School Cake 1920s (The Anerly Cookbook)

Here is a very basic cake recipe. I can imagine it would have plenty of scope for adding to or modifying.

1lb self raising flour
6ozs butter or lard
4ozs castor sugar
2ozs currants
2ozs sultanas
2ozs raisins, stoned and chopped
2 eggs, well beaten

Rub the butter or lard into the flour then add the other ingredients also a drop of milk if required.

Put in a well greased tin and bake for one and a half hours.

Moist Chocolate Sandwich - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Card Index 6)

Moist Chocolate Sandwich.  Very much a variation on a theme, but a quite delicious theme.  

Speedy Orange Cake - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Index Card 5)

I have such good memories of this recipe.  It reminds me of that quintessentially English past time of High Tea or even being a young lad at the village Fete etc.

It is also pretty easy, as most of Marguerite Patten's recipes are.  If you don't like Orange, you can use Lemon rind instead.

Economical Light Fruit Cake - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Index Card 4)

I present most probably the easiest recipe ever.  If you are terrified of baking, this is a good place to start.

Fruit and Walnut Sponge - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Index Card 3)

I love Walnuts.  That is all.

Victoria Sandwich - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Index Card 2)

The Victoria Sponge or Sandwich, as it is referred to here.  See the previous post for the Chocolate Layer Sponge, which relies on this recipe for the basic sponge recipe.

The Victoria Sponge has a relatively unremarkable history, but it is the very notion of the British act of High Tea.  It is also a very difficult recipe to get truly perfect.

Chocolate Layer Sponge Cake - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Index, Card 1)

Seems to be the most logical idea really, start at the first card rather than pick random cards.  Further efforts to digitise the Marguerite Patten Cookery Card Index.

I did cave in and buy some more cookery cards today, but I'll whitter on about that in my next post.

This is a really basic sponge recipe.  But it opens itself for modification and 'jazzing up'.  I have to admit, this is a slightly pointless recipe unless you have all the cards lying around.  The Victorian Sponge recipe, is pretty basic anyway, but I might jump ahead and scan in Card 31 and Card 2, just to give my efforts some validity.

Baked Eggs Melange - 1980s

This time of year is definitely tomato time.  We, like many households across the nation have lots of organically grown, home seeded tomatoes that we've been given by friends and family, and also ones we've grown ourselves.  The common thing is to put them in salads or make them in to chutney, but this eighties recipe from my favourite Tomato themed cookbook  published in 1987, shows you something a bit unique you can do with your Tomatoes.



Melange means a blend or a mess, a cacophony, and this is very much the case.  For this recipe I would definitely recommend free-range organic eggs, as they have much more taste to them.  This recipe serves 8, and is originally made with a can of chopped tomatoes.  However it can easily be converted to use fresh ones.

You need:

12 hard-boiled eggs, shelled.
810g can of tomato pieces (or lots and lots of tomatoes).
120g butter
1 onion, chopped
1 capsicum pepper, seeded and chopped.
1 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons flour
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
1 cup White Sauce (Schwartz mix is an easy option)
365g can champignons, chopped (mushrooms).
half a cup of breadcrumbs
half a cup of grated cheese
finely chopped parsley

1. Chop the eggs roughly.  Strain tomatoes, reserving the juice.  (If using fresh tomatoes it might be good to chop the tomatoes and scoop out the insides and use the insides for the juice.)

2. Melt half the butter in a pan and gently fry the onion, capsicumand celery until tender.  Add the flour and tomatoes stirring until the mixture thickens.  Add the reserved tomato juice and seasonings, then bring the liquid to the boil.  Stir in the White Sauce, chopped eggs and champignons.

3. Spoon the mixture in to individual serving dishes or an oblong cassorole dish, then top with breadcrumbs and dot with the remaining butter.

4. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 220C for 10 minutes or until brown and bubbling.  Sprinkle with grated cheese and parsley to serve.

Butterscotch Walnut Brownies - 1970s

I love butterscotch, it appeals to my sweet tooth and my general gluttonous side.  Wikipedia says that the origin of butterscotch is a bit of an unknown, read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterscotch.

So in my 1001 Recipe Cook Book: Recipes For All Occasions, I found Butterscotch Walnut Brownies. This doesn't appear to be a 'typical' 1970s recipe and if I was asked to write what dishes personified the 1970s I wouldn't necessarily say that this was really one of them.  However this includes two of my favourite ingredients so I can't really keep it to myself.

You'll need:

125g/4oz Butter
125g/4oz brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
5ml/1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
75g/3oz self-raising flour, sifted.
50g/2oz chopped walnuts

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs then the vanilla essence.
3. Fold in the flour, then the walnuts and mix well.
4. Spoon the batter into a well-greased 18cm/7 inch square baking tin and put into a preheated oven at 170 Celsius/325 F and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until firm.  Cut in to squares and serve.

Irish Stew - 1970s

This is most probably an older recipe, but I am taking it from the newest addition to my collection.  The first edition of the 1000 Recipe Cook Book, editied by Isabel Barrett and Jane Harrop ISBN 0706405315
As with these sorts of books, the recipe itself is most probably older than 1970s but it appeared in 1976, not possibly the first time it appeared.  It is very much one of those timeless classics that has evolved as you can read on about.com on their history of Irish Stew.  One thing that I love is that this recipe can be 'Boozy' if you want it to be.  Whack a bit of Guinness in why not?

You will need:

1kg/2lb of potatoes sliced
2 large onions sliced
salt and pepper
15ml/tablespoon dried thyme
1 kg/2 lb lamb chops


1. Put about half the potatoes on the bottom of a large casserole.  Cover with half the onions then sprinkle with salt and pepper and half the thyme.
2. Add the chops, then continue to make layers with the remaining Onions, salt and pepper, thyme and remaining potatoes.
3.  Add just enough water to cover.  Cover tightly and put into the oven pre-heated to warm (170 celsius/325 Farenheit/Gas Mark 3).
4. Cook for 2 to 2.5 hours or until the chops are cooked through.

Treacle Scones - 1930's

This comes from Farmhouse Fare, a book first published in 1935 and revised over the years.  I have the 1971 edition which contains lots of great recipes from over the years.  Some of these are older than the thirties, but for the sake of cataloging I am sticking to the date of first publication.
The ease of this dish would make a great little starter for beginners, or something quick to whip up at the last minute.  Again, with many of these recipes, timings are not exact and one has to use ones own instinct when it comes to how quickly they will take to cook.  This recipe also calls for a vintage ingredient, Cream of Tartar.  It is still available from supermarkets or online.  If you don't have it to hand, then white vinegar will be a good substitute.

8 oz Flour
1 oz sugar
1 oz treacle
1 oz margarine
1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda
Buttermilk or ordinary milk

1. Rub the margarine into the flour, add the sugar, cream of tartar and soda and mix to a rather soft dough with the treacle which has been been dissolved in half a cupful of buttermilk.

2. Turn out on to a lightly floured board, stamp quickly into rounds and bake in a fairly hot oven.

Egg and Bacon Flan - 1960's

This is one for beginners.  It makes a really nice alternative breakfast or a quick fix for a baking urge.  making shortcrust pastry is pretty easy and it gets even easier when you buy pre-made, pre-rolled stuff.
So have a go at this classic recipe, it isn't a 'typical' sixties recipe as it still lives in today.  Flans are not exactly in fashion at the moment, but they're still pretty popular.


5 - 6 oz short crust pastry
4 - 6 oz bacon, diced.
3 to 4 eggs.
seasoning.

1. Line the flan tin with pastry and bake for about 10 minutes to set, but not cook, the pastry.
2. Fry the diced bacon until just crisp.
3. Add this to the well-beaten and seasoned eggs.
4. Pour the mixture into the flan case.
5. Set a further 25 minutes in a moderately hot oven.

Chocolate Tangerine Cake - 1960's

Here is some perfect sixties party food, and its chocolaty too :) There are two elements to the recipe, the cake and the icing.

2 heaped tablespoons cocoa
4 tablespoons hot water
8 oz. self-raising flour
8 oz. luxury margarine
10 oz. caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons milk

For the icing

3 dessert spoons tangerine juice
grated rind of two to three tangerines
8 oz icing sugar
3 oz luxury margarine




1. Sieve the cocoa and mix smoothly with the water.  Let it cool.
2. Sieve the flour then cream the margarine and sugar thoroughly together.
3. Beat the eggs in separately one at a time, adding a little sieved flour with each egg after the first.
4. Fold in the remaining flour and the milk.  Divide equally between two sandwich tins, (8 x 1.5 inches) lined with greaseproof paper and brushed inside with melted margarine.
5. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes in a moderate oven on the middle shelf.
6. When cold, cut open and sandwich all the layers together with the tangerine icing attaching the first layer to an 8 inch cake board with a little icing before beginning to fill.
7. Ice all over and mark a pattern in the icing.  Decorate how you will, rosettes, oranges and lemons etc.

Icing

1. Sieve the icing sugar, beat margarine until creamy.
2. Add icing sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the rest of the icing sugar and rest of the ingredients and beat thoroughly until smooth and ready to spread on cake.