Separated by a Common Language?

[monster]

Sometimes, when I'm pootling about, I play with numbers in my head. Other times, language. And one of those language things is the UK/USA differences. We all know about the word differences and the strange pronunciations, and even the occasional grammar quirk, but it's so much more than that. I marvel at (and enjoy) how few things I would say the same way when talking to Brits or Americans. More often than not, there are several words that mean the same thing, and we all know all the meanings, but each country has a different word of preference. Rarely a sentence goes by that doesn't have something in it -and, I think, that's what marks us expats out as Brits (and Aussies) -as much as if not more than the accent- and is maybe why some Americans get confused between the two, when to us our accents couldn't be much more different. Maybe.

Anyway, I keep thinking I should share this with those of you who are interested in this sort of thing using real life examples (those who aren't please move on now, I'll take the "boring!" comments as read...)

(I'm betting the Americans will still be able to spot many Anglicisms in my writing -I haven't gotten ( )to the native level of expertise yet! And I'm sure there will be regional differences in both countries, please don't take offence if I neglected yours, although I'd be very interested to hear about it)

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I just baked a birthday cake. My oven is electric, so I went over to the range (cooker) to turn it on to preheat. After checking there was nothing on the cooktop (hob/stove), I set it to 350F (Gas mark 5, something in centigrade). Then I went to wash my hands under the faucet (tap).

I may have been here 10 years and generally think in American, but I cook in British. So I got out my kitchen scales rather than my set of measuring cups to make sure I got the right amount of each ingredient.

I was making a sponge cake (like a heavier yellow cake), so I weighed the eggs first, then set them on one side. I weighed out the same amount of butter and of sugar (it would have been caster as opposed to granulated sugar if i was in the UK). Then I beat them together. No need to warm the butter because -being European- we keep the butter in use out of the fridge) Next, I added the eggs. I did take the eggs from the fridge, I would have done in the UK too, but interesting to note that in the UK, eggs are generally not refridgerated in the store (shop) -or weren't when I left on 2001, I don't know if other Brits refridgerate them at home or not. The eggs were actually brown, which is the norm to a Brit, but American eggs are more likely to be white. But we're not doing too badly here on the language differences.

I whisked in the eggs, being careful not to let the batter (mixture) curdle. Then I weighed out the same amount of self-rising flour (self-raising), it should be noted here that it is more the norm in the US to use general purpose (plain) flour and add baking powder. I added some cocoa powder to the flour, then sifted those onto the batter. I folded them in to prevent the air being beaten out again, added some semi-sweet chocolate chips (just chocolate chips to Brits) and then transferred the mixture to the cake pan (tin). The pan is a solid circle, not the bundt style that would be used for coffee cakes. (To Americans, a coffee cake is a cake designed to be eaten with coffee -more than likely cinammon or lemon flavo(u)red and drizzled with icing (which is the Brit term -would you merkins call that white drizzle icing, frosting, drizzle or something entirely different?)- to Brits, a coffee cake would generally be a cake flavored with coffee).

Well, the cake is now in the oven. When the pots are washed, it will be American-style, rinsed in hot water after the soap, and left to air dry. We used to do that in the UK too, but Brit visitors still don't rinse the soap off and want to dry them with a tea-towel (kitchen towel).

Newsflash! the cake is ready! When pressed lightly, It rebounds, it is no longer making a "clicking" noise, and when stuck with a toothpick (pricked with a cocktail stick) the stick comes away clean.

When the cake is cooled, I will fill it with chocolate buttercream -same weight of butter to powdered/confectioner's sugar (icing sugar), flavo(u)red with melted baker's unsweetened chocolate (cooking chocolate), and then it will be frosted (iced) it to look like a target with nerf darts in it. I will make the frosting with powdered sugar, food color (colour) and water.

The cake will be eaten with forks (only posh Brits use forks -and then they have special cake forks for the job) ....yup, for once the Brits are the ones who use their fingers and the Americans silverware/flatware (cutlery).