Oh, you just brought back a wonderful memory of a friend and I standing outside a whole window of these in Adelaide in the late 80s. We'd gone to A for a NOWSA conference (National Organisation of Women Students in Australia) -- does it still exist? I've got a photo of her standing and pointing at the frogs, laughing.
Working for the Balfours factory was one of my student jobs in the 1970s -- the 3 am shift (in winter, of course) packing pies and pasties for the country shops and then catching the bus home with a bagful of imperfect lemon meringue pies and such.
The shop itself has gone, but the frog cake lives on. The best thing I ever saw in that window was a large three-tiered wedding cake made entirely of white frog cakes, more or less à la croquembouche.
I wanted my first wedding cake to be a UFO (probably to reflect how alien the whole concept of marrying him felt) but the cakemakers just didn't get it, and made something that looked like the Dome of St Peters, with green wormy things hanging out the sides.
My wedding party was the high point of the entire relationship, probably because my mother did all the cooking. I don't remember a cake, but I suppose there must have been one. In fact I think it was a traditional fruitcake, and I hate fruitcake.
There was a second bad omen, too: that 'married in red, you're better off dead' rhyme, which I didn't come across till it was too late.
Be still my beating heart, a genuine green frog cake. I haven't seen or eaten one for years and suddenly I can taste it. On the wedding cake, I have one photo of mine and when it was produced for the one year anniversary, it was mould from top to bottom. Sometimes you just have to go with the omens.
the frog cakes I ate (still eat when I find them) are more like tarts - you have a pastry tart case, mock cream (but good mock cream, sort of moussy, not greasy! and usually tinted pink) and then the froggieness just like yours. I don't think I've ever seen one made with sponge like that in Sydney. we used to get them at a baker's called Isons. they had several shops - there's still one nearby in Five Dock, but I think it's continental now.
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Just what one would expect, really!
ReplyDeleteOh, you just brought back a wonderful memory of a friend and I standing outside a whole window of these in Adelaide in the late 80s. We'd gone to A for a NOWSA conference (National Organisation of Women Students in Australia) -- does it still exist? I've got a photo of her standing and pointing at the frogs, laughing.
ReplyDeleteSigh! How gorgeous they are.
Working for the Balfours factory was one of my student jobs in the 1970s -- the 3 am shift (in winter, of course) packing pies and pasties for the country shops and then catching the bus home with a bagful of imperfect lemon meringue pies and such.
ReplyDeleteThe shop itself has gone, but the frog cake lives on. The best thing I ever saw in that window was a large three-tiered wedding cake made entirely of white frog cakes, more or less à la croquembouche.
*gush*
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic wedding cake!
I wanted my first wedding cake to be a UFO (probably to reflect how alien the whole concept of marrying him felt) but the cakemakers just didn't get it, and made something that looked like the Dome of St Peters, with green wormy things hanging out the sides.
Doomed from the start, that marriage!
My wedding party was the high point of the entire relationship, probably because my mother did all the cooking. I don't remember a cake, but I suppose there must have been one. In fact I think it was a traditional fruitcake, and I hate fruitcake.
ReplyDeleteThere was a second bad omen, too: that 'married in red, you're better off dead' rhyme, which I didn't come across till it was too late.
Be still my beating heart, a genuine green frog cake. I haven't seen or eaten one for years and suddenly I can taste it.
ReplyDeleteOn the wedding cake, I have one photo of mine and when it was produced for the one year anniversary, it was mould from top to bottom. Sometimes you just have to go with the omens.
the frog cakes I ate (still eat when I find them) are more like tarts - you have a pastry tart case, mock cream (but good mock cream, sort of moussy, not greasy! and usually tinted pink) and then the froggieness just like yours. I don't think I've ever seen one made with sponge like that in Sydney. we used to get them at a baker's called Isons. they had several shops - there's still one nearby in Five Dock, but I think it's continental now.
ReplyDeleteI miss eating frogs.
ReplyDeleteI especially miss the complete lack of guilt about eating them when you're a child!
Balfours Frog cakes ROCK they tasie awsome (: / :)
ReplyDeleteBalfours frogs are the best cake ever i can eat 6 or more in one day, they are the shizznit!!!
ReplyDelete