Sweet memories

The 2024-25 NSW Budget was handed down yesterday and cakes, biscuits and lollies filled the office.

It’s traditional during Budget time that sugar fuels the long day of reporting.

My boss remembered that Madeira cake was my favourite because it doesn’t have icing (I’m not an icing fan) so she bought me one.

Madeira cake has so many happy memories for me. My grandmother would always buy me a Woolies one and have it waiting when I arrived at Hawks Nest for the school holidays.

I would cut a slice for morning and afternoon tea, dice it into cubes and savoring each one, especially the bits from the top, which had an almost sticky layer on them.

The General Manager wandered past the treats table yesterday and exclaimed when she saw the cake. We reminisced about it being much yellower and stickier on top when we were kids. Mmmmmmmm.

The discussion sent me down memory lane, recalling all the treats Nan would cook or stock the cupboards and fridge with before my arrival.

There was always a big pot of curried sausages made with Gravox and Keens curry powder in the fridge, alongside a tray of caramel slice with Dessert Whip slathered on top.

Lunch was invariably a hot meal, ranging from rissoles to crumbed sausages to meat pies that were baked on dinner plates, fresh fish coated in flour and Season All and fried with chips that were hand cut with a metal crinkle cutter. On Sundays there was a roast with all the trimmings.

As I walked home from work I pictured those meals again and almost cried as a wave of missing my Nan swept over me.

I have a terrible memory, but I will never forget those meals and the love around that kitchen table.

Are there meals your grandmother made that have stayed with you?

Song of the day: Barbra Streisand “Memory”