For my next trick ... dentistry!
A fine weekend of rampant capitalism for the family Maul.
B and I spent the weekend behind a stall in the craft tent at the Callander Highland Games.
After watching with envy last year as B sold oodles and oodles of soaps, cosmetics and other nice things, I spent the days before the Games making batch after batch of tablet.
For those who haven't tried this most Scottish of sweets, tablet is basically sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. With sweetened condensed milk, in case the sugar turns out not to be sweet enough. And butter, in case there wasn't enough fat in the condensed milk.
Once boiled and caramelised, the mix is beaten (the tricky bit - and the point that decides whether you're going to get a yummy sweet or a rock-solid mass more suitable for aiming at large meteorites intent on crashing into the Earth), poured and left to set.
What you end up with, if you've done it right, is a melt-in-the-mouth delight of which your local tooth-care practitioner most certainly would not approve, but which will make your toes curl with sugary pleasure.
So, anyway, I made tablet. Lots of tablet. Vanilla tablet, buttermint flavour tablet and, biggest hit of the event, macadamia and white chocolate flavour tablet. I couldn't have done better even if I'd added crack to the mix (and who, besides any handy on-site research chemist, is to say I didn't?).
Here are my wares (label design by B, from a vague notion by me - the labels declare: 'It's not just tablet... it's Fablet'):
Fully functioning wings on the packaging couldn't have helped it fly off the shelves faster. We sold half of our stock - including most of the white choc macadamia - on the first day, and the rest about an hour before closing on the second day. Even then, people were coming to the stall at closing time, saying 'we heard you had tablet - is there any left?'
So - a good start to my burgeoning confectionary empire. For next year's market, we'll make more of everything - assuming this year's customers still have teeth.
B and I spent the weekend behind a stall in the craft tent at the Callander Highland Games.
After watching with envy last year as B sold oodles and oodles of soaps, cosmetics and other nice things, I spent the days before the Games making batch after batch of tablet.
For those who haven't tried this most Scottish of sweets, tablet is basically sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. With sweetened condensed milk, in case the sugar turns out not to be sweet enough. And butter, in case there wasn't enough fat in the condensed milk.
Once boiled and caramelised, the mix is beaten (the tricky bit - and the point that decides whether you're going to get a yummy sweet or a rock-solid mass more suitable for aiming at large meteorites intent on crashing into the Earth), poured and left to set.
What you end up with, if you've done it right, is a melt-in-the-mouth delight of which your local tooth-care practitioner most certainly would not approve, but which will make your toes curl with sugary pleasure.
So, anyway, I made tablet. Lots of tablet. Vanilla tablet, buttermint flavour tablet and, biggest hit of the event, macadamia and white chocolate flavour tablet. I couldn't have done better even if I'd added crack to the mix (and who, besides any handy on-site research chemist, is to say I didn't?).
Here are my wares (label design by B, from a vague notion by me - the labels declare: 'It's not just tablet... it's Fablet'):
Fully functioning wings on the packaging couldn't have helped it fly off the shelves faster. We sold half of our stock - including most of the white choc macadamia - on the first day, and the rest about an hour before closing on the second day. Even then, people were coming to the stall at closing time, saying 'we heard you had tablet - is there any left?'
So - a good start to my burgeoning confectionary empire. For next year's market, we'll make more of everything - assuming this year's customers still have teeth.