WordPress Daily Prompt: Odd Trio Redux

Time for another Odd Trio prompt: write a post about any topic you want, in whatever form or genre, but make sure it features a slice of cake, a pair of flip-flops, and someone old and wise.

Whoever designed feet as a termination to the body was misguided and probably had a dream that the human form would be perfect. I do not agree. I find feet are a bad finishing job, at least mine. I was never happy about my feet and in my younger days would do my best to hide them from the general view. As the years go by, feet are only important if they still carry you and do not fail so who cares what they look like as long as they do their job. I gave up painting my toe nails some time ago because I had problems reaching the toes.

Based on this brilliant reasoning I was shopping and saw them displayed. I had tried flip-flops many years ago but forgot why, how and when. This time it was different: they were colourful and studded with imitation jewels and appealed to my strange taste, but did they suit my feet? I took my courage in my feet hands and entered the shoe selling emporium. With a trembling voice I asked the assistant if they existed in size 43. I was in luck. Either people have bigger feet today and the size is common, or they were catering for abnormal feet. I tried them, although I wondered why. Just two straps and a sole – what could possibly go wrong?

I took a few steps in the shop with no problem and admired the foot result in the mirror. The price was right.

“I will take them.”

The assistant looked at me with a curious expression.

“Have you worn flip-flops before?”

“I think so, some forty years ago.”

“I just wanted to mention that they are not so easy at the beginning. We have had customers that only wore them for a day and no longer as they had problems walking.”

I was about to ask if there was a course I could visit: sort of “How to walk with Flip-Flops” but decided to remain silent. I have problems with my feet without flip-flops, so it could only get better. I took the plunge and bought my dream flip-flops.

I arrived home and immediately put them on my individually designed feet. I walked to the kitchen and stood in my flip-flops. Mr. Swiss gave his approval on the design, so that problem was resolved. The next problem was actually wearing them: my flip-flops also existed for a day. Since this memorable day they have a firm position in my bedroom next to my comfortable daily walking slippers and have never been worn again. I believe Julius Ceaser and his groupies lived with flip-flops in a sort of Roman leather thongy way. I never read that he had problems with the foot space between the largest toe and its neighbour. I really do not think that he had a developing soreness that prevented a normal flip-flop walk. I blame it on the body termination. The bloke that designed the human body got it all wrong. He was probably tired when he arrived at the feet and passed it on to the computer and this was the result. Frogs, cats and birds do not have this problem, but I suppose they do not wear flip-flops.

They are just not suitable for an old and wise person as myself. Did you ever see a photo of Albert Einstein wearing flip-flops and he was old and wise. I only remember the photo where he stuck his tongue out, a sort of Rolling Stone icon. Perhaps he was sticking his tongue out in agony because his wife had given him a pair of flip-flops for his birthday. He then had a brainwave and told us all what energy was E=MC₂ meaning do not even try it when wearing flip-flops, the energy disappears. The actual equation would have been E=MC₂Flip-Flop.

Not only am I allergic to Daily Prompts that are not Prompts, but dislike inventions of the man in the WordPress t-shirt who had a dream. “Let them eat cake”, although when Marie Antoinette said that she was not wearing a WordPress t-shirt and she lost her head eventually. I rarely eat cake because these days I am too busy writing Daily Prompts to bake one. However there are other methods. I bought some ready-made caramel flans in the local supermarket. I know I usually like to do-it-myself, but in Summer I do not have time. I placed it in a suitable glass dish and garnished it with whipped cream from the aerosol can. The result was just as good as a cake and there were no crumbs to fall into my computer keyboard.

Have a nice Sunday, see you tomorrow with a story about fire ants, slugs and how to kill the gardener that removed two ant nests when renewing my garden. Yes, life at the Angloswiss villa can be quite exciting. And now to my caramel flan.

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The Cake of Solothurn, Switzerland

This is where you can buy it Suteria - Confiserie a long established café/cake shop in Solothurn, where I live (well a kilometer down the road from my village). I only found the web site in German, but there are photos to show everything they make.  It is the only place in Switzerland where you can buy it and you can even send them as presents by post, but express post, otherwise they might perish on the way. Made from fresh ingredients, but from what no-one really knows.

The original owner of the shop, Mr. Fluckiger,  sold the recipe to Mr. Suter for a very high price and the ingredients and way to make the cake are top secret. You can find various recipes in Internet or cookery books, but they are not original. Somewhere the recipe is probably secure in a bank safe.

I think it is based on hazelnuts. Although I am not a great fan of hazelnuts, they are applied in such a way that the cake is just plain delicious. They come in all sizes, as you can see on the photo and naturally all have the same design. They are covered with a firm glazing. Inside there are two halves, on the spongy side, and in the middle a very rich creamy filling containing ground hazelnuts, at least I think so. Under the glazing at the top, bottom and sides, there is also a thin layer of the cream. They are not cheap, the largest about 30 swiss francs, but they are good.

I happened to be in town this afternoon with my camera (what a coincidence) and took this photo in the window of the café.

Let's bake a cake

It was my birthday on Thursday last week so I gave myself a present and took the day off work. I also added Friday to make a nice long week-end and now its back to work on Monday. It is custom where I work to bring something to eat for coffee break. As we are many people – about 20 – I usually back about 3 large cakes, the reason being that it is cheaper than buying something. I used to bake a lot when the kids were at home and when I was allowed to eat the sweet stuff. As the years go by the kids grow up and move away and I am not supposed to eat the sweet stuff any more. This year I decided to make a Santa Claus Cake, a Spice Cake and a Chocolate cake. The last two are my own recipe, just basic. The first one I found in a recipe book some years ago, and my birthday being on St. Niklaus day I found it quite appropriate. Living in Switzerland I use the metric system for weights.

125 gramme Butter
200 gramme brown sugar
A pinch of salt (in the flour)
2 Eggs
200 grammes Dates
60 grammes Walnuts
60 grammes Almond splitters
2 Tablespoons Rum (I used Cognac – anything alcoholic does except for methylated spirits)
350 grammes Flour2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder (In Switzerland we cannot get self-raising flour as in other countries, so we always have to put baking powder into the flour)
2 deciliters of Milk

So here we go

Here we have the ingredients all ready to be used. Of course, something to weight the ingredients is also necessary - you will see this in further photos.

Any cake tin can be used, but I will be using this one. It's called a "spring form" in German and quite useful when the cake is finished as you just release the clip on the side and the cake is released from the tin. You can also serve the cake on the base. First of all grease the tin.

I then weigh the dates

and start chopping them in large pieces.

Now weigh the walnuts

I usually break the walnuts into large pieces by hand.

So now we have the dates, walnuts and almond splitters ready

Put the butter in the mixing bowl. I usually leave the butter at room temperature when I start making the cake as it makes it softer and easier to beat.

I use the electric mixer for making cakes and beat the butter until it is soft.

Then add the brown sugar

and beat it together with the butter

Now add the eggs one after the other and beat into the mixture with the machine

and the mixture should look as above

Add the dates, walnuts and almonds and a generous dose of rum or in my case cognac - what you happen to have in the bar

Start mixing this all together. Notice I have changed the whisk on the machine to something less fine. You just have to mix the stuff together now and not beat it.

Now everything is mixed nicely together.

Put the flour and the baking powder onto the mixture

and add the milk. In the recipe it says add the milk and flour alternatively, but I find that if your have an electric mixer you can just as well add everything together and mix on a slower speed.

The cake mixture is now complete.

It can now be put carefully into the cake tin (did another wonder work by holding the camera in my right hand and balancing the cake mixture in the left).

I usually make a deepening through the middle as when the cake rises (and we all hope it does) it evens out better.

Mr. Swiss found this photo would not be possible, but I again decided to prove it was. I had to do it with a flash, but it worked out ok. Here you see the cake after about 20 minutes in the oven.

And here is the final product. I wrap it in aluminium foil and keep it in the fridge until Monday when I take it to work. It then stays fresh.