Manchester Central Library

My eldest daughter (like the other two) is a bit of a star. She is the archivist for the Royal Northern College of Music on Oxford Road, Manchester.

This only takes up 3 of her days though so,  a year or so ago, she set herself up as an independent archive and heritage consultant - offering professional archivist advice to organisations and companies who maybe didn't know where to start with their own archives or didn't have enough material to justify employing a full-time archivist.

Her 'spare' two days have proved to rarely be spare as she has worked with a number of organisations in Manchester including the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, Contact  Theatre and the Manchester Refugee Support Network.

This latter consultancy involved her working with the archives in Manchester central Library - very handy as it's just next to the tram stop at St Peter's Square.

She sent me a message last week of a coffee cake that is sold in the library cafe and commented that it was "lush".

Such a description needed to be investigated for veracity so, as I was in Manchester for a meeting, I took the opportunity to have elevenses with @herarchivist. She had texted me earlier in the day to say that she couldn't actually SEE any coffee cake but, gladly, by the time I arrived it had been put on the menu.

It was, to my shame, my first time at the library - a magnificent building in the centre (appropriately) of the city.

Recently re-opened after an extensive refurbishment, the library offers all sorts of services (including free wifi). Of course, my interest was in the cafe and, specifically, the coffee cake therein.

First impressions were favourable. It looked nice and dark (lots of coffee, hopefully) and the icing was nice and thick. In a number of places I've been to recently if you wanted decaf coffee you had to make do with instant. But not here - ethically sourced as well. Big thumbs up.

So, did the experience match the first impressions? Mostly, yes.

The sponge was delicious - moist and beautifully chewy. Not in a 'claggy' way but dense enough that it didn't disintegrate when I put my fork in. And definitely coffee flavoured.

The icing was a little bit of a let down. The 'filling' icing was more fondant than icing and the icing on the top, whilst nice and plentiful, was only a little bit more solid. But the taste? Oh the taste was sublime. And the icing contained the occasional shard of walnut, too - always a bonus.

and so to the scores:

Price: £2.95

Walnut Garnish: no
Walnut in sponge: yes
Sponge: 10/10
Icing: 8/10
Filling: yes - and plenty of it - but not really icing.

Calke Abbey

A Saturday with nothing to do... so a day out somewhere it would be.

I remembered, from my many trips to Swanwick in Derbyshire, passing a National Trust place which I had always meant to visit but never actually done so. I decided to have a look online and reckoned that the place I was thinking of was Calke Abbey.

Owned by the National Trust, this 'unstately home' as they call it has an interesting history. Its last owner was a single man - who only used three rooms. The rest were just locked up.

Now, I don't know if the NT took a conscious decision to leave things as they were as a statement or whether there just wasn't the money to do all the necessary work to restore the house to its former glory but the National Trust says it was the former so who am I to argue?

This means that the house is, well, a bit sad and sorry looking. Rooms that were clearly used as just a dumping ground for stuff that wasn't being used have been left exactly as they were found. Most of the rooms look tired and unkempt - which is the point, I suppose.

A few rooms have been maintained/restored (and structural work has been carried out to make the place safe) but there is an undeniable feeling of gloom and faded glory pervading the whole structure.

We entered through the courtyard and were a bit surprised to look in a stable and see a picture of, well, the same stable! Couldn't see the point of that to be honest...



It was only on moving away to look in the next unkempt outhouse that the reason for the picture, quite literally, revealed itself.



One up to the National Trust there. So much of what we see depends on our perspective!

Thankfully, one of the buildings which has had money lavished upon it is another stable block which now houses the cafe and obligatory shop. And, joy of joys, they sold Coffee and Walnut cake. Otherwise this post wouldn't exist.

It was a decent sized slice. There were plenty, and I mean, PLENTY of walnuts in the sponge and some flakes on the top icing.



So, you can see the picture - but what did it taste like?

Well, the sponge was delicious, the walnuts were plentiful but the icing? The icing was fluffy, insipid and, as you can see, rather thinly applied. It was tasty, but I can't help feeling that they missed a trick by not having a stronger coffee flavour to the icing (actually ANY coffee flavour in the icing) and more of it. Mind you, it was only £2.75 which I reckon is reasonable.

Oh, and I don't reckon this was the place I used to pass on the way to Swanwick after all... Oh well.

So, the not-at-all important rating:

Price: £2.75
Walnut Garnish: yes - flakes
Walnut in sponge: yes - lots
Sponge: 9/10
Icing: 3/10
Filling: yes - but only just.