Let’s have another food and incarceration post! Cake and a jail break! Let’s spring ‘em out! (I promise you this will be the final post I write making my almost non-existent connections between food and gaol! And finding lots of different words for jail, prison, the big house, clink, lock up, chokey, correctional facility, slammer, and bastille. Pretty sure there are many, many more, but I won’t encourage me…)
Why another prison themed post? I don’t hear you asking. Good question. Well, quite by coincidence, after JH commented last week she thought I was going to mention La Petite Bastille here in Quebec City, we happened to be wandering past the prison, turned hostel, turned gallery earlier this week. No, really!
We weren’t trying to break anyone out, or break in, and avoided any of the “file in a baked cake” sort of escapade. I do wonder about that. The file in a cake – has that ever really happened, and how would it go? It got me thinking as we walked around the outside of the building, what sort of cake would work best? A light Victoria sponge doesn’t seem much use – the file would fall out, be discovered too soon. Perhaps a heavy chocolate cake? I can see the problem with a tasty chocolate cake (said no one, ever) – if the guards are easily bribed or the sort to turn a blind eye to a file in a cake, wouldn’t they also be the sort to eat a delicious chocolate cake meant for an inmate? No cake reaches the inmate, so no file, and no escape! Nope, not a chocolate cake, then.
My grandmother made a bread pudding so dense you could easily hide a file in there. And a length of rope attached to a grappling iron, a couple of crowbars and even the keys to the getaway vehicle parked under the wall. Maybe even the getaway vehicle itself. I’m telling you, it was a dense dessert. Would probably take days for an entire prison wing plus the guards to eat enough to finally find the file – honestly, it was that heavy. You’d be so tired after chomping through all that bread pudding you’d need a nap, then probably forget you’d even intended to break out. Just writing about that pudding has made me forget why we’re talking about it. Oh yes, prison break cakes! If anyone has any suggestions, or a recipe to share, please feel free to do so below. This post isn’t going quite where I’d intended…
La Petite Bastille is now part of La Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec, but currently closed and undergoing refurbishment. So no old prison visit for us, and instead we viewed the “Generations” display on at MNBAQ, our last of what has been several visits to view this collection. We’ve loved visiting this one! Instead of trying and failing to summarize it, I’ll borrow from the MNBAQ descriptor and post a link. “In addition to presenting the works of several artists rarely seen in Québec City, Generations: The Sobey Family and Canadian Art thus offers a genuine panorama of Canadian creativity past and present, reflected both in tormented landscapes and abstractions, and in personal narratives and striking revisions of Canadian history.” The exhibition is on until mid May…Generations
Predictably enough, my favourite paintings in this collection were by Tom Thomson. I have his canoe at home. Oh, ok, a postcard on my desk:
From prisons to cakes to paintings, I seem to have drifted off, like a birchbark canoe caught on a gentle early summer breeze. Perhaps a good enough time to stop all this vaguely (un)connected nonsense?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
OldPlaidCamper 
Your humor gets me chuckling so hard and this post had me guffawing, pc. I love cakes and enjoyed the file ponderings. My favorite, predictably, is chocolate, so I enjoyed your thoughts on the chocolate. And then when we came to your grandmother’s dense bread pudding I laughed. so. hard. Much enjoyed post, pc, and great photos, too. Also enjoyed the canoe painting because it reminds me of your photos from your days at the beach and marina. Cheers my friend.
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Thanks, Jet! Chocolate cake almost always helps! (I could manage a slice right now, as I watch the snow come down…)
Hope it is warm and sunny there!
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The second paragraph had me laughing! We slept in the middle of the courtyard floor on cots with the cells around us. I went close to look at them but would not go inside, just in case I got locked in! Beautiful limestone building, I hope it does the museum justice. (no pun intended.)
I have Tom Thompson’s canoe on one of my china cups and those same flowers in the garden outside. Funny post as usual.
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Glad you enjoyed this one, Jane! Love Tom Thomson’s paintings, was great to see a few here in QC.
We can’t wait to see the gallery/prison upgrades – will share it with you when they are done!
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It’s always a relief to know that after another sports weekend of losses that you’ll have me laughing again!!😁 Loved the bread pudding story and the wonderful photos, especially the coffee and canoe. I’m already running out of my hockey playoff backup plans, might have to start my fall football countdown earlier than normal. While there has been talk of when kayaking might happen, winter returned here this weekend with very cold mornings, snowflakes and a frost advisory tonight. Thankfully the thought of chocolate cake and a favorite bread pudding from a local restaurant will help me not think about the weather and hockey. Enjoy the week and hopefully another Everton win against Liverpool!😎
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Bruins for the cup?! And Everton to avoid relegation (typing this as I look forward to the derby starting in a few minutes) he wishes, optimistic as ever…
It is snowing quite heavily right now – yesterday was sunshine and shirtsleeves. Oh well. More cake it is…
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Thanks for the hearty chuckles here, a good prison-break of the mind, like the thought of chocolate cake & coffee, like drifting on a summer breeze, settled in a birchbark Thomson canoe… Yessir!
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Yessir! Sunnier days and drifting in a canoe – snowing right this moment, so paddling all a bit of a dream at the moment. For now, more cake it is!
Hope all is well with you, Walt!
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This made me giggle. You are funny. I’m thinking pound cake might be the right density for file. I have a reproduction of Red Maples Lauren Harris on my wall. I have been to Tom Thompson museum up in Owen Sound, Ontario. Stay well, and free…out of jail.
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Pound cake could work! Yup, staying out of prison for now, although with the snow today, walls are closing in a bit! More coffee and cake and dreams of a Thomson canoe will have to do… ( and thanks for the heads up on the museum – added to a future trip!)
Cheers, Kelly!
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I laughed several times reading this post. Looking at the photos of the outside I would love to see what the tower looks like from the inside. I’ve often daydreamed about building an apartment in a tower of some kind. There are some houses in my town with towers, so I am not giving up hope on that dream!
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Thanks, Maria! Well, I hope that works out for you, and a tower (of your choosing, and not a prison!) is your home – doesn’t hurt to dream!
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