Have your cakeage and eat it…

So, we now apparently have two more years of austerity ahead of us and even then, it may just get worse. A sure sign that things are bad is the number of restaurants struggling, even with the Christmas party season approaching. And yet, this week I read of two of the worst examples of restaurant rip-offs I have ever come across.

Firstly, the increasing number of London restaurants charging ‘cakeage’. In other words, if you have a birthday dinner with a bunch of friends or family and someone has organised a cake, the restaurant will charge you PER SLICE to eat it. This was bad enough, but when I read on that this ridiculous surcharge can be anything from £2 to more than £7, I was speechless.

Just days later, a woman at the new Cosmo restaurant in Croydon – the largest restaurant in Britain with 800 covers – was charged a buggy surcharge to bring her baby in. £3. Seriously. Staff refused to remove it from the bill and the restaurant claim that while perhaps it was bit stiff, they do have a surcharge for toddlers who come in but don’t eat.

The restaurant charging cakeage claim that they still have to pay staff to serve the cake and it increases the washing up. They also insist it’s only fair especially since people are less likely to order a dessert if a cake is on the table.

None of these lame excuses cuts any mustard. For too long children have been unwelcome in British restaurants and instead of a move towards a  more open, European attitude to family dining this is what we are now doing. As for the cakeage, if the party in question are having a cake, chances are it’s been a big boozy night and the restaurant will already have made at least £30 a head so they can probably take the hit of a few unordered creme brulees and half a dozen extra teaplates.

We’re lucky to have both an excellent neighbourhood Chinese restaurant (Ruby Palace, Clarkston) and, a relatively new fine dining place called Ian Brown’s Food & Drink. Mr Brown was head chef at the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow for many years and has made a fine stab at establishing a restaurant in an area which for too long has offered little for people fancying a night out but not fancying the £100 it ends up once you’ve taxied into the city and back.

His food strikes the balance between fancy and relaxed and little touches such as tap water on the tables and freebie tablet with coffee go a long with me and the many others forming an orderly line on the waiting list for a weekend table. Similarly, the Ruby Palace, which has been there for years, never bother charging for Chinese tea or extra rice.

So, if restaurants want to know why they are struggling so much, maybe it’s because we’re all watching out pennies and don’t want an extra tenner on every meal just because we had water and a second cup of coffee. Ditch all the extras and make it clear that customers can pop in for a bowl of pasta and glass of wine and not come out feeling they’ve been mugged.

I simply would refuse to take my custom to anywhere with such a ridiculous surcharges as cakeage and when I celebrate (or mourn) a big birthday next year I will be checking first before ordering the cake and booking the restaurant. In the meantime, if anyone wants to name and shame a restaurant where this has happened, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s latest programme features the best of Scottish produce this week and how our national dishes can be influenced from other cultures. Since it’s St Andrew’s Day tomorrow, I thought I would do a Scottish pudding-cum-cocktail for this week’s recipe. It’s lighter than traditional cranachan and don’t be put off even if you hate whisky (as I do).

I recently attended a whisky tasting at the Whiski Rooms in Edinburgh (an excellent and reasonable Christmas gift for any whisky lover) and while it didn’t convert me, the very nice and knowledgable host did advise me on the best ones to use for this. Something light, not a big peaty number.

This can be a dessert or an after-dinner treat… so have your cake and eat it.

Cranachan shots

Serves six

4tbsp rolled oats and 2 of brown or light brown sugar

Punnet of raspberries

Tbsp icing sugar

3-4 tbsp whisky

Tbsp runny honey

Small carton of double cream

Have ready six large shot glasses, Turkish tea glasses or small wine glasses.

Leave six rasps to one side. Tip the others into a jug with the icing sugar and honey. Blitz with a blender and then pass through a sieve. If this sounds a bore, you don’t have to sieve it as long as you don’t mind a few seeds. Either way, then whisk in half the whisky. Pour into the bottom of the glasses, saving a little to drizzle later if you like.

Toast the oats and sugar under a grill for a few minutes. Remove and cool. Whisk the cream, the remaining whisky and most of the oats and sugar until soft peaks.

Place a rasp in each glass and add a spoonful of cream. It should just sit separate from the sauce. Sprinkle over the oats. Serve with small teaspoons for the top and the whisky and raspberry sauce at the bottom can be knocked back like a shot.