Tomorrow
is a date to record in your diary as Saturday 25 February 2006 is a red
letter day and marks the official launch of the National Theatre of
Scotland, Decades of campaigning, especially over the past 20 years by
Oliver Brown Award winner Paul Henderson Scott, cumulated in putting
pressure on the
reconvened
Scottish Parliament to ensure the funding for the National Theatre, The
new company, under Director Vicky Featherstone, doesn’t have a theatre
building of its own but instead will work with the best of Scottish
theatre to bring world class theatre to the whole of Scotland. The
opening launch does that with ten locations all over from Shetland to
Dumfries and Stornoway to Edinburgh.Ten top directors, ten surprising
locations and ten new pieces of theatre, all on the subject of HOME. You
can tap your feet to 100 fiddlers on a car ferry in Lerwick Harbour, be
entertained in an abandoned tenement block in Aberdeen or have a ‘1950s
dancehall experience’ in the MacManus Galleries in Dundee. Visit
www.nationaltheatrescotland.com for full details of all ten venues
and other information on OUR National theatre,
The Arts,
including theatre, has long depended on ‘Angels’, which in the case of
the new National Theatre came in the form of two years funding (£7.5
million) from the. Scottish Executive – for once public money well
spent! And angels inspire this week’s recipe in the shape of a delicious
Angel Cake.
Angel Cake
Ingredients: 100 g (4 oz) plain flour; 175 g (6 oz) caster
sugar; 5-6, about 175 ml (6 fl oz) egg whites; ½ teaspoon cream of
tartar; ½ teaspoon vanilla or almond essence; lemon curd
To
decorate Glace Icing; crystallised lemon slices
Method:
This quantity makes one 18 cm (7 inch) cake. Sift the flour and sugar
together 3 or 4 times. Beat the egg whites until foaming; add the cream
of tartar and whisk until stiff but not dry. Sift the flour and sugar on
to the whisked egg whites carefully, about 2 tablespoonfuls at a time,
then fold in the flavouring essence, Turn the mixture into an un-greased
18 cm (7 inch) cake tin. Bake in a preheated moderate oven (160 deg C,
325 deg F, Gas mark 3) for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out
clean. Remove from the oven and invert on to a wire tray. Leave until
quite cold before turning out of the tin. This is a sweet cake and it is
best to choose a sharp filling for contrast. Slice the cake across in
three, or down into eight. Spread the slices with lemon curd and
reassemble the cake. Spread the top with Lemon Glace Icing (see below)
and decorate with crystallised lemon slices.
Lemon Glace Icing
Ingredients: 100 g (4 oz) icing sugar; strained lemon juice to
mix; vanilla essence
Method:
Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Gradually stir in lemon juice, a
spoonful at a time, to give a spreading consistency. Add a few drops of
vanilla essence. Use at once as it sets quickly. Sufficient for an 18 cm
(7 inch) cake.
