No, starrsville :-)

Use condensed milk to make Banoffee Pie

http://www.irelandforvisitors.com/re...blbanoffee.htm

Easy and YUM!

>>In a saucepan, boil an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk!) in water for three hours<<

Really? 3 hours?

What is turbinado sugar?

Yup! 3 hours, it turns the condensed milk into a toffee flavoured gloop - it is delicious.

Turbindo sugar - Not sure, I'd use raw or brown sugar.

I'll look for the 'better than sex' cake but I'm not much of a baker :-(

Basically, you bake a chocolate cake according to the mix directions in a 9 x 13 pan. Let it cool. Poke it full of holes with a toothpick.

Pour ice cream sundae topping over it (either chocolate or caramel). Pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over it. Cover and let it chill in the fridge.

Before serving, "ice" or "frost" it with Cool-Whip and then top with 4 crushed toffee bars (I used Skor).

Amazing. Easy. Rich. "Almost" better than sex! :-)

And who are you having "high" tea with, starsville, footballer's wives??? :)

Ooops, you dropped your serviette.

Sorry, not following Bally.

Alya, you're right. I'd completely forgotten evap milk.

Now where did I put my glasses. I knew I came in here for something......

Don't forget the fish-knives Norman

Sorry people, I still don't understand exactly you get for your £23...can anyone help me......???


Muck

Ah, Betjeman!

"Now here is a fork for your pastries
And do use the couch for your feet;
I knew what I wanted to ask you -
Is trifle sufficient for sweet?

Milk and then just as it comes dear?
I'm afraid the preserve's full of stones;
Beg pardon, I'm soiling the doilies
With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.

How lovely to read that. "How to Get on in Society" was one of my father's favourite poems (along with "Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, furnished and burnished by Aldershot sun ...)

I remember having (never taking) tea with relatives when we visited England in the 1950s and '60s, but my grandmother was born in 1875, so she was from a very different era (she said "gel" with a hard g for girl and dressed for dinner, even when it was sardines on toast).

While I'm thoroughly enjoying this post (including the inappropriate bitchiness) I will give a serious answer as to why anyone would spend so much money on "tea" (high, low, cream, or otherwise).

Five years ago, I took my father to tea at the Ritz in London as part of his 80th birthday celebration. It was VERY expensive -- and worth every penny. The setting was absolutely gorgeous and the live harp music only added to the elegant, old world sense. Atmosphere is always part of a memorable dining experience and this was fantastic. We felt as if we'd stepped back in time and for an hour entered the world of the priveleged.

But we were not only paying for ambience. The food was excellent and plentiful. We certainly did not eat an additional meal that evening. Our choice of tea was beautifully presented in individual silver carafes and we were served a variety of delicious sandwiches, cakes, and delicious scones with clotted cream on tiered silver trays -- as much as you wanted to eat.

FYI, we never thought this was something that Londoners typically engage in and my guess is that the room was filled with tourists and a few local ladies celebrating special occasions.

It was a wonderful day topped off with the harpist playing "Happy Birthday" for my father. Now that he's gone, I cherish the memories of that trip -- and especially that beautiful, memorable tea. I recommend it "high"ly for anyone visiting London and willing to splurge on a special meal.

Hi Songdoc !
Thats a fabulous memory,
Does anyone know; has 'tea' changed? Is the ambiance different these days, is the food plentiful? Is it worth £23. I feel that it probably cost you £23 all those years ago !

I feel I am in the category of knowing the cost of everything and the Value of nothing, should I search deeper into my soul to understand the value of tea at the Ritz or is it something that went with a byegone era.


Muck

To me you are paying for the experience along with everything else you are paying for on a vacation.

It is a time to sip tea with your pinky finger in the air and speak without opening your mouth too wide.

It is a nice experience if you like that sort of thing. The food should be good at the Ritz, but it is the whole package you are paying for.

I go with "the ladies" to tea here in LA at the Peninsula once in a while and it is the same thing, you are paying for the experience and it is a pleasant afternoon.

I don't know how to break this to you muck but tea at the Ritz is £35 a pop.

And you have to dress up in your Sunday best, clean dickie, peckham etc, proper callards and rythyms etc.

You get a plateful of georgios with the crusts cut off and some cakes, not to mention endless rosie lee in poncy cups.

David - Always happy to explain things.

"It is a time to sip tea with your pinky finger in the air"

What? Is your name Bucket by any chance?
Still, if you want to give the locals a good laugh, who are we to stop you.
Ah, sigh , Callard and Bowsers liquorice toffee. They don't make it any more.

David, I was close to conceding that ambiance and occasion are possibly worth a few quid extra. But £35...lol
sorry I would want a bit more than tea and a couple of cucumber sarnies, hell I would nip into M&S food hall and get treated just as well for £5.

Thanks for pulling me back to reality.

;-)

Muck

Nip upstairs into a Marks and Sparks Cafe Revive and you can even get a cream tea.

Some Americans love to have a tea "ceremony" when they go to London, and that is fine. They say it satisfies their hunger until after the theatre.
When we lived in West Africa our English friends had us for "high tea",,really SUPPER (or dinner) around 6:30 pm. IT was a meal with a ham dish, veggies, etc with hot tea and I think trifle for dessert.
I've known English people who stop what they are doing at 4 oclock PM and have their tea, (and biscuits). ...
(We drink iced tea in TX,..some British people would say "shame on us"....
but I have a problem with hot tea not staying hot,and I don't like it lukewarm). Silly, isn't it? :)

Now how can you hold your teacup with that tiny handle using all your fingers? That I would like to see.