text: NAME: Karen Pierotti
  OCCUPATION: Administrative aide, office of English composition, Brigham Young UniversityFAMILY: Four grown children
  COOKING SPECIALTY: Eclectic. Pierotti was born in Scotland but lived mostly in southern England. Her father was in the Royal Air Force, and the family also lived in Gibraltar and Spain. She moved to Provo in 1971 to attend Brigham Young University, married a fellow BYU student of Italian origin and worked for several years in the French and Italian department.
  Associate professor of English Gary Hatch nominated Pierotti for Best Cook in the Office honors. He wrote: "Karen's varied background reveals itself in her cooking. She is very good at traditional English and Scottish food, French and Italian and East Indian. She brought a fabulous lime curry to our recent Christmas dinner. And every Christmas she holds an office open house with wassail and a variety of English/Irish/Welsh/Scottish quick breads and shortbreads. We had a Robert Burns supper, where she provided the haggis* -- actually very delicious. Our bagpiper said that it was the best haggis he had ever tasted."
  FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Scandia (Salt Lake City). She loves the marzipan cakes and cream soups.
  ON BRITISH FOOD: The reputation of the English for boring food comes from their tendency to overcook vegetables. Visitors to England usually visit "tourist trap" restaurants and don't get to sample real regional
  British cooking. When she was first here in the United States, she started cooking her favorite recipes to take away the homesickness. "British Trifle is a specialty, as is Simnell Cake -- a dessert made with marzipan traditionally served at Easter or Mothering Sunday -- the Brits' version of Mother's Day." (Recipe follows).
  BIGGEST CULINARY BOMB: Had company over for dinner and burned the Chicken Cacciatore -- "And I'd made it hundreds of times before . . . perfectly!"
  FAVORITE KITCHEN GADGET: KitchenAid food processor
  PET PEEVE: The sound of a metal spoon scraping on the bottom of the pan when her kids cook. She keeps a supply of wooden spoons for stirring.
  FAVORITE DESSERT: Queen Mother's Cake. A concoction of chocolate cake, ground almonds and chocolate ganache.
  FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD: Warm custard-based bread and butter pudding.
  LAST NIGHT'S DINNER: Pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese
  CULINARY ADVICE: "For the things you cook to taste good, use fresh ingredients; especially fresh vegetables." She doesn't like canned. "If everybody would grow a garden. . . . "When you've tasted fresh garden vegetables, they're the best -- and most nutritious."
  *NOTE: Haggis is a Scottish specialty made by stuffing a sheep's (or other animal's) stomach lining with a minced mixture of the animal's organs (heart, liver, lungs, and so on), onion, suet, oatmeal and seasonings, then simmering the sausage in water for about four hours.
  1/2 cup mixed, diced candied fruit
  1/2 cup currants
  1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
  1 teaspoon vanilla
  1/2 cup sugar
  1/2 cup butter
  2 cups sifted flour
  11/2 teaspoons baking powder
  1/8 teaspoon salt
  Milk to mix
  For marzipan (see note below):
  2 cups powdered sugar
  3 cups ground almonds
  Juice of 1/2 lemon
  3/4 teaspoon vanilla
  1 teaspoon orange flower water or almond essence
  1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
  Note: The U.S. alternative to Marzipan is 12 ounces almond paste, 1/2 cup butter, 2 egg yolks.
  Set oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and dust with flour a round. 8-inch springform pan. (Optional; line bottom with greaseproof paper greased and floured).
  Combine all fruit and grated lemon rind in a bowl. Add vanilla. Let stand 20 minutes.
  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy, whisk the eggs and add to the fat a little at a time, beating well between each addition. If mixture shows signs of curdling, add a little flour.
  Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Stir in lightly to the butter-sugar-egg mixture. If necessary, add a little milk to make a fairly soft mixture.
  Put half of the mixture in the pan. Add the round of marzipan or pipe on the almond paste, leaving about 1/2-inch away from the sides of the pan.
  Add the rest of the cake mixture.
  Bake in the middle of the oven for approximately 1 hour or until a cake tester (toothpick) inserted in the center comes out clean.
  Put the top round of marzipan or spread almond paste on top of cake. Score top of marzipan with crosshatch pattern. Put the nine balls of marzipan around the edge of the cake.
  Return cake to oven for 10-15 minutes until marzipan is barely golden brown.
  TO MAKE TRADITIONAL ENGLISH MARZIPAN: Grate blanched, slivered almonds in a nut grater. Mix with powdered sugar. Add egg and yolk and lemon juice and essence and mix to make a firm dough -- it's not unlike Play Dough. (See note below regarding raw eggs.) Take about 1/4 of the marzipan and make 9 balls (or this portion could be formed into fruits and vegetables or flowers lightly brushed with food coloring for a spring version.) Roll out one half of the marzipan to about a 7 1/2-inch circle to use for the center of the cake. Roll out the other half to an 8-inch circle to use for the top.
  ALMOND PASTE VERSION: In a bowl, beat the almond paste with the butter and egg yolks until well blended. Chill 2 level tablespoons of the mixture, wrapped in plastic wrap, for 30 minutes, or until firm, and divide into 9 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and chill the balls, covered. Transfer the remaining mixture to the pastry bag.
  NOTE: Because of the threat of salmonella tied to the use of raw eggs, we recommend the almond paste version of marzipan.