Having missed the excitement of the fast falling wickets of India on the first day of the first Test match (of the 2011 series) between them and the West Indies, due to my momentary lapse of sanity, there was no way I was going to be sensible and continue writing at home for the rest of the week! After all, Digicel had set up an Internet cafe on The Mound!

So off I went on the second day, to watch the Windies bat. Unfortunately, some of my mound posse were being sensible (who told those in charge to put a test match Monday through to Friday, anyway?!), and had to rely on the ‘BBMs’ of myself and my dear friend Monisha Shah (who, btw, was only commenting on the Indians’ successes….grrrr).

Needless to say, Sabina Park was somewhat dead, which facilitated slightly more sleep for me, as no one would be rushing to ‘steal’ our regular spots on the beach! That being said, the Mound’s Event Manager Danielle Stiebel, her Appleton Mound girls, the main man at the gate, Barry Thomas, ZJ Bambino and Renaissance Disco all managed to keep the party going straight through the week.

Each passing day brought fewer locals (again, everyone sensibly going to their jobs), but more foreigners! There were the English Jamaicans from London and Bristol, who reunite on The Mound with their mates, from St Thomas and Kingston, to watch every cricket match they can. These friends met on The Mound some 15 years ago, and formed a bond that surely wouldn’t be made anywhere other than Sabina Park!

Then, imagine! I came across a group of Venezuelan engineers, all working for the oil company Petroleos de Venezeula Sociedad Anonima, who are in Jamaica for three months learning English at UHWI. Thanks to their Jamaican social tutor and stalwart cricket fan, Alexis Nunes, they had nearly mastered the game, and the art of drinking rum, by the close of play on Wednesday.

Lastly, and certainly not least, the British Airways cabin crew, having started off in the George Headley stand on Tuesday morning, swiftly bought tickets for The Mound when they saw a crazy flag girl (thanks for the name, Bambino!) dancing between each over! They were so impressed with the entire set-up, that they brought along their colleagues, and the Virgin Atlantic crowd, the next day (Wednesday)! None of these Mound Raiders appeared to notice that Sammy had dropped a crucial catch off Dravid the day before, and that the West Indies only had to make 195 more runs, without losing all seven remaining wickets, in the next two days. Which is why I raced home at lunchtime on Wednesday to fetch a delicious homemade chocolate cake, with butter icing to honour the colours of India and the West Indies, at least to save them from drowning in alcohol! After all, rum goes well with cake, no?!

On the fourth day of the Test, with much anticipation and hope for a repeated brilliant display of West Indian cricket, as we saw in the ODI (One Day International) exactly one week before, I arrived with Earl Grey tea and freshly baked English scones with chocolate chips. The Windies would do it. They would beat India, and if not, they’d at least give five interesting days of test cricket, as was intended by the game’s inventors! So what better way for me to celebrate the ancestry of the sport than to bring the ultimate English ‘Elevensies’ snack, with a touch more decadence?!

Alas, there was disappointment around the stands as West Indian wickets collapsed, resulting in a win for India, by 63 runs, not long after lunch. It was their deserved turn to shout ‘Howzat!’. The Mound Raiders from around the world, however, didn’t seem to mind so much. Some were there for the cricket, while others for the free-flowing liquor, and food from Scotchies and Juici, but they all discovered that no matter what your interests, who you are, or where you are from, every single person who comes to the Appleton Mound, truly has a fabulous time! FYI…rumour has it that in 2012, Appleton will be hosting plenty more limes on the mound. Watch this space…

Emma’s Menu:

Appleton Rum

Chocolate Cake with Butter Icing to honour the Windies & India

Earl Grey Tea

Mini Decadent English Scones with Chocolate Chips

Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake: Makes 2 layers

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups brown sugar

6 fl oz vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup Roma cocoa powder

10 fl oz strong freshly made High Mountain Coffee, cooled

2 teaspoons vanilla essence.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF. Grease two 9-inch square pans and line with wax paper.

2. Beat the oil with the sugar, add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well between each addition. If the mixture starts to curdle, add 1-2 tablespoons of the plain flour.

3. Add 1 cup of the flour, beat well.

4. Pour in 1/3 of the coffee and beat again.

5. Add the baking powder and baking soda, and the remaining flour, and continue beating on low speed.

6. Pour in another 1/3 of the coffee and the cocoa powder – continue beating the mixture.

7. Gently stir in the remaining coffee and the vanilla essence.

8. Divide between the two pans and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. A skewer should come out clean when poked into the middle of each cake.

9. Remove from the oven and cool for 5-10 minutes.

10. Spread sheets of wax paper on two wire racks and turn the cakes out of the pans onto the wax paper. Leave to cool completely, and then ice (see below).

11. You may wrap the cakes in the wax paper, and then foil, and freeze for later use.

Butter Icing for the West Indies & India:

Ingredients:

8 oz butter, soft

12 oz icing sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

Pink food colouring

Orange food colouring

Method:

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy.

2. Sift the icing sugar and add to the butter. Beat again until well mixed.

3. Beat in the vanilla essence.

4. Divide into two bowls.

5. Add drops of the pink colouring into one bowl, to get the burgundy colour of the West Indies cricket team, and drops of the orange into the other for the Indian team (orange is one colour in their flag).

6. Ice one-half of the cakes with burgundy and the other with orange. Decorate with whatever you like. I used homemade Dutch syrup waffles (like a soft cookie) which I had made a month before and had kept in the freezer.

Mini Decadent English Scones: Makes 32

Ingredients:

1 lb self-raising flour (plus a little extra)

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 oz butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 tablespoon brown sugar

10 fl oz milk

4 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.

2. Place the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and whiz to form a crumbly mixture.

3. Add the sugar and whiz again.

4. Pour into a large bowl, along with the chocolate chips, and gently mix in the milk with a knife.

5. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and bring the ‘dough’ together.

6. Lightly flour the dough and carefully roll out with a rolling pin to 3/4 inch thickness.

7. Using a 1 1/2 inch round cutter, stamp out scones and place on a lightly floured baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

8. Gather the remaining dough and roll out again, repeating the stamping out and placing on a second baking sheet. Make sure you use up all the mixture!

9. Bake one batch at a time in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove and place scones on a cooling rack.

10. Repeat with the second batch.

11. Enjoy these warm scones now, or freeze and defrost when ready to use.