This morning I was reading 'Voyage on the great Titanic - The Diary of Margaret Anne Brady'. It's a fictional story, about a Cockney orphan who sails on Titanic as a companion to an American woman. The author has clearly done a lot of research on her period and dialogue, but there is a glaring error in the scene where the heroine leaves the East End orphanage where she has been living.

"At supper tonight, the sisters brought out a pound cake, covered in white frosting as a celebration".

Now I'm fairly sure that a pound cake is more an American thing, than British: I'm not even entirely sure what sort of cake it is. I do know that 'frosting' is wrong: Margaret would have described it as having white 'icing'.

Any other errors for Jurisfiction to fix ? I know another......

My CV - that's a great work of fiction...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

The original pound cake, as made in colonial America, contained a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs and a pound of butter (thus the name). Other ingredients might or might not be added. It's a fairly heavy cake, and variations are often used modernly by decorators when they need something sturdy for a carved cake.

My hunch would be that like many things, it came over from Britian (or elsewhere in Europe) and stayed popular here while becoming less so there, but I have no documentation for that.

Wait a minute - I have google. Ah HA!

from [www.joyofbaking.com]:

The pound cake originated several centuries ago in England from yeast leavened bread-like cakes. The name comes from the fact that the original pound cakes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. No leaveners were used other than the air whipped into the batter. These cakes were rich and dense. By the mid 1800's pound cake recipes began to deviate slightly from the original formula to make a lighter cake. Some recipes even contained a liquid, such as alcohol or rose water. It wasn't until the 20th century that artificial leaveners (baking powder/soda) were added. Today, pound cakes use different proportions of the same ingredients as the original formula to produce a lighter cake.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

I was going to check my 'New Home Encyclopedia' c1933, to see if that listed pound cake amongst its myriad recipes, but I can't find the blasted thing. Pound cake may have originated in England, but that doesn't mean it was still a common item by 1912. On the other hand, I could be wrong, and it might have lingered on into the 20th century. I've got a few old cookery books but it isn't in Marguerite Patten's classic 'Everyday Cookbook c1950'. She does list icing, in various forms, and also American frosting.

Frankly, I think the author goofed. (Not that I claim to be perfect either, you understand.....)

Well, anachronisms abound all over, and are usually forgivable, although I did think the Wednesday scarf in 19thC Wyoming a tad excessive, myself.

(Skiffle, old thing, could you kindly edit the title of your top post cos I ain't half getting confused ...)



Post Edited (07-15-03 23:41)

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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Jon: sorry, I can't change the title of my post (and why does it confuse you ?), because I don't appear to exist. I can't log in. The password I have written down doesn't work, and if I enter my username or my e-mail address in the 'forgot your password' box, it keeps telling me I'm wrong.

And what's that about the Wednesday scarf in 19thC Wyoming ?

There's currently two threads with the same title, and no way to tell which is which.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Um ... re Skiffle's user name; an e-mail to the Panjandrum might be in order, then. As Ben sez, there's two threads with the same title ... issa bit confuzzling.

The scarf thing was a joke .. you know, cos you're always putting the names of Sheff suburbs in, and I thought it would be funny to ... yes, well.

I'll get me scarf.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Sorry, forgot there were two threads with the same title. Completely unintentional, as you might gather from the second post, on the other thread. Um, perhaps if we ignore one of them, it'll go away. After all, with the way the fforum is growing at the moment, any thread that gets ignored for more than a day vanishes into the mists of 'older topics'.

I can tell you, from having marched through all the user ids, that there is no user called Skiffle. Which means you can create a new one with that name, at any time, and then use it.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Assuming, that is, that it lets you, which I gather it won't, now that I think on it.

Perhaps you should try marching through the ids to find the one you originally set up. It might be spelt wrong or something.

Just pull up somebody's profile, such as:
[www.jasperfforde.com]

And then keep changing the ID# at the end. #1 in panjandrum, but you can try all the numbers above that, sequentially, until you find your old ID, hopefully. I don't recall seeing one that looked like yours offhand, but you might recognize it.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Gee, Magda, trying all the id's till I find something that looks like it might have been mine........that looks like fun.

Anyway, I don't remember being anything other than Skiffle. Not round here, anyway.

Not sure, but I may have originally set up my id on my Dad's computer. Would that make such a difference ?

If so, then for your computer you could probably just set up a new one. The name appears to be available.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith