Gender reveal parties? Tired.
Birthweight pasties? Wired.
There is no better way to celebrate the birth of your child than making a big old pastry savoury that’s the exact weight and size of your newborn.
Granted it’s not a conventional tradition, but perhaps it’s one we should all adopt going forward.
One of the pioneers of this new addition to our collective lore (hopefully) is Tim Fuge, 33, who decided to take on the task after seeing a post online of another father using a pasty to demonstrate the measurements of his child.
The pasty – made to mark the birth of two-week-old baby Jowan – had a filling of beef skirt, swede, onion and potatoes, and took two-and-a-half hours for Tim to make.
He started off by researching the method online, before doing a practice run to help produce the 2.8 kilo (6.4lb) pasty.
He said the hardest part was finding a tray big enough to cook on – discovering eventually that a grilling rack was the perfect size.
It then took him 19 hours to eat the 7,000 calorie Cornish treat – leaving him ‘absolutely stuffed’.
Tim lives in Liskeard, Cornwall, with wife Jen, 32, and other sons Aiden, four, and Rory, two.
A self-employed lead worker, he hasn’t been able to work since the coronavirus lockdown was enforced – giving him the time to bake.
He said: ;I wouldn’t have had time to do this if I was still working. It’s been nice to spend some more time with the kids.
‘I do like cooking, but I don’t normally get a chance – I walk in the door and my wife has made it.’
It’s something of a baptism of fire for Tim, who’d never ever made a pasty before his gargantuan creation.
On this creative process, he said: ‘I tried to work it all out. There’s a Cornish Pasty Association website that gives you the ingredients.
‘It came out bang up to how much the baby weighed when he was born. It was then in the oven for two-and-a-half hours while we went for our daily walk.’
Baking has been bringing families together, but Tim says his wife was actually somewhat miffed at his skills because it was nicer than ones she’s made in the past. He did have to rope her in for the crimping, too.
You can’t complain with deliciousness, though, and they all enjoyed the spoils of Tim’s labour – especially Tim himself.
He said: ‘I didn’t have any breakfast that day and started eating it at lunch. I finished it the next day. It actually tasted really, really good.’
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