Category: Vintage Recipes

18th Century Trifle

When you can’t find the music to get down and boogie, all you can do is step back in time.  Ball of confusion when nothing is new and there’s nothing doing, step back in time

 – Kylie Minogue, Step back in Time

I feel that ball of confusion is probably a polite way to describe 2020.   Maybe in a subconscious desire to block out the present, I decided to step back in time with dessert on Christmas Day.  And when I say step back, I mean step waaaayyyy back.  We ate a dessert that could have sat on the table of poor old Mad King George – an 18th-century trifle!  Fitting I think as so many of us came near to losing our sanity at least once over the last 365 days!

18th Century Trifle

You will note that most of the pictures of my trifle have the dish adorned with some ivy leaves.  I not only did this to up the Christmassy green and red of the recipe but when washing said dish before making the trifle I dropped it in the sink and broke a bit off the bottom.  It still stood perfectly well but was not very sightly!  It was way too late to go and buy another trifle dish so it had to be disguised!

18th century trifle 4

The recipe called for Boudoir biscuits.  I had never heard of them before.  But, in my imagination they are a glamorously louche biscuit eaten by the French only in the privacy of their bedrooms.  Turns out it is just the French name for what we here would call sponge fingers or savoiardi.  It also turns out that pretty much every country has a different name for these sweet treats – my favourite being the name used in Uruguay and Venezula –  “plantillas” meaning little plants!

So first thing we do it give our little plants a good old watering in some booze.  I used marsala because I had some but the recipe suggests sherry.  I also really like the label on the marsala bottle.  It has a jaunty little horse, with what looks like a plant pot on its side, pulling a wagon containing what is presumably a keg of marsala.  Is the plant meant to be a boronia plant?  And is the plant the same thing that the little horse is wearing on his head?

Incidentally, marsala wine was first brought to England in the 18th century so using it is not entirely out of place!

 

18th century trifle 2

I topped the soaked biscuits with custard and then topped the custard with the syllabub.  The recipe asks for the trifle to syllabub be decorated with “blobs” of red currant jelly.  I went to 3 supermarkets but I could not find red currant jelly for love or money!  The shelves were piled high with all sorts of condiments containing cranberries. But no redcurrants in sight!   I subbed in some raspberry jelly and fresh raspberries for my topping.

18th century trifle 3

The trifle was delicious!!  And proof that a step back in time can be a wonderful thing!

18th century trifle 5

 

18th Century Trifle – The Recipe

18th century trifle 6

This recipe comes from Sarah Edington’s excellent book Classic British Cooking.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsala_wine

This will be my last post for 2020 so, as ever thank you all for reading and commenting and being a part of this!  I wish you and yours a fabtacular year ahead!

2021 here we come!

 

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Honey, I Shrunk the Pies!

Happy Pieathalon People of the internet!  Yep, it’s that special time of year when a group of bloggers get together and bake the good, the bad and the ugly of vintage pies!  It’s also my birthday week  so it’s double the celebrations for me!  Pie and champagne!  Life, my friends, is good indeed!😍

Let’s get down to it, shall we?

The Pie

Pie choice day is always exciting.  What will that email from Yinzerella reveal?  There is always a slight worry in the excitement –  I am happy to have an odd pie – but not too odd.  One of my favourite parts of Pieathalon is that I get to eat a pie so I always give a little silent prayer.  “Please do not let this contain anything disgusting like offal or beetroot.  Or sugary onions.”   Speaking of the sugary onions, my recipe came from The Nostalgic Cook who sent Jenny the Sweet Onion Pie recipe last year!  Honey Cream Cheese Pie 4

Luckily the Gods, (and Kari and Yinzerella) smiled down on me.  The pie I received was a gorgeous sounding Honey Cream Cheese Pie from Sunset’s New Kitchen Cabinet Cookbook from 1938.  It is described as a “not-quite-so rich version of the very rich German Cheesecake.  This Honey Cream Cheese Pie will be welcomed by everyone”.  It was more than welcomed by me.     I had most of the ingredients which is important when you are leaving the country for a month!  I did not want to buy things only to have to throw away any leftovers because we were going away!

This book looks great.  I love the little cartoony insets.  The recipe page also had a v cute cartoon for a less than appealing sounding carrot mould.

Sunset's New Kitchen CAbinet Cook Book

Speaking of which…remember a  few Pieathalons ago, when I made the Lime Jello Pie?  I totally forgot that I had moved it to the fridge in the garage so the housesitters could use the main fridge.  When I opened the garage fridge about a week after we got home, it was like I had just put it in there.  It had not changed one iota in the month it had been in there.

Terrifying!!!!!

 

The Song

Every year I get a song stuck in my head at Pieathalon time.  For my first Pieathalon it was Waterloo by Abba. For the lime jello pie I went a bit hair-metal and subbed in the words “Lime Jello Pie” into “Sweet Cherry Pie”

There were two contenders this year.  The first was, of course “Sugar Pie Honey  Bunch” by the Four Tops.  But nah, too obvious.  The song that stuck was  “Honey Child, what can I do?” by The Ballad of The Broken Seas.  Which became Honey Pie what can I do?  Which then morphed into….no, we’ll get to that…

 

honey-cream-cheese-pie-recipe-only (1)

Ch…ch…changes

The recipe for the pie says that it is big!  Enough for 8 which was way too big given our impending departure.  There were three eggs in the original recipe and everything else was easily divisible by three so I decided to make a  third of the original recipe.  And also that small pies were going to be easier to distribute out if we didn’t eat them all.  It might be weird to give the neighbours who are picking up our mail a half-eaten pie.  But I think, perfectly acceptable to give them a few freshly baked tartlets as a pre-emptive thank you.

Honey Cream Cheese Pie 2

The Bake aka Honey Pie what did I do?

I baked my pies on Saturday afternoon where there was a LOT happening.  We were still booking some accommodation so there was stuff happening on the internet, there were phone calls, there was washing and packing and I don’t know just a lot of things going on.  I was also obsessing about the nutmeg.  Personally, I don’t like it so was trying to decide if I used it on all of the pies, or none or some.

But the making of the pies went perfectly.  There was enough mixture for the 6 small pies and some leftover. I had a little taste of the raw filling, it was really good!!!  I nutmegged three of the six tarts, popped them in the oven and went to hang out the washing.

When I came back inside I noticed a jug of milk on the bench.  And realised that I had totally left the milk out of the recipe!!!!

It was too late to do anything about it. I briefly contemplated pulling the pies out of the oven, scraping out the filling, adding the milk and refilling them but they were already a little bit too set for that.

So, there was nothing to do but to sit and wait to see how these milkless tarts would turn out.

My song quickly became “Honey pies what did I do?”

Honey Cream Cheese Pie 3

The Verdict

The honey cream cheese pies looked so gorgeous when they came out of the oven, gorgeous golden domes.  The smell of the baking was divine.  And they tasted delicious!

We had one each while they were still warm from the oven and they were like a cross between a cheesecake and a Portuguese tart.  So tasty.

I don’t know what the milk would have done to these but they were so good without it that I will not add it in when I make these again, which I will definitely do!

We had no leftovers to give neighbours or anyone else!  I ate the last one the following night as we waited for the Uber to take us to the airport.  With a little glass of sparkling wine, it was the perfect end to Pieathalon 2019 and the start of the holiday!

Thanks as ever to the amazing Yinzerella who organises this whole shebang each year!

You can find her Pieathalon recipe over at Dinner is Served 1972 and check out all the other pieathletes per the links below.  Why not start with Kelly over at the Velveteen Lounge who got my recipe for Angel Pie?

Here is the full list of this year’s participants.  Some of the links will not be working yet, I will update later today as people post their recipes!

Battenburg Belle baked Betty Crocker’s Hawaiian Pie

Doctor Bobb made a Macaroon Pie

Camilla channeled Alf from Home and Away and made a Flaming peach pie!

Yinzeralla got surreal with a Dali Oasis Leek Pie

Greg got arty, but did not choke on his Artichoke pie

Jenny found her inner Italian with a spaghetti pie

Kaci at the Homicidal Homemaker bammed some berries and produced some Bamberry turnovers

Kari at The Nostalgic Cook, who provided my recipe got a bit saucy with a Cheese Applesauce Pie

Kelly, the angel over at Velveteen Lounge made my Angel Pie

Surly got a Salmon Custard Pie.  Oh dear, I might be surly too….

Peter whipped up some low calorie goodness with a Weight Watchers Cherrie Pies…?

Poppy made Banana Split Pie…I do hope she didn’t fall on the peel!

SS got fidgety with a Huntingdon fidget pie

And finally, here is the musical accompaniment for this post!

Thanks again to Yinzerella for organising this and Kari for the fab recipe!

Have a great week!

Mock Food (And a Real Cocktail)

The Irish artist Francis Bacon once famously declared

Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.

Today, friends we are looking at some sham or mock foods.  And we may not have champagne but we have a cocktail that looks like this and tastes super delish!

Tequila Mockingbird1

We’ll come back to the cocktail later.

Believe me, we might need a stiff drink or two after the horrors I’m about to inflict on you.

So, I was flicking through the pages of “Possum Pie, Beetroot Beer and Lamingtons”  and  I noticed a trend for mock food.

STARTERS

MOCK OYSTERS AKA WHAT TO EAT WHEN THE WORLD ISN’T YOUR OYSTER

So what would you expect to be in a mock oyster?  My first thought was maybe a mussel?  Oysters are spendy.  Mussels are cheap.  Open your mussels, add some bacon, Worcestershire sauce and a dash of Tabasco sauce, pop it under the grill and you might have a fairly close approximation of a Kilpatrick Oyster.

Alternatively, why not give brains and walnuts a whirl?….

Mock Oyster

I don’t know WTF a mix of brains and walnuts would taste like (and I don’t ever want to know) but I’m willing to bet it isn’t oysters!

Not a fan of un-oysters?  What about some delicious crispy fried non- whitebait?

MOCK WHITEBAIT BECAUSE EGGY CHIPS DOESN’T SOUND CLASSY

Mock Whitebait

Okay, I think we can all agree that this is not NEARLY as bad as that brains and walnuts combo.  But no one is going to be fooled!

MAIN COURSES

MOCK DUCK – FAKE FOOD OR REAL GANGSTER?

Mock Duck

I’m just going to say this right now. This recipe makes no sense.

I kind of get the oyster thing and even the whitebait thing on a monetary level.  Oysters are expensive. Whitebait not so much but eggy fries would be cheaper still.  I totally understand why people might want to take a cheap ingredient and dress it up to taste like something a bit fancier.  Now it may be different where you live, but here?  Steak, good steak, is far more pricey than duck. 

I also have absolutely no idea of what kind of 50 shades of bondage moves you would need to tie a steak into the shape of a duck.

And finally…I don’t care what shape you tie your steak into. It will not taste like duck

For a far more interesting Mock Duck, let’s take a trip on the way back machine to 1900 in New York’s Chinatown.  Here,  a “cherubic, ever-smiling, moon-faced Machiavelli” gangster called….wait for it….Mock Duck was terrorizing rival gangs.  If you have ever heard the term “hatchetman” you have Mock Duck and his gang,  the Hip Sing,  to thank.  The term was coined due to their practice of carrying hatchets with sharpened blades in their sleeves.  Mock Duck was a total badass who wore diamond buttons on his shirts and a chain mail vest to stop bullets!   More about Mock Duck’s Exploits can be found here.

 

MOCK SQUAB PIE – ITS A CONSPIRACY OF BAD TASTE

The word squab always reminds me of a scene from the movie JFK when Tommy Lee Jones says  “Hope you like squab.”

Except,  he says it with a Southern drawl so the A in squab lasts for like an hour.

Squaaaaaaaab.

Well, if you like squab but are having trouble finding some, look no further.

Mock Squab PieMock Squab Pie

So squab tastes like meaty apple pie?   In that case Tommy Lee, “No, I don’t like squaaaaaaab”.

SOMETHING ON THE SIDE

IMITATION SPINACH – IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREENS

I might be talking from a very 2019 Melbourne centric stance here.  But spinach is EVERYwhere.  I cannot think of a place where I could be where I was not in walking distance of a bag of spinach. Why you would then want to imitate it is unfathomable to me.  No spinach?  Have beans.  Or cabbage.  There are lots of other vegetables out there.  We don’t need to fake spinach.

Mock Spinach

 

And also Pumpkin shoots?  I have no idea where I would find any sort of pumpkin shoots, let alone tender ones.  I guess you need a vegetable garden.  In which case you could probably just grow spinach.

SHAM GINGER – WHAT NO COPYCAT MARYANNE?

 

Mock Ginger

This one is just ridic.  Making sham ginger from cucumbers and ground ginger?  Why not just use the ground ginger?

 

DESSERTS

LETS END IT ALL WITH SOME CHEESECAKE PUDDING

So, cheesecake…technically not a cake.  But always containing cheese right?

Not so much.

Mock Cheesecake

Q: How disappointed would you be if someone told you they were making cheesecake for dessert and it turned out to be sieved potato with a smattering of sultanas?

A:

I THINK WE ALL MIGHT NEED A DRINK!

In fact, it’s time to totally relax because all the bad food is behind us and kick back with a glass of the very appropriately named Tequila Mockingbird Cocktail!  This is soooo good.  Fruity, sweet, spicy and with a little kick of da da da da da da da…Tequila!

Tequila Mockingbird Recipe


I hope you enjoyed this little foray into the weird and…well…certainly not wonderful world of mock foods.  Tell me?  Do you have recipes for Mock Food in your collection? Have you ever made a mock food?  And did it taste like the real deal?

Have a wonderful week!

Birthday Mushroom Cake

Why should you invite a mushroom to your birthday?

Hands up all of you who thought I was going to go with that corny old “Because he’s a fun guy” schtick?  Well boo to you!!!  My jokes are never that bad.  Are they?  I’m actually terrible with jokes.  The only one I can ever remember is “Why are pirates called pirates?”  And the answer is “Because they are”  Only you have to say the “are”  in that pirate voice.  “Arrrre”  See?  The only joke I know and it’s not even funny written down. 

So, mushrooms, parties…I made a cake!!!  In fact I made lots of little cakes.  And they looked kinda like mushrooms.  And you should definitely have them at your next party!

Mushroom Cake 2Oh and the taste?  So good. Chocolate, marzipan and sour cherry jam….how could you go wrong? 

Have I ever mentioned exactly how much I love marzipan?  Well, it’s this much – I ate the left over marzipan from making this recipe by itself.  Then I bought another pack and ate that by itself too.  Then I felt sick for about three days.  But it was worth every minute of it. 

My mini mushroom cakes are based on a recipe from The A-Z of Cooking which has it as one large cake. This is from the Children’s Favorites sections which means we have hit C. Why does it feel like I have been cooking from this book for YEARS?  How can we be only up to C?

To be honest, I’m not sure of the validity of the mushroom cake as a child’s favourite.  Teddy Bears, Thomas The Tank Engine, one of those awesome Barbie Pool Party Cakes – hmm whatever, yes and definitely yes, yes yes! (Note to self, Make Barbie Pool Party Cake for next year).  I’m not sure there’s many children asking their mum to bake them the fungi cake. Not even back in the hippy ’70’s. 

 Mushroom Cake - Original

Mushroom Cake – Original

You start with one big or lots of little chocolate cakes.  I used the recipe from The A-Z of Cooking but you could use any chocolate cake you wanted.  This would be A-MAY-ZING using your favourite brownie recipe too.

Here is the original recipe, my slightly tweaked recipe is below.Original recipe for Mushrom Cake

Mini Mushroom Cakes1
Mini Mushroom Cakes1

 Spread the top your cakes with the sour cherry jam, 

Roll out your marzipan until quite thin, then cut into rounds large enough to drape over the top and sides of your cake.  Trim additional marzipan so the marzipan is flush with the bottom of the cake.  Turn over so the uncovered part of the cake is now facing the top.

Roll another long thin piece of marzipan.  Spread with the sour cherry jam and roll up, lengthways.  Cut this into 4-5 pieces depending on how long you want your stalk.  Repeat until you have the same number of stalks as you do cakes.

Mini Mushroom Cakes2Pipe or spread your icing onto your cakes.  I spread mine and made the mushroom gills with a toothpick. 

Then place your stalks onto the middle of each cake.You may need to hold these in place with a little dob of jam or icing. 

Mini Mushroom Cakes3
Mini Mushroom Cakes3

Despite their dubious credentials as a children’s favourite, these mushroom cakes are just adorable and so tasty, and you know what would make then even better and certainly not kid friendly?  Douse the cakes with a little bit of kirsch before adding the jam. 

 

Mini Mushroom Cakes4 Mushroom Cake 1Now that’s what I call a magic mushroom cake!

Three sleeps to Pieathalon!!!!  I can hardly wait

Have a great week!!! 

 

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Retro Easter Part 3: The Eggs-travaganza

I solemnly promise that will be my only egg pun for this whole post.

But really, what is Easter about if it’s not about eggs? 

What? 

Well, yeah, ok sure  it’s about Jesus….but eggs are important too. 

This year I made my own chocolate eggs.

Home Made Easter Eggs
Home Made Easter Eggs

And ok, so Adriano Zumbo is not shaking in his shoes just yet but I get some points for trying right?  Can’t this be like Little League and I get a medal just for turning up?

For those of you who don’t know Adriano Zumbo, he is a mad-scientist genius baker (kind of like an Australian Heston Blumenthal but with more macaroons and  fewer snails).  He makes things like this gorgeous V8 cake.

 Zumbo3Think it looks simple?

Think again.

Because when you cut this baby open you get this:

 Layers in the V8Yeah…uh huh and OMG wow!!!

Maybe I’ll try to make that next Easter never.

For anyone brave enough to try, you can get  the recipe by clicking the link below:

Zumbo’s V8 Cake

 And send me photos.  And a piece.

However, ’nuff about  Zumbo, back to my eggs.  They weren’t just any plain old chocolate eggs.  Uh uh.  No way.  

They also had a peanut butter fudge filling:

 Peanut Butter Fudge Filling

 And in true retro style the peanut butter fudge mix has a secret ingredient.

Mashed potato.

Yes, I did just say mashed potato.

And it works surprisingly well.  You can’t taste it but it gives the peanut butter a firmer texture.  Actually the texture is very similar to that of my one of my all time favourite decadent little treats – a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  And when I say “a” Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, I of course mean a four twin pack.  

I even had to check that there wasn’t mashed potato in a Reese’s PBC.  There isn’t but there are two things that don’t actually have names, just initials. And you have to love a list that contains non-fat milk and milk fat right next to each other.  So, that would be milk right?

You can check the full list out here.

I’m not going to come over all Michael Pollan about this (guess who finally finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma?) but you know what?  I’m really not sure about eating the stuff that is just initials.  However, whilst we’re on the subject of Mr Pollan, here is what he has to say about TBHQ, one of the ingredients in my possibly formerly beloved peanut butter cups:

But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to “help preserve freshness.” According to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse.” Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.

Hmm…compared to lighter fluid, the mashed potato suddenly seems a bit more attractive does it not? And yes ok, you would probably have to eat your own weight in them to get that gram of TBHQ but it was enough to make me walk away from the rack of peanut butter cups today.  Damn you Pollan.

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Peanut Butter Fudge Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs with a “secret” ingredient

  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 120
  • Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 small potato, peeled and cubed
  • 1 cup peanut butter – I used super crunchy.
  • 1/2 cup condensed milk
  • 1 cup icing (confectioner’s) sugar
  • 180 gram block of dark chocolate

Instructions

  1. Melt 2/3 of the chocolate in a bowl over hot water and coat the moulds with the melted chocolate. You may need to do this more than once to get the desired thickness of chocolate shell.
  2. Place the chopped potato into a saucepan and cover with water. Boil until tender.
  3. Drain and mash.
  4. Add your condensed milk, just as you would add regular milk to normal mashed potatoes.
  5. Allow this mixture to cool.
  6. Mix in your peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar. It should form a fairly thick paste.
  7. Add more condensed milk or confectioner’s sugar if required.
  8. Spoon this mixture into the chocolate lined moulds.
  9. Melt the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate. Use this to seal the mixture into the moulds.
  10. Chill until the chocolate hardens then press your eggs out of the moulds.

Notes

  • You will also need Easter Egg Moulds. I bought mine from a craft shop for around $4.

 Ox Eye Eggs

In my last post I assumed that everyone would know what Egg in a Hole was. I then further confused the issue by using the name we call these things in my family which is an Ox-Eye egg.

I actually managed to trace back the source of why we call it that. It comes from this book which I inherited from my…hmmm…I’m not sure of our exact relationship…maybe my second cousin? A great cousin? My nana’s sister’s daughter.

My Learn To Cook Book
My Learn To Cook Book

This was possibly my first cook book and the ox-eye eggs have become a family favourite. I will return to this book in due course because the illustrations are awesome but here is the recipe for the original ox-eye eggs:

OxEye Eggs

I prefer to do mine in a frying pan than in the oven as I think it gives you a little more control over your preferred degree of yolk runniness but the choice is yours!

And look at this for an amazing breakfast – seriously, if I’d thrown some cheese on this plate all my five favourite food groups would have been covered – eggs, bacon, avocado, and bread!

Ox Eye Eggs, Bacon and Loaded Guacamole
Ox Eye Eggs, Bacon and Loaded Guacamole

Loading up that toasted circle with a piece of bacon, some guac and some semi-runny yolk?  Probably about as close to heaven as I’m going to get!!!

The Perfect Bite!
The Perfect Bite!

 And that’s Easter 2014 done!

Next time, a double whammy, a retro treat from Salads from All Seasons and a Daring Kitchen Challenge.  I’m 3 months behind on my Daring Kitchen stuff and I’m really nervous about all of them – for very different reasons –  again which we will get to in due course. 

February’s challenge was Salad Dressing – and if you’re thinking that should be fairly impossible to fuck up, well, you haven’t seen the recipe I’m planning on using.

Hint – it too has a secret ingredient, which incidentally has been mentioned in this post. And it’s not mashed potato.  If only.  

I’m loving my extended Easter break.  Hope your week is fabulous whatever you are doing!

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