There was a “make it up as you go along” feel to the weekend, which started on Saturday with the Miss Behave Game Show, an astonishing and totally original cabaret performed within a circus tent next to the Royal Festival Hall. Hosted by Miss Behave alongside the talented Harriet who turned out with beard, hot pants and bunny rabbit backpack, the crowd was split into two teams who had to partake in impromptu tasks to win points. In between rounds, cabaret performances of every kind entertained. The show ended with a slapstick spur of the moment playpen ball fight.
Sunday lunch was very spontaneous, as my daughter and I ate our way through the Specialty Fine Food Fair at Olympia, highlights of which included Salcombe Dairy Ice Cream, Joe and Seph’s Gourmet Popcorn, and pork crackling from Matthew Fort’s Mr. Trotter’s Pork Scratching Company.
The Impromptu theme continued when a scheduled trip to Kew Gardens to catch the last of the summer wine was subject to an extra time substitution, and quite unscripted we diverted to Carter’s Steam Fair, having spotted an advertising hoarding in Hammersmith.
There didn’t seem to be any steam powered attractions; the dodgems were electric, rifles powered with air, and swings by pulling ropes, thus retaining the weekend’s unpremeditated vibe.
For tea, to make up for it we made steamed treacle pudding by creaming butter and sugar together with eggs. Sifted flour and baking powder were added with small pieces of fudge. Treacle was added to 4 buttered individual pudding moulds, then the mixture, and all were steamed for 45 minutes.
For the record the closest thing to matching the fairs definition of the power used, was a feeling that it’s description was made-up of hot air, not something I’d want to cook with.
Ingredients:
83g Butter
115g Caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
140g Self Raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk
55g fudge cut into small pieces
3 tbsp Treacle
