mother forged a new path with redcurrants. Apart from redcurrant jelly, summer pudding and redcurrant sorbet, what do you do with them? Well, now, thanks to the Gay Mother, you can have German redcurrant cake. Anything German in the food line so rare… Val tried to promote German Breakfast sausage without success. There’s that opening of a chapter in Kingsley’s book about the old people in Wales. At one of the morning Soave parties, somebody says, ‘It was a German recipe,’ which is hilarious because a given that nobody could be interested in such a thing.

German Redcurrant Cake though – a cake/pastry base, a redcurrant layer with sugar and a meringue topping. Tres facile a faire. Tangy in the middle. Simply super.

You must try it at home – if spared for next summer. Or even winter.

The Gay Mother has never pursued a health regime of any kind. Her only menu priorities are that it isn’t tinned sweetcorn or colesaw (other than home-made). Yet she has gained 99, reasonably trim and still alive. Which was what she said one day: ‘Others got things wrong with them. They’re not here any more. But I am.’