Whilst I’m no fervent royalist, some of my fondest memories as a child are of royal occasions. I was seven on the celebration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, and I remember the party that took place in the street we lived on in Bristol. The children – and possibly the adults too – dressed in red, white and blue, and my best friend Claire and I wore red, white and blue striped ribbons in our hair. There was music and games, and when evening fell the children were packed off to bed whilst the adults continued partying and dancing in the street until the early hours of the morning.
Four years later it was Charles and Diana’s wedding. Now we were living in a North Devon village and the party involved the whole community on a field with marquees. Once again the sun was shining – as it always does in my childhood memories – but there were no red, white and blue ribbons in my hair this time as I had opted for a Diana-style haircut (which I remember was far from successful).
Of course both celebrations involved food… though, perhaps rather surprisingly, I don’t remember much of what we ate. It was definitely party food, eaten at long trestle tables, but the only detail I can remember is the blue, white and red icing used to adorn little cup cakes.
When it comes to literature, food lies at the heart of a royal celebration in Kate Atkinson’s novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
The novel, which was Atkinson’s first and won the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1995, explores the interconnected lives of the women in a Yorkshire family between 1888 and 1992. At the centre of the novel is Ruby Lennox, the narrator. Conceived on the opening page of the novel – in 1951 – Ruby’s narration, as well as being an account of the first forty years of her life, is also her attempt to understand herself through reference to the women in her family. She tells of her great-grandmother Alice, who deserted her large young family and absconded with a French travelling photographer; of her grandmother Nell and her experiences with love and loss during the First World War; and of her difficult relationship with her mother Bunty.
The stories of Ruby’s ancestors are triggered by the mention of physical objects – a button, a rabbit’s paw etc – and are presented as footnotes to the main chapters detailing Ruby’s life; they tell the reader (and Ruby) what goes on ‘Behind the scenes at the museum’. And as Ruby gradually unpicks her female ancestors’ stories, so she grows closer to discovering the tragic secret that lies at the heart of her own story.
Chapter 3 of the novel is titled ‘Coronation’. It is 1953, Ruby is a toddler, and Bunty is holding a party to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2nd June 1953. The family – who comprise Bunty, her errant husband George, and their children – have recently acquired a television set (albeit a black and white one) – ‘George’s gift to Bunty, a consolation for having to bring up her family Above the Shop instead of a normal home’. Since they are the only people on both sides of their families to own a television, they have invited a score of relatives around to share in the experience of watching the live broadcast of the Coronation.
Bunty’s main motivation is not generosity, however, but rather pride: she ‘is naturally proud of the television set and must show it off, and what better occasion than a coronation?’ And Bunty, as is typical of her, is also irritated and burdened by having to host so many people in the flat: ‘she can’t stand having all these people in the house. The sandwiches! The pots of tea! Will it ever stop?’
Despite the inconvenience of hosting a party, Bunty has pulled out all the stops as far as catering is concerned, producing an array of baked goods including a ‘great pile of’ scones, ‘sausage rolls’, … plates of ham sandwiches … ‘Coconut Madeleines’, ‘Lamingtons’ and ‘Little Caramel Pastries’ (Very Special!)…’
Out of this wonderful list of baked goods, I thought I would make ‘Lamingtons’, an Australian baked good. One story says that they were ‘invented’ by Armand Galland, the French chef to Lord Lamington, governor of Queensland between 1896 and 1901. Galland was allegedly called on at short notice to cater to guests, so responded with what he had to hand – some left-over sponge cake from the day before, that he dipped in chocolate and rolled in desiccated coconut. And it went down a treat – so much so that 21st July is Lamington Day in Australia. As far as our novel goes, Lamingtons are also an ideal treat for the coronation of a Queen who has always taken pride in her role as Head of the Commonwealth, of which Australia is a member.
BUNTY’S LAMINGTONS
Ingredients (makes 20):
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g golden caster sugar
2 large and 1 small free-range eggs
50ml milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
120g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
125g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped or broken.
50g icing sugar
150g desiccated coconut
Raspberry jam
Method:
Grease one 25cm x 35cm baking tin and line with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 190C / 170C fan / Gas mark 5.
Make the sponge cake by beating 125g of the butter with all the sugar until you have a light and fluffy mixture. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the milk and vanilla essence. Sieve and fold in the flour and baking powder.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, level the top and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden, risen and a skewer comes out clean when inserted. Cool for a few minutes in the tin, then turn out and continue cooling on a wire rack.
When the cake is cool, cut in half widthways and sandwich together the two halves with generous amounts of raspberry jam. Carefully slice the cake into 20 small evenly-sized squares.
Now make the icing. Sieve the icing sugar into a heatproof bowl, add the chocolate and the remaining 125g butter. Melt over a pan of simmering water, stirring regularly until glossy. Pour the coconut onto a baking tray.
Dip each square of cake into the chocolate icing, turning to coat all sides. Place briefly on the wire rack to allow excess chocolate to drip off, then coat with the coconut and return to the rack to set.
