thegorbals

Hi All my brother-in-law was asking if I ever came across AYTON SANDWICH biscuit in the shops I think they do not sell them as I think they were a product of GRAY DUNNS can anyone help And have you ever seen the size of penguins biscuits and Wagon Wheels they have become smaller too.
Amelia x

Amelia, the consensus on the web seems to be that they were made by Beatties Biscuits in Drumchapel

"Ayton Sandwiches Mmmm. they were made by Beaties Biscuits, in Drumchapel,Glasgow, but when the factory closed the biscuits disapeared. they were a diamond shaped biscuit, chocolate in colour with a chocolate cream filling, and the bottom part of the sandwich was coated in milk chocolate."

How much smaller can Penguins become before they reach the size of a single KitKat finger??

BTW, I used to love the triangular shaped wafer biscuits that were covered in dark chocolate, but I can't remember what they were called or who made them!

Edit: I do believe I've found the answer to my own question, seems they were Vienna Wafers made by - BEATTIES!!

Staying on the subject of biscuits, I seem to remember that biscuits were displayed in grocers' shops in racks of large square tins with glass tops and you showed the assistant what you wanted and they would weigh them out for you.

Hi Amelia,
Talking about biscuits, my favourite was the empire biscuit with icing on top and a wee red cherry[?] in the middle of it and they were circular. I remember when I was a wean my Ma would send me and my big sister to McNeil st where the Coop building used to stand and ask for [threepence or sixpence worth] "broken biscuits" did anyone else do this ?. Yes and the penguins and kit kat's were great too, anything with chocolate yum yum, I know this has nothing to do with biscuits Amelia but of all my favourite eats when I was a wean was "a roll on chocolate" [don't laugh] yes my Ma would get a bar of chocolate usually Fry's cream or Five Boys break it into wee bits and put them on the buttered roll oh that was magic. My Da used to always have a buttered McVitties digestive biscuit but I didn't like them as they were too dry for my liking but we all have our likes and dislikes.
Regards.
Danny

Hi all,
All this talk of biscuits has me green with envy as I can't get anything other than penguins locally (and that's only sometimes) and the price here is outrageous! I was shocked at the size of the biscuits on one of my trips back to Glasgow, they just seemed so tiny from what I remembered. I remember Ayton sandwiches. I liked them but loved bandits, blue riband, club, carmel wafers, carmel logs, chocolate mallows, ginger snaps and my real favourite was gypsy creams. Do you still get Gypsy creams nowadays? On my last trip back there I had to pay extra weight charges due to the amount of biscuits and sweeties I was taking back with me. Danny, regarding empire biscuits, I am very proud of myself as I have finally mastered making them and they taste really good. Amelia as much as I enjoy your posts can you stop talking about stuff like sweeties and biscuits, because I could murder for a wee packet of them right now. Next thing you'll be driving me crazy with is fish suppers, black pudding and Irn Bru. Sheila

Oh Shelia,
I completely forgot about caramel wafers, caramel logs and blue riband's but now you mention them their memories all come back to me, only thing is now I have dentures [top and bottom] I find it very hard to try and eat somethings. I think it was Jimbo that mentioned Ayton sandwiches with one side having chocolate and a cream filling, they were diamond shaped and I'm sure that I remembered them [the diamond shape sticks in my mind] but were they out in Glasgow in the 50's and 60's ? or did I eat them when I was living in London oh my memory !!!!!!.. As I mentioned in an earlier post my Da used to love McVittie's plain digestive biscuits and there were always packets of them in our house but they were too dry for me so I used to "dunk" them in my tea, I don't see Gypsy creams here in the shops in London Shelia but there's plenty of ginger snaps in the supermarkets oh and I almost forgot Jaffa cakes they are brilliant but once you have one you end up eating the whole packet ha ha. As for fish and chips well I think we'll leave that alone until we've finished the biscuits and as I type this post I am having a coffee while "dunking" a bourbon cream into it Magic.
Regards.
Danny

My mother used to send me "over the toon" to Lewis's, for Thick Tea biscuits...they were loose...the ones you get now are not the same...

Hi Amelia ,Jimbo ,Danny & All,

Just thought I would add something about the above .I make no bones about my insatiable
appetite for biscuits .!! When we lived in the "Gorbals" in the fities my father worked on the night shift
at a factory making yo yo chocolate biscuitsI think it was based near Hillington.
When the wrapping machine had a pile up a lot of the workers would take home a bag of crushed
"Yo- Yo,s ".But after a while there was only so many you could eat and you would get sick of the sight
of them. I also agree with the comments that Penguins have got smaller and in my opinion one of my favourites "milk chocolate digestive" the coting over the years has been reduced.
Finally we moved to Knightswood in the fifties and we exchanged the commodity from "empties to
"GOLF Balls which gave me and my brother some pocket money from the local course.
However one day we decide that there was rich pickings at a course a few miles away at Duntocher.
As 11 and twelve year olds we set off at 5.am and walked to Duntocher passing Beatties biscuit factory and the aroma of all the biscuit making was lovelygoing along the Great West Road.
After a pretty fruitless search at the Golf course we took a short cut across a cow- field where
my brother spotted a golf ball in the middle off a "Cow-Pat.!!
On the way back the aroma from the biscuit factory drew us in like a pied piper and after walking round the back to the intimidating source that was playing havoc with our empty stomachs we
plucked up the courage to ask some of the women working there for any broken biscuits, but
through the vertical black wrought iron bars they all were sympathetic to our needs but it was more than there job was worth to give anything from the work place.

We put it down to a bad day and never went back to Beatties or the other golf course.!!!
Another cake that I always liked was called a madeleine or Eiffel Tower." ! It was a tapered shape
covered in coconut and had a cherry on top. These were the days.!!

Best regards Reg

Hi, accobra, you're right about the Eiffel Towers but Madeleines were baked in an oval shape and were covered with nowt!

Hi Reg,
Now isn't that funny you talking about your Father working out at Hillingdon [out towards Pollok] in the chocolate biscuit factory, when I came back after 2 years in Australia in 1976 I went to visit my Ma and Da in Glasgow they were living in south Nitshill and Hillingdon was about 10 or 15 minute bus ride away and Would you believe that my Da after 35 years in the building trade was now working in a chocolate biscuit factory [wonder was it the same factory Reg ?]. I remember their house was full of chocolate biscuits and it was a novelty at first but after a week of eating them I couldn't look at another choc biscuit for ages even when I went back down to London to work!!!!!. Like Jimbo I remember the Eiffel Towers too they were delicious, oh happy memories.
Regards.
Danny