pastry ...

pastry and I ... we don't get on. At all. I can barely manage with bought pastry, and if I try to make it myself it's a disaster.

I've tried everything - food processor, mixer, by hand. It all goes grey and shrinks, and is as unappetising as you might imagine.

I've been hunting for one of these for a while, and found it at Lakeland [warning: do not go here unless you are of strong will-].

I used it once, and I don't think it'll work. I've just fetched it out to make some rock buns, and the handle had worked a tiny bit loose, and I didn't feel comfortable with it. Pete has tightened its nuts (as it were) with his Leatherman mole grips and we'll see how it goes.

and the rock cakes have just come out of the oven. They *smell* nice, anyway.

[edit] they taste nice too, but they're not rock buns as I remember them.

is it me, or is it my oven? [sigh]