Thanks to Brockwell for today’s puzzle, my favourites were 2dn, 18dn, and 23dn.
There are many themed links to 9ac CAKE: references to “9” in other clues, and thematic solutions or parts of solutions, such as COFFEE, [s]-CREAM, SULTANA-[te], FISH, CARROT, MADEIRA, APPLE-[ton layer], TEA [kettle], SPONGE
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COFFEE |
Drug supplier cut short proposal in church (6)
|
| definition: coffee as a source/supplier of caffeine
OFFE-[r]=”proposal” cut short; inside CE (Church of England) |
||
| 4 | SCREAM |
Comic character in yellow? (6)
|
| definition: ‘they are a scream [e.g. to talk to]” suggests that someone is very funny, a “Comic character”
“in yellow” suggests some letters in yell-[ow], and ‘yell’ = SCREAM edit thanks to Crispy in comments, “yellow” gives: yell ‘ow!’, to scream in pain |
||
| 9 | CAKE |
Greek actress partly redirected Hollywood production? (4)
|
| definition: Cake is the name of a film, a “Hollywood production”
edit, thanks to SpanielOwner and others in the comments: Paul Hollywood is known as a cake maker, so one of his productions would be a CAKE hidden and reversed (“partly redirected”) inside: [Gre]-EK AC-[tress] |
||
| 10 | SUPERFOODS |
Poor US Feds demolished Fruit & Nuts? (10)
|
| anagram/”demolished” of (Poor US Feds)* | ||
| 11 | RETYPE |
Peter Kay at last playing key characters again (6)
|
| definition: to key in characters again on a computer keyboard is to retype
anagram/”playing” of (Peter y)*, with y from the last of [Ka]-y |
||
| 12 | LOOKED IN |
Briefly visited butcher’s next to Scottish city (6,2)
|
| LOOK=”butcher’s” (rhyming slang, butcher’s hook); plus EDIN (Edinburgh, Scottish city) | ||
| 13 | SULTANATE |
American making a comeback with bronze in former territory (9)
|
| US=”American” reversed (making a comeback); plus TAN=”bronze” (e.g. as in to get a suntan) in LATE=”former” | ||
| 15 | BABA |
9 sailors from the East (4)
|
| definition: a type of CAKE (9ac) often made with rum
AB AB (able-bodied seaman, twice, to give “sailors”), and reversed (from the East) |
||
| 16 | COAT |
9 having afternoon in bed (4)
|
| definition as in to CAKE (9ac) or to coat something = to cover it with a layer of some substance
A (afternoon) in COT=”bed” |
||
| 17 | ENERGETIC |
Great-niece unfortunately lacking the focus of Blake Lively (9)
|
| anagram/”unfortunately” of (Gre a t-niece)*, not including the focus/centre of [Bl]-a-[ke] | ||
| 21 | SWEET PEA |
Rock maybe cut mountain climber (5,3)
|
| definition: a climbing plant
“Rock” as in sticks of boiled sugar = a type of confectionery or SWEET; plus PEA-[k]=”mountain” cut short |
||
| 22 | FISHER |
Rod Hull’s beginning to get into battered fries (6)
|
| beginning letter of H-[ull] inside anagram/”battered” of (fries)* | ||
| 24 | BATTENBERG |
Austrian barman hiding half of national treasure in 9 (10)
|
| definition: another type of CAKE
Alban BERG is an Austrian composer (composing musical bars, so a “bar man”); around half of the UK “national treasure” David ATTENB-[orough] |
||
| 25 | OATH |
Attila the Hun originally behind old curse (4)
|
| first letters (originally) of A-[ttila] T-[he] H-[un], after O (old) | ||
| 26 | SEEDED |
Tennis player getting journalist stoned (6)
|
| definition referring to the stones/seeds of a fruit
SEED=a “Tennis player” who is seeded in a tournament; plus ED (editor, “journalist”) |
||
| 27 | JEWELS |
Joe Swash oddly hoarding article of Spanish treasure (6)
|
| odd letters from J-[o]-E [s]-W-[a]-S-[h], around EL (the definite “article” in Spanish) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CHATEAU |
Member of nobility beheaded 9 in castle (7)
|
| CH, plus [g]-ATEAU=”cake” without its first letter (beheaded)
CH can mean Companion of Honour, which I’m not sure equals “Member of nobility” |
||
| 2 | FAERY |
Imagined being a queen in fancy clothing (5)
|
| for the definition, “being” as a noun, a faery is an imagined entity/being
A (from surface) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, “queen”); all inside the outer letters (clothing) of F-[anc]-Y |
||
| 3 | EASTERN |
Oriental festival ending in confusion (7)
|
| EASTER=”festival” + ending of [confusio]-N | ||
| 5 | CARROT |
Incentive rising in motor racing (6)
|
| definition as in ‘the carrot vs the stick’
reversed (rising) and hidden “in”: [mo]-TOR RAC-[ing] |
||
| 6 | EXONERATE |
Old joke by judge giving pardon (9)
|
| EX=”Old” + ONE=”joke” + RATE=”judge”
ONE=”joke” as in e.g. ‘have you heard the one about the…?’ |
||
| 7 | MADEIRA |
Mother has fixed idea about River Island (7)
|
| MA=”Mother”, plus anagram/”fixed” of (idea)* around R (River) | ||
| 8 | APPLETON LAYER |
ELO apparently created a bit of atmosphere (8,5)
|
| definition: a region of the Earth’s atmosphere
anagram/”created” from (ELO apparently)* |
||
| 14 | TEA KETTLE |
Wooden bench with section removed for brewing accessory (3,6)
|
| TEAK=made of teak=”Wooden” + [s]-ETTLE=a type of “bench”, with ‘s’ for “section” removed | ||
| 16 | COWPATS |
More than one whoopsie from Business Secretary’s empty threats about women (7)
|
| CO (company, “Business”) + PA (personal assistant, “Secretary”) + T-[hreat]-S emptied of its inner letters; around W (women) | ||
| 18 | REFUGEE |
Heart of Hugh Bonneville ultimately captured by fancy-free Paddington Bear? (7)
|
| definition: Paddington Bear the fictional character, described as a refugee
central letters (Heart) of [H]-UG-[h] + the last/ultimate letter of [Bonnevill]-E; captured inside anagram/”fancy” of (free)* context for the surface: in the Paddington film, the Brown family take in Paddington Bear. Hugh Bonneville plays the father, Henry Brown, who warms to Paddington over time. |
||
| 19 | IDEATES |
Imagines day in Rome includes scoff (7)
|
| IDES (as in the Ides of March, “day in Rome”), around EAT=”scoff” | ||
| 20 | SPONGE |
Wipe bum (6)
|
| double definition: to use a sponge to wipe clean; or to sponge/bum/beg | ||
| 23 | SCONE |
Finally calls 999? (5)
|
| the last 9 from “999” is the definition: 9ac CAKE e.g. a SCONE
final letter from [call]-S, plus ’99’=a type of ice cream CONE |
What a scrumptious puzzle, loved this from start to finish and was helped by getting CAKE straight away. There were numerous clever references to the keyword both in the clues and solutions. I thought that BATTENBERG and SCONE were outstanding and I also liked COFFEE with (S)CREAM on the top row, SWEET PEA, the brilliant anagram for the nho APPLETON LAYER and the surface for COWPATS. Again the use of real people like Rod Hull and Hugh Bonneville just adds icing to the…
My only quibble was FISHER, who surely is the person using the rod.
If you missed it yesterday, Grecian posted a very gracious message on the blog for Brendan’s puzzle.
Ta Brockwell & manehi.
nine across may refer to Paul Hollywood
SpanielOwner @2 – That was my reading of “Hollywood production?”
I also interpreted scream as to YELL OW.
For now, for me, AlanC @1 says it all. I may be back …
SpanielOwner @2 – that’s how I took it.
Thanks Brockwell and manehi
Yes, Paul Hollywood, famous (on this side of the Atlantic, at least) for making CAKEs. CAKE was my FOI, but it didn’t help much.
I don’t see a justification for EDIN unless “briefly” is doing double duty.
Favourite the neat construction for JEWELS
AlanC @1
I have seen a fisherman referred to as a “rod” in the context of fishing competitons, but FISHER is stretching it a bit.
Well that was fun and tricky in places. Thanks to manehi for the excellent blog, which I needed as I finished it but only partially parsed 24A and 23D both of which are outstanding as AlanC@1 has mentioned.
Agree with others re Paul Hollywood and Cake.
Also SEEDED, COW PAT, FAERY (sounds like) CAKES. Didn’t get the Paul Hollywood reference, so thanks others; I thought it was the Jennifer Anniston film referenced by manehi.
CH = nobility, A = afternoon, EDIN = scottish city? Stretching things a bit, imho. Otherwise nice puzzle with a good theme. Thanks both
btw I was relieved when I realised that I didn’t have to try to remember the name of a Business Secretary for 16d.
To be fair, CAKE led me to BATTENBERG (which I would have spelled with a U, but Google tells me either is correct).
Of course, as usual, it’s not just the 9s – I practically always miss one or two.
My tally for today: COFFEE, CREAM, SULTANA, EASTER, BABA, COAT, FISH, BATTENBERG, OAT, SEED, SPONGE, JEWEL, FAERY, CARROT, MADEIRA and TEA.
A long list of ticks, as ever but BATTENBERG (no parochialism here: Sir David is a global treasure, REFUGEE and SCONE are simply sublime.
Huge thanks to Brockwell for a tasty treat and to manehi fora super blog.
Do-able, without having ever heard of the film Cake, or knowing anything much about cakes in general. I’m not really a cake person. Or a Paddington Bear person, come to that.
Eileen @10 You could add LAYER CAKE from the long down solution.
As I said, Balfour @12, I’ve probably never got them all – much the same as Brendan for me: I so often get the icing and miss the cherry on top.
I looked in vain for lemon drizzle, which I plan to make today, before the sun moves round to my kitchen window.
Splendid as ever and well done Eileen @10 for picking up on some of the less overt cakes. I wonder if COW cake could be included: cattle cake is certainly a Thing.
PostMark @14 – I did wonder about ‘pat-a-cake’. 😉
Not being a TV chef fan, the ‘Hollywood production’ part of 9a confused me at first. However, after a first pass through all the clues, I had both ‘A’s in 15a, so there was little else that one could be except BABA. That meant 9a had to be something culinary. Eventually I spotted CAKE written backwards in ‘Greek actress’. Still didn’t get the Hollywood part, but just put it in with a shrug. After finishing the crossword and going to bed, suddenly Paul Hollywood’s name came to mind and the answer became obvious. A couple of minutes later, the parsing of SCONE (which I also hadn’t spotted) came to me as well. Both raised a chuckle. This crossword kept giving, even long after I had finished it!.
Great squidgy fun & a many layered delight.
Apparently, SCREAM is also the name of a mainly yellow, Marvel comic book character.
And COWPAT CAKE is a thing …
Thanks to Brockwell and manehi
I was told I needed to lose a bit of weight by GP yesterday so was a bit aggrieved to see my favourite cake make an appearance. Otherwise a great fun distraction. COWPATS was my favourite today but many great clues in here.
APPLETON LAYER (not heard of) was last in.
Thanks Brockwell and manehi
It’s nice to get a keyword straight in, which I did, fully aware of Mr Hollywood’s work. I also got SCONE pretty quickly; I was toying with it being ONE under something and then it all clicked. I saw many a cake, but SCONE and BATTENBERG were the only ones where the theme definitely helped. Last one in was SEEDED and I didn’t parse SCREAM properly.
I liked SWEET PEA, SCONE, RETYPE, COWPATS and EXONERATE.
Thanks Brockwell, manehi and everyone else.
CAKES are clearly a SUPERFOOD 🙂
Brockwell remains at the top of my setters league. SCREAM was brilliant – definitely YELL OW
The 99 Cone was a lovely coincidence as I’d just found out about Count Buckethead’s manifesto pledge to cap their price at 99p
Cheers M&B
I had parsed the ‘character in yellow’ in 4a as Munch’s “The Scream”, who is indeed yellow. But of course YELL OW is correct.
Like others CAKE was immediately obvious to me and so was FOI. But took me a while to get going and didn’t parse BATTENBERG.
Lots of neat clues like JEWELS, OATH, EXONERATE, COFFEE
Thanks Brockwell and manehi
Yes, very tasty indeed. ( I remember as a boy being warned to avoid the COWPATS in a field surrounding a mill pond where we used to swim on hot summer days. Mind the Cowsshht we were told, with a meaningful look.)
Thought SCREAM a particularly obscure clue to parse, so thanks to Manehi for that one. Never seen Edinburgh represented as Edin before, but it simply had to be that to exactly complete LOOKED IN.
I’ve never been good with SWEET PEA’s. Though the best examples I ever saw in bloom were at Kipling’s house, Bateman’s in Sussex.
And out of all the lovely selection of CAKE’s on offer today, my favourites here are MADEIRA and BATTENBERG. Many thanks Brockwell for serving them up…
SCONE was superb, but several others missed the mark for me: EDIN? I lived in Edinburgh for several years and don’t recall anyone ever referring to it that way. Very dodgy. And as manehi says, CH does not equate to ‘member of the nobility’. It is awarded for achievement, not for descent.
Good puzzle. Favourite APPLETON LAYER (my first proper job in 1974 was with the Met Office so I knew about this). Agree with quibbles about CH and EDIN.
For SCONE, I prefer the parsing hinted at by Martin@19. 99 is 1 less than 100, or ONE under C, so CONE in a down clue.
Thanks both.
Not happy with EDIN(burgh) or CH=member of nobility and failed to parse SWEET PEA, COWPATS or (alas) the brilliant SCONE. But some well-crafted clues for sometimes unfamiliar answers: APPLETON LAYER had to be a layer of some kind, and I liked the “drug supplier” and the Hollywood production, and Paddington Bear as a REFUGEE. Yes, SCREAM is definitely “yell OW!”, though I spent a while trying to make the yellow be CREAM.
Thanks Brockwell and manehi.
I’ve seen Edin. occasionally used as a parenthetical postnominal for the Jniversity as in BSc (Edin.), but I can’t remember as seeing it for the City.
Thanks for the blog and for explaining scream, as so often when I see yell ow I can’t understand how I missed it. On the positive side I had an enjoyable 5 minute diversion looking up Mr Men to see if there were a yellow Mr Scream.
Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable set of clues , I was aware of the theme because of 9 but thanks to Eileen@10 and others for the full menu . Agree with Crispy@3 for YELL OW .
Muffin@5 you are right that FISHER=rod for competitions but FISHER is the correct term , women are now allowed to enter .
Favourites are BATTENBERG for David and scone for the very rare numerical fission .
APPLETON LAYER inadvertently used by Marconi .
Anyone else see a nod to fudge cake in REFUGEE, or am I just being greedy? Also, ENERGy cake is a thing.
[ AlanC@1 tops the charts yet again , if a blog ever reaches 999 you must bag that spot .
I am guessing your mother knew you would become a copper because of the 999 birthmark on your head ?? ]
I got CAKE straight away which helped but some clues in the top half were too hard for me. I thought COAT was a stretch for a meaning of cake, and couldn’t parse SCREAM – still unconvinced after reading the blog – or the fiendish BATTENBERG.
Enjoyed the bottom half especially COWPATS and REFUGEE.
Thanks Brockwell and manehi.
Thanks to Brockwell for a very engaging puzzle themed around one of my favourite food group – 9across ‘Cake’ which was well hidden in the clue. Too many favourites to list.
Thx also to manehi for his blog.
SCREAM is also the name of an old British horror anthology comic. I think Rebellion still produce the odd special issue and reprint material.
Some awesome surfaces today.
999, Blake Lively and Paddington Bear made me smile (and feel clever). Thanks Brockwell.
Well played Beaulieu @25 for finishing off my curtailed train of thought about SCONE. That actually works very nicely. I am easily sidetracked by ice cream as well as cake!
Even I got the theme today, although not until I had solved a couple of the clues referencing it, including COAT and BATTENBERG. I was dutifully mislead by the Hollywood misdirection, which I feel we have seen before?
I was all set to quibble about 4A, which I failed to parse, until I gathered from the blog and comments that it is not merely YELL but YELL OW. Put that in the back pocket for future reference.
[Roz @30: she did when the exorcism failed].
PhilB @31
How about one’s shoes being caked / coated with mud? I’ve seen that more than once and it does it for me.
Eileen @37, you beat me to it. The first verbal synonym Chambers gives for CAKE is COAT.
It took me a while to get the anagram at 8d, which was annoying as I attended many undergraduate lectures at the Appleton Tower in Edin…
Who else had EDBERG for 26a? I still think that’s a better answer to the clue than the actual answer.
There is, of course, COFFEE and (s)CREAM CAKE; enjoyable and sweet solve. I liked the drug supplier having COFFEE, the butcher who LOOKED IN, the barman’s national treasure eating BATTENBERG, and the whoopsie COWPATS.
Thanks Brockwell and manehi.
Thanks Brockwell and manehi! This was much easier to fill with answers than to parse; I got nowhere near parsing all, my GK sorely lacking. My favourite is EXONERATE. I had no idea that afternoon can be abbreviated as A (could someone please explain?) so COAT had to go in as a guess.
Now I’m hungry! Have to find a cake of some sort for breakfast.
I’d never heard of the APPLETON LAYER of the s99 cone, though when I looked it up it seemed familiar == maybe it was in an earlier puzzle. We have lots of ice cream over here but no so99 cones.
A cowpat is a whoopsie?
Did anybody else try to make DIES (day in Rome) into something in 19d?
Thanks, Brockwell and manehi.