It’s possible we did this in the wrong order. Perhaps we should have made these little snow cakes prior to pigging out on snow toffee (see below) but I was on a roll and it was the only other recipe I could find that involved snow and ingredients readily available without driving anywhere!
In fact, I didn’t actually have the correct ingredients entirely, which, considering that there are only three items in the recipe was a bit of a problem. The instructions, which I’d nicked from Denis Cotter’s ‘For the love of Food’ book (possibly my most favourite vegetarian cookery writer and also chef/patron of ‘Cafe Paradiso’, the only strictly vegi restaurant on my ‘must try before I die’ list) called for fine maize flour, salt and snow. The latter two I had in abundance. The maize flour was a tricky one; however, I did have a box of polenta and a Thermomix (the only other member of kitchen staff that made it in). The Thermo is basically a very useful bit of kit that can whizz stuff up very fast, very finely.
A flick of a switch later and I had maize flour in a lovely misty-buff coloured bowl with a couple of pinches of salt.
Braving the elements yet again, daughter no1 and I gathered enough snow to fold into the flour to just bind itFrom there it was ever so gently plonked into a greased muffin tin, brought back in from the cold and baked in a hot oven for 15 minutes.
Out came these little yellow cakes, light as a feather and three times as delicate. Most of all, they were indeed edible. Possibly a bit on the crunchy side (I blamed the snow), but topped with a little melted butter and some jam, definitely edible.
So you now know what to do if you ever find yourself starving, stuck in the snow and within easy reach of an Italian deli, hot oven and high speed mixer…..
