Today's dismay: currants

[kaberett]

From the department of "divided by a common language": earlier today I was Very Upset about the US use of "coffee cake", which is apparently not a cake flavoured with coffee but rather a (style of) cake eaten with coffee.

(The recipe blog intro writes itself, really; things I am already considering include some kind of poppyseed coffee cake and of course rhubarb coffee cake, which is what precipitated this particular discovery.)

This was upsetting enough by itself but Subsequent Digressions lead to the discovery that apparently in North America "currants" with no other specifiers by default means Ribes, probably blackcurrant, and not, you know, the dried grape.

... via going "hey, this EYB recipe specifies 'currants' as an ingredient for teacakes, but I've previously been informed that that means Ribes fruit not dried grapes, surely some mistake?" and getting back, approximately, "what makes you think dried grapes are relevant??? the version of the recipe in the Guardian just says 'currants'??????"

(The linking step was being Extremely Indignant about having it patiently explained to me that "coffee cake" is like "tea cake". Apparently BUT THE FRUIT SHOULD BE SOAKED IN TEA THOUGH is not a robust defence.)

Comments

[lnr]

I am from the uk: coffee cake should have coffee in it. Usually found as coffee-and-walnut variety.

I am from Yorkshire. I'm familiar with teacake for a small soft white bread roll, but it's more usually a fruit teacake rather than a plain one, and eaten toasted with butter on as a snack, usually with a cup of tea.

But a tea *loaf* is a type of fruit cake where the fruit is soaked in tea before baking. You also get these in Yorkshire.

Currants in baking terms are like small more dried out raisins. I didn't know they were still a sort of dried grape though, but hadn't really thought about it. A blackcurrant/redcurrant/whitecurrant would be no use at all in a currant bun! (Sultanas are generally golden brown, raisins dark brown, currants smaller and nearly black).

Coffee cake being the cake you have with coffee is still weird to me.

[fyreharper]

Coffee cake being coffee flavored is weird to me! (…also I do not like coffee, and do like US!coffeecake, which I’m sure affects the degree to which I am >:-( rather than :D about the idea :p )

[fyreharper]

Tea cake being bread and tea loaf being cake, though. o_O Why is language like this.