An American Birthday in Scotland

Yesterday, Emma turned 11. Greyfriars Primary is on “half-term” for the second part of the week, so her main birthday present was no school! We knew this was going to be an unusual birthday celebration for her, since we don’t know the kids in her class well enough to host a sleepover (dodged a bullet on that one!). And since this isn’t really our house, we didn’t think we should invite a classroom full of kids over either. So we went with a low-key celebration instead, and took her out to lunch at the restaurant of her choice, then spent the afternoon making a cake. She chose a New York style cheesecake which, predictably, was a bit difficult to make here. The first difficulty was navigating the grocery store, where I spent about ten minutes in the dairy aisle, trying to figure out how many grams of cream cheese equaled one American-sized brick (for future reference, you need 1 1/8 containers of the UK size Philadelphia brand, but ¾ of a container of the store brand size…). Then we spent another ten minutes looking for a suitable substitute for graham crackers (ginger biscuits or McVities?) and searching for vanilla extract (with no luck…). We also struck out in our search for a pie plate and ended up with a glass tart pan, but did find a hand mixer for £9, which I’m sure we’ll use at least once or twice again while we’re here. I also managed to find decent representations of the groceries I would usually use at home to make a cheese lasagna (thought the “ricotta cheese” packet was alarmingly small and I was torn between choosing the “egg lasagna noodles” or the “original lasagna noodles.” (Doesn’t all pasta have egg in it?)

After our shopping trip, we headed home and I started baking. The cheesecake turned out reasonably well, thought the sugar I bought was much more densely-granulated than what we buy in the U.S. (I think I needed “castor” or “fruit” sugar, not “table” sugar). Since the eggs here are most often free range and larger than they are in the U.S., I probably didn’t need two of them. Also, McVities makes a horrible substitute for graham crackers! Otherwise, it was a passable concoction fairly reminiscent of New York cheesecake. The lasagna turned out nicely, as well, though I neglected to remember that while it’s quite possible to buy enough small containers of ricotta cheese to make a 9x13 pan of lasagna, it is virtually impossible to fit a 9x13 pan of leftovers in a British-size refrigerator, especially one that has a half-eaten cheesecake in it already!

Emma’s presents were also downsized this year, since we will eventually have to cram everything we own here into eight duffel bags for the return trip to the States. She ended up with two iTunes gift certificates (thanks Amy and Grandma!), a bouquet of “lollies,” a cupcake kit, and a Scottish cookbook for kids called “Maw Broon’s Cooking with Bairns” that is full of step-by-step instructions on how to make Scotch broth, chicken stovies, and grilled herring with oatmeal (every kid’s favorite!). Since she’s a vegetarian, I was afraid the book wouldn’t go over well but she was pleased with the “Pudding” section, which lists recipes for cranachan with berries and wee clootie! Of course, once we get it back to the States, we’ll have to figure out how to decide how much 125 grams of sultanas is, or where on earth to find black treacle and golden syrup in Hamilton, New York!

You try stuffing a full-size lasagna into that thing!