Monday 23 April 2018

A Slice of Paradise


A slice of Paradise 
Treasured family recipes are always the best and the recipe for Paradise Slices from Jenny in Chesterfield is no exception. She writes to say that my talk at her Social History group about Grandma Abson inspired her to look out an old exercise book of her mum’s and bake a few recipes. She says that she used to bake Paradise Slices with her 3 children when they were little as they were so easy.
Paradise Slices 
4oz/110g chocolate
4oz/110g coconut
2oz/50g raisins
2oz/50g sugar
1oz/25g chopped dates
1 egg
Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F/Mark 4. Grease and line a 7inch/18cms square tin. Melt the chocolate and pour into the tin. Mix all the other ingredients together and spread over the chocolate. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Meryl says: This recipe is a great one to bake with children as Jenny suggests. Who will be licking the bowl out for the last of the chocolate?

Thursday 12 April 2018

Nothing sour about Vinegar Cake

There is nothing sour in the Vinegar Cake recipe which Pat’s friend Sheila wrote out for me. It’s actually a WW2 recipe where a dash of vinegar replaces the egg. 
I made her original recipe using double quantities to make a cake to take to my talk about WW2 rationing and how it affected baking. Sheila was a school girl at the time but remembers the recipe from her School Cookery in 1942. Dried fruit went on the rationing list in January 1942 so making a small cake like this would be quite precious. The vinegar replaces eggs which were also rationed and in short supply unless you kept hens!
Vinegar Cake
8oz/225g flour
4oz/110g butter (or margarine)
3oz/75g mixed fruit
3oz sugar
2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
4 tsps vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
½ pint/275ml milk
Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Rub the butter into the flour. Add the fruit, sugar and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well. Add the vinegar and enough milk to make a stiff dropping consistency. Place in a greased/lined cake tin. (I used a 2lbs/1kg loaf tin but you could use a 7inch/20cms round or square cake tin). Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes.

Meryl says : It’s a very simple cake which works well and useful as a light fruit cake if you need an egg free diet. Don’t let the Vinegar in the name of the cake put you off!