The Wonderful Thing about Books

..is that they can set you off on a journey of exploration and adventure.

My old kitchen journals have done just that.

Max and I are still busy working on trying to get Miles  and Poppy's cottage fit for habitation (they return from China in just six weeks) and spend the rest of our time wandering around wild-eyed,  clutching lists entitled  'Jobs To Do' and 'If We Have Time'.    They are constantly being amended and adjusted according to whether we feel energetic and optimistic, or the more usual state which is too tired to sleep, brain on overload.  

I have still found time to fit in some reading - of course!

I read one excellent detective story by James Oswald, but apart from that I have enjoyed exploring the theme of food in history.

My recent birthday meant that I have had a clutch of gift cards and book tokens burning a hole in my pocket..... of course they almost all went on books,  which are allowing me to explore historical recipes and social history.

You just wouldn't believe the time-travel I am able to indulge in from the comfort of my desk in the conservatory.   I haven't made these journeys by myself for I have been in the company of some wonderful writers.

It will take me years to work my way through all the books, so far I have merely dipped in and out of them, snippets of information being about as much as my brain can cope with as we race towards the finish line with the cottage.

Of course I have also fitted in some cooking and baking, people still have to be fed, no matter how tired the cook.    No 'new' recipes tried out for a while, but I have found myself baking the Victorian Chocolate Cake, the Rhubarb and Custard Cake and the Ginger Cake (with Cayenne pepper!) for these have become firm favourites and are easy to make as well as being delicious.

I shall be spending this morning painting the final coat on the kitchen walls and ceiling (at the cottage) but after a snack lunch, and a snooze, I must do some baking for we have a glut of eggs.  

Besides which the cake tin is empty and I feel in the mood to explore another old cake recipe.

Wish me luck.

Tweaked Chocolate Tart

The tart filling is rich and spicy thanks to a beautiful combination of really good chocolate laced with both cinnamon and lemon zest.

I found the recipe in the Georgiana Hill book 'A Year of Victorian Puddings' which was originally published in 1862, with the title 'Everybody's Pudding Book'.   It contains recipes for every month of the year.   There are minimal directions and no illustrations but I rather like that.

The recipe called for puff paste but I really don't like it, and neither does Max, so I decided to make a crunchy biscuit base instead - just butter and crushed digestive biscuits.

'Well beat the yolks of six eggs, add to them two dessert-spoonsful of flour, half a pint of new milk, two ounces of sugar, the fresh-grated rind of a lemon, a teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon, and a quarter of a pound of the best French chocolate scraped smooth.   Put all this into a saucepan, stir it over the fire until it gets pretty thick, then let it stand until cold.   Line a tart mould with a thin puff-paste, lay in the pudding, beat up the whites of the eggs to a very high froth, put them on the top, and bake for twenty minutes.  When done, sift sugar over it and glaze it with a salamander.'

Another couple of problems there: I don't like meringue and I certainly don't like plain whisked egg whites on the top of a pudding/tart, I could just have added sugar and made a proper meringue, but I decided to leave that topping off.

A couple of weeks ago it was my birthday and one of the gifts which Max gave me was some excellent chocolates and a large tin of Classic Drinking Chocolate.   The drinking chocolate is so delicious you could eat it straight from the tin, so I decided to sprinkle it on the top of the tart.   It worked a treat and also looked great.

So there you have it a slightly spicy and rich chocolate tart.   My chocoholic, Max, quickly dived in and declared it a complete success.  10/10 for this one.  I would definitely make my version again.

Lemons and Spice and All Things Nice

Normally at this time of year I would be thinking of light and fresh tastes to go with the lighter days.   Just lately, however, it has been cold and wet, which has made me want to return to warmer foods and flavours.

A recipe which seemed to fit the bill was the one for this Lemon and Ginger Cake.    The recipe calls for lemons, brandy, lots of ground ginger and quite a heap of Cayenne pepper.   Just reading the recipe warmed me and also made my taste buds tingle in anticipation.

(I forgot to add 2 eggs to this photogaph)

The recipe reads thus:

Grate the rind of 2 or 3 lemons, add the juice to a glass of brandy.   Mix the lemon peel into a pound of flour, a teaspoon of carbonate of soda, 1/2 oz of ground ginger and 1/4 oz Cayenne Pepper (if approved).  Make a hole in the middle and pour in 3/4 lb black treacle and 1/2 lb melted butter, the lemon juice and brandy and mix.   The cake may be much improved with the addition of two eggs.  So I added them.

No baking instructions at all - which used to worry me, now I simply use my common sense.

I baked it in a moderate oven until it was done!  Just for fun I bake it in a Bundt tin as I thought I could have some fun decorating it.

This particular book has countless recipes for ginger cake, honey ginger cake, ginger nuts, gingerbread, hunting nuts, etc.  Ginger was definitely a favourite spice.   The addition of cayenne pepper was unusual enough to get my attention and soon had me thinking about spice routes and sailing ships.

Some people like spice shops, I always avoid them.   I like the smell of individual spices, but I find the combination of myriad spice smells really offends my nose.  Weird, but true.

No such problem with just the two spices.

The cake has a deliciously warm background note, provided by the Cayenne pepper, with a good strong ginger flavour which is enhanced by the brandy and ginger.   I was delighted with the result.   My only problem was that the cake was slightly dry - not a real problem because I had some ginger syrup left over from a previous bake.

I mixed it with a another splash of brandy and spooned it all over the cake.

Topped with tiny bits of lemon, candied zest and slivers of candied ginger, we were ready to tuck in.

It was really good, but yet again I find myself wanting to tweak and slightly change the recipe.  

An experiment for later in the year, perhaps.

Lemon, Currant & Potato Cheesecake...

This recipe comes from a large and very tatty notebook which was originally an arithmetic exercise book for the daughter of a vicar.   It was abandoned as an exercise book, for whatever reason, and used for noting down recipes, etc by the cook at a vicarage, way back in the mid 1800's.

It's a superb book, packed with recipes and notes.

Obviously there is that magical (for me) element, handwriting, how much more personal can it get?   Then there is the way it has been so well-used over such a long period of time, splashes, splodges, finger marks, each mark a badge of honour as far as I am concerned.

Tucked down at the bottom of a page, I found this recipe for cheesecakes.   As soon as I was sure that I really was reading 'mashed potatoes' correctly, I was hooked.   I knew that I had to try it out because my curiosity had been well and truly piqued.      The writing is a bit shakey, and definitely a different hand from the other pages.

As is normal for this type of book instructions are minimal, and of course there are no pretty photographs to show off the final dish.   Once again I found this an exciting little challenge as I read the ingredients and had to decide how best to make the dish work for me.    I also decided to make a little change of my own, I have a new bottle of lemon essence, but I decided to grate the rind from a large and lovely lemon and incorporate that instead.


Potato Cheesecake

1 lb mashed potatoes
1/4 lb butter
1/4 lb sugar
1/4 lb currants
2 eggs
3 Tea Biscuits (I used Rich Tea Biscuits, crushed)
a few drops of lemon essence (I used grated lemon rind instead)


I decided to beat the sugar and butter together, then I beat the eggs lightly and incorporated them into the butter and sugar.      I crushed the Rich Tea Biscuits and added them, the grated lemon rind, and the currants, to the mashed potato, which I then beat  into the creamed butter/sugar/egg mixture.

I assumed that the 'paste' referred to in the recipe was pastry, so I had already baked blind a pastry flan case.   I popped the mixture in and baked it in a moderate oven (180 C) for about 45 minutes.  I had my fingers crossed.

This was the result!

Okay, so it's not like a modern cheesecake, but it was so delicious, everyone enjoyed it.    The taste was something like a particularly nice bread and butter pudding - and I know of at least one person in blog-world who will cringe at the very idea of tasting that...Cro!

We all enjoyed it and it will most certainly feature on our sweet treats menu, occasionally.

There was absolutely no hint that it was largely made up of left-over mashed potatoes!

No doubt the flavour and texture would be altered by the choice of potato, I'll have to try it out.