I craved a particular cake my teta Ruza used to make. It had a layer of dough followed by a layer of apple filling covered with a dough “mesh”. I never had a chance to get the recipe from teta Ruza* so I decided to make a close-enough recipe from a book apply named “Domaci kolaci” (homemade cakes).

*Well, I did ask her how she made orehnjaca once and she explained it to me. At the time it made so much sense that I did not think I needed to write it down. Needless to say, I forgot and all the recipes that I found in cookbooks and and the interwebs are not quite right.

Yah, “Domaci kolaci” assumes that you already know exactly how to make a cake so things like measurements for ingredients, pan sizes and rolled out dough thickness are intermittent or more likely absent. So there you go, I run out of dough for a mesh and had to use the biggest pan I had because I did not know how big the cake would be.

And oh, the oven temperature was written in Kelvins when I thought these were Fahrenheit. Did they write this book to be used in chemistry class??? Probably not, you need measurements in chemistry…

In any case, the cake is 80% apple so even burnt it did not taste badly. In all the rush, I placed the pan on a still hot stove element (trying to bathe Markus and eat lunch at the same time causes chaos, who knew?) and broke it under the cake. At least I did not have to attempt to clean the burnt part.

Moral of the story: If you have someone in your life that bakes good cakes, film them making every single cake they make.

Costume drama

I don’t really talk about it much with people who don’t share this particular interest but I really like costume drama. While I avoid Merchant-Ivory like the plague, I will happily watch most period pieces I have the opportunity to see.

I got a bit stumped the other day when Charissa asked me what I think of Downton Abbey. My immediate reaction was to say that it is bad. I then qualified that response by admitting that I like it. This schism exists amongst my period piece following friends though few are fence sitters like me. Some think it is absolute rubbish and wonder at the nerve ITV/PBS have in producing it and others think it is the best thing on TV right now.

I have been trying to come up with a way to explain my feelings about this show, and even “worse” shows like Larkrise to Candelford which I fatefully follow. Downton Abbey has high production values. The costumes and settings are gorgeous. Acting is first rate, after all, I have never seen actors like Maggie Smith or Brendan Coyle be anything other than dazzling. The writing is good quality but not great and it is here that my criticism stems from.

In my mind, a period piece television drama is not in competition with other like dramas but with all other period pieces on television within last ten years (decade is a random delineation on my part but whatever, bear with me). This means that it competes with other shows that have the same production values but are based on classic literature. The writing of Downton Abbey can’t compete with, say, Daniel Deronda (I am just thinking of whatever show I saw last). Then there are costume dramas that are not based on classics but are nevertheless based on writing that was successful in novel form prior to being filmed such as the Hornblower or the Sharpe series. Then there are films such as The Cock and Bull Story, The Libertine and The Last Mistress which are really fantastic (in my opinion anyway).

For me, Downton Abbey is something that is enjoyable to watch if you have already seen all the great stuff and still want more or just want to see a fun and easy show to relax to. I would not recommend it to someone who does not regularly watch period pieces regardless of whether I never miss an episode or not.