Category: 19th century literature

Christmas Dinner

At this time of year I always write a festive-themed post for my blog. I’ve covered mince pies in Pride and Prejudice , Christmas cake in Jane Eyre,  fudge in Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales and rice cake from D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. Last year I broke away from the Western Christian tradition and opted for Hannukah doughnuts from Francesca Segal’s The Innocents. 

But I have never written about Christmas dinner itself. So it’s time to remedy that.   Continue reading “Christmas Dinner”

Simnel Cake

Then on Mid-Lent Sunday, instead of furmenty we eat Simnel cake: a cake made variously, but always with saffron for its principal ingredient. This I should fancy was a relic of Papistry, but I wonder how it originated. Lambert Simnel the imposter in Henry the Seventh’s time was a baker’s son, I think. The shop windows are filled with them, high and low eat them. (Elizabeth Gaskell, letter to Mary Howitt, 18th August 1838)   Continue reading “Simnel Cake”

Pancakes

Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan;
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake—
Catch it if you can.  (Christina Rossetti, ‘Mix a pancake’)

Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day of the year on which pancakes are traditionally eaten (hence its more common name of Pancake Day). Continue reading “Pancakes”

Good Friday baking

The bun is somewhat spicy inside, and has a sugary glaze on the top, with a cross marked or stamped thereon. Whether it is eaten hot or cold, with butter or without, toasted or untoasted, each family decides according to circumstances; (Charles Dickens, Household Words, 1870)

Last Good Friday I posted about hot cross buns – their historical origins and references to them in popular culture and literature. However, I wasn’t organised enough to write the post until Good Friday, by which time it seemed a little late to give the recipe as anyone reading the blog would certainly have already consumed their hot cross buns.   Continue reading “Good Friday baking”