Good afternoon everyone,
Saturday 7th sees the return of the Magdalen Road Village Summer Festival, a day which celebrates the eclectic community of independent vendors of which we are proud to be part, even in an off-Broadway sense. This year we have decided to embrace the village féte atmosphere by throwing our own mini yard sale, with a couple of stalls on the forecourt. On trestle table number one we will be setting up a Scone Stall, because no village féte is complete without these most nostalgic of baked goods. As we still have Remy staging with us from New York, we will be representing the scone traditions of our two great nations. Expect classic British buttery scones with house strawberry jam and Ivy House cream, plus American style coconut scones with whipped honey brown butter and house apricot jam. We will be splitting and topping to order, so mixing and matching is welcomed. On the savoury side we'll of course be making a traditional cheese scone, Sparkenhoe Red Leicester and spring onion, and Remy will be going for a quintessentially U.S. streaky bacon, Westcombe cheddar and chive scone. These can be simply split and eaten with butter, though roast tomato chutney and extra cheese is encouraged. The Scone Stall will open at 9.30am, and we'll be baking them fresh throughout the morning. Bring a flask of tea, sit on our bench and you're winning.
Now, the second trestle table is somewhat of a walk through the many eras of Hamblin. A wholesale declutter of the bakery sheds is long overdue, especially with them currently full of our marmalade stocks, and in the blink of an eye they'll be crammed with mincemeat once more. So Kate is holding a bric a brac of equipment and supplies which we no longer have use or space for. Anything ranging from loaf tins and plastic mixing bowls from our long gone bread classes (oh the madness of cramming 10 people into a compact bakery space at the end of the working week), to ceramic milk jugs and glass tea pots from our pre-Covid cafe. The big ticket items will be available to reserve ahead of time via Instagram, including a toastie machine, a totally unused Dualit soup kettle, and wire shelving racks. There will also be bannetons and the odd item of packaging and stationery. We'll be looking to cut deals so come and have a peruse.
The ice cream sandwich this week is one which we've long wanted to attempt. It is based on the Sicilian dessert of cassata, so the parfait will be made with sweetened ricotta and studded with candied peel, chocolate shavings, hazelnuts, lemon zest and we are also taking the liberty of adding a little crystallised ginger. More is more. We'll also have some roasted almond salted caramel available too.
That's all for now, we look forward to seeing you soon, and thanks as always for reading. Have a lovely Sunday evening,
Kate and Hugo