I have to admit I had my doubts upon reading Jack Spratt's explanation of the difference between cookies and cake in The Fourth Bear: a cookie goes hard when it gets stale, while a cake gets soft. I wasn't sure this was a proper distinction between the two. But now I have learned that Jasper got it right!

I've been trying out a few cookie recipes lately and I just made a batch of a quick-and-easy cookie that uses store-bought cake mix. The cookies are very tasty, but now after several days…they've gone soft! So it turns out you can make little cakes that look like cookies, but in the end, they're still cake.

Is that the right way round? In my experience cakes start soft and go hard, and cookies (biscuits) start hard and go soft...

I could, of course, be wrong.

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That statement is either so deep it would take a lifetime to fully comprehend every particle of its meaning, or it is a load of absolute tosh. Which is it, I wonder?
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Did the American publishers translate biscuits to cookies?

I agree with you, Rob.

Cakes go hard; biscuits go soft.

Donuts go tooth-breakingly hard when stale but I've recently been informed that there are 2 kinds of donuts- yeast & cake...

American biscuits are nothing like what we know as cookies-
I just had some dipped in soup this morning & now you've all got me wanting dessert!

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I'm siding with Rob & Ptolemy.

I will refer you back to the Jaffa cake thread of about a year ago and good old Wiki thingy

Here in the U.K. the difference is important because biscuits have VAT added to their price and cakes do not.

Oh...so the translation gives publishers a tax break! That explains a lot.

In 'Thief of Time' the abbot was often reported as wanting a'bikkit'.

None of this 'cookie' crap which has flooded Oz since Campbells bought out Arnotts.

A biscuit is sweet or savoury.

A 'cookie' is a soft, sugar laden and generally unfit for eating. Of course in the Untied States* they refer to some flour based baked item as a biscuit which is eaten with a savoury meal.

What we need is a clear statement at the beginning of each book of in which language it is written.

This way in the Untied States they can read the books in translation or in the original language.

The we will not have to put up with hybrids.

*As named by Marty Feldman of holy memory.

Why is it only biscuits that get weevils?

Weevils do not like sweet food?

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

I've got no objections to things being called cookies. But what I tend to call cookies are usually a lot softer than biscuits, but harder than cake.
Except possibly cornflake cookies.

PS: I have a cook book from 1920* that has cookie recipes in it. It's called "Cookery Book of Tried And True Receipts" Published by Angus and Robertson, for the Women's Missionary Association of the Presbyterian Church of NSW "under whose auspices the book is published, desire to record their appreciations of the public favour bestowed upon it, and repeat the statement that all profits accruing therefrom are devoted to the missionary efforts at home and abroad"

Because drivel has apparently always been with us.


* I also have a re-print, the 23rd edition, from 1944, with wonderful ads in it, such as "Science Says 'Be sure it's PASTEURIZED MILK" with a wonderful deco style drawing of a scientist with microscope and milk bottles, another offering "Free demonstrations of modern GAS COOKING" and somewhere around page 12 or so the note to REMEMBER: A jar of Davis Calves Feet Jelly is a happy thought for a sick friend.

Ah, joy!

I want that cookbook!

Almost as good as the radio ads from the same era....

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

"The Americans have a marked taste for sweet dishes. These are often made with soda or baking powder, and must be regarded as somewhat beyond the capacities of average digestive organs."

Mrs Beeton's Household Management.

I used to read war histories and I tend to stick with the air forces opinion that a 'cookie' was a surface blast bomb.

Following the comments about foods in the US it probably amounts top the same thing.


* I recall some Indian (subcontinent) friends with whom I studied some years ago saying that when they lived in Dallas they had to drive for 90 minutes to get to a bakery that sold bread that was not sugar laden. They were there when the New York attack occurred and they received a lot of abuse from the self proclaimed tolerant whites of the University there. But back to the story, when they returned to Adelaide they said that their children lost about 10kg each just from the change of diet and being able to run around outside. Whenever they see 'bombe Alaska' they think 'No, bomb Dallas instead'.

Muse: If I ever get around to it, and find a way of doing it without damaging the book, I'll scan the ads for you!

PS: Does anyone have any tips for that? It's quite fragile...

Use a hand-held scanner wand rather than a flatbed scanner

Ah, good. Where do I find one of those?

It's hard to find one of those wand scanners now. There was a mass migration to flatbeds despite the fact that those are almost useless for books and publications. Mutter mutter.

You could take a picture of the ads with your phone/digital Camera & upload the images?