A Bit of a Blip

I have been trying for almost a week now to find a recipe that works in my Aunt Anne’s books and since the undisclosed fiasco of the Canadian Lemon Pie, I haven’t been successful.

I have come to a realisation that these books seem to be an aide-memoire for my aunt who must have known the recipes well. There is just not enough instruction written down and so much is left to chance.

Over the past few days I have tried Savoy Biscuits followed by the Biscuit Gateaux and neither of them worked even slightly and searching through the books show that most of the recipes assume a lot of knowledge. Now, although I like to think I know quite a lot, my knowledge of early 20^th century cooking techniques is a little sparse and sometimes I just need to know what temperature a semolina cake needs to be cooked at and what is a ‘mould’? A cake tin or a pudding bowl?

But brightness lurks on the horizon – my go to book whilst trying to decipher my Aunt’s recipes has been my ancient copy of Mrs Beeton’s Household Management printed in 1890 and after endless mistakes I decided to cheer myself up by cooking a couple of things from this weighty tome.

Some ‘nice breakfast cakes’ and ‘ginger biscuits’ under my belt and I feel ready to head back into the fight!

There are 2974 recipes in Mrs Beeton so plenty to keep me busy – as for today, I am going to try an Aunt Anne recipe in my new pudding steamer from Lakeland. Exciting!