cherry cake and ginger beer

Since 1st September I have been surrounded by Enid Blyton, L.M. Montgomery, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Noel Streatfeild, E. Nesbit, Joyce Lankester Brisley, Arthur Ransome, Michael Bond, and E.B. White. Johanna Spyri, Eve Garnett and Eleanor H. Porter and many more are neatly stacked while Jean Webster, Elizabeth Goudge, Susan Coolidge, P.L. Travers and Kenneth Grahame are scattered on the carpet. Classic English and American recipe books are within easy reach, and the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature is permanently open on my desk.

Every working day I escape into this world of children's literature so that I can write my new book, Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer. I'm revisiting the books I read as a child (I was well-fed with both classics and contemporary fiction) and also making some happy new discoveries. And all the while I am thinking about what the characters are eating or wanting to eat or planning to eat. Because the book is a recipe book based on the treats and foods that are to be found in children's classics. So it's mostly twentieth-century titles and mostly British and American cooking (I'm not including fantasy food) and it's all very mouth-watering and delicious.

It's an idea Phoebe and I had several years ago when we were on holiday. Phoebe was reading yet another Enid Blyton book and I was reading a newspaper magazine supplement. I came across a picture of a pale, pastel pink macaroon, exclaimed how pretty it looked and showed it to Phoebe who was amazed because she's just been reading about macaroons in her book (macaroons are a favourite EB treat). A little later I said I'd make some scones with jam and cream and again she was very excited because the characters in her book had just eaten some. So then I started to question her about all the tasty treats that were appearing in the series she was reading, and I realised that although she'd read about many, she hadn't actually tasted all of them.

That same day, we drew up a long list and it occurred to us that it would make a good subject for a recipe book. From then on, Phoebe turned up the corner of any page of any book which contained a mention of food, I and I worked my way through the books after her. It wasn't long before I was looking up old editions in the British Library when I should have been researching Dickens for my PhD. But, after filling several notebooks with literary food references, I put them away because I had no idea how to go about writing or publishing a book.

Until Hodder & Stoughton accepted the proposal for The Gentle Art of Domesticity. And then I wrote another proposal which was accepted in the spring of this year. So here I am, writing a book with the working title of Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer (it may change). 

At the moment I'm doing the reading and writing, but in the New Year I'll be into the cooking and writing. It will be wonderful to spend days in a warm kitchen making and baking and testing and recreating the tastes of childhood. But for the time being, it's very lovely to be transported on a daily basis by some of the best children's stories ever written.

I do find, though, that this book colours everything we bake. Phoebe's birthday party birthday cake (as opposed to her birthday day birthday cake) made me think of the Trunchbull's huge chocolate cake which Bruce Bogtrotter is forced to eat as punishment in Matilda by Roald Dahl. Of course, the cake-eating is a moral victory for Bruce Bogtrotter, whereas Phoebe's cake (which she designed and made herself) was enjoyed in a more polite, shared manner. This is one example where she has read the book and eaten the cake.

 

Comments

[tea]

There's a scene in *Little Men* (Alcott's sequel to *Little Women*) where the girl child... it's been a while... does some cooking. Although I don't remember much more than that, the feeling of the scene has stayed with me. I do remember there being a twice-baked potato with milk...

[amy]

what a great, fantastic idea!

[Tamara]

What a wonderful idea! I can only imagine how appetizing this book will be....what fun.

[Gemma]

Most restrained for Phoebe! But I would still utterly ravish it. Far better than the version that was in the film!

Love the title of the new book and adore the idea. I gasped aloud when I saw that stack of much loved books at the top of the post. I see Anne of Green Gables there, will you be doing plum pudding ala mouse?

[irene]

i love the working title!

i made a batch of your spicy biscuits this weekend, they were quite a hit!
xoxo

[Laura A.]

Fabulous idea. There was a cookbook put out many years ago that included many of the recipes in Montgomery's books. As I recall her granddaughter (or maybe great granddaughter) was involved. But I love the idea of so many of my favourite authors being included in one place. Have you ever read Gene Stratton Porter? She was an American with a conservation bent. FRECKLES and A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST were the two best known. (Not that I can remember if there were any delicious meals consumed...)

[Jill]

Oh, how exciting!!!

[Jessica]

oooh, that's a lovely idea for a book! I remember being fascinated with *whatever* Turkish Delight might be in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The first time I saw Turkish Delight was a couple of years ago and I bought several pieces to try. Love that stuff!

[Anna]

What a perfect idea! I know the feeling of reading the famous five, loving the food items, but naver having tasted them for real. About Astrid Lindgren: She is always and everywere writing about pancakes, milk and strawberry jam/Kompott (the German word, not really jam, but more like cooked strawberrys, not so sweet than jam) Everytime I read about it, I want to eat it :-) Its such a typicall children's comfort food. Mio and Jum-Jum in Mio my mio (Or Mio, my son)eat that too. Will it be included too? :-)

[Kristin]

Oh what a wonderful idea! We've tied many of our children's books to the foods within them and it's always a treat to try something old fashioned or foreign. I can't wait to see that one.

I just got the Gentle Art book and I'm really loving it. Thanks so much for what you do!

[Elizabeth]

I was addicted to Enid Blyton books as a child and vividly remember the 'lashings of ginger beer' which always seemed to accompany any meal the Famous Five devoured. I'd never tasted ginger beer at the time but wasn't disappointed when I did get to taste it as an adult. There always seemed to be wonderful tuck boxes in the Malory Towers series too. In fact, Enid Blyton's child characters always seemed to have the most enormous appetites, and could consume absolutely vast quantities of food at a single sitting. Given that many of her books were written during the war it must have been torture for the poor children who were reading these books when they were new, and who had to make do with what could be obtained during food rationing. Even when I was reading them as a child in the 1960s, I was astonished by how delicious and how opulent many of the meals were described as being, even humble picnics. Cracking idea for a cook book.

[Jackie]

What an absolutely fabulous idea for a book. I was transported very forcibly back to my childhood when I saw the stack of books in your picture, and remember very clearly a passage from Anne of Green Gables about Marissa's currant jam (or currant juice/wine? I had no idea what currants were.) I have been hankering lately to revisit all of my favorite childhood stories (there were many, many books in the built-in bookshsleves in my room) and was devasted to have recently found out my parents donated them all away.

It was like finding out they put my old puppy to sleep instead of bringing him to a farm. Those books were the fabric of my world as a child, and I fear many of them are out of print.

Anyway, I am very much looking forward to seeing your next book.

[m]

I remember reading What Katy Did and being desperate to know what Debby's jumbles were ...

[Jaimie]

I think this is an amazing idea for a book. When someone upthread mentioned Anne of Green Gables, I immediately thought of raspberry cordial (which Anne serves to Diana, not realizing that she is in fact serving her some sort of alcoholic drink that gets Diana drunk). I too was fascinated by Turkish Delight and thought it must be the most scrumptious treat imaginable (unfortunately, the reality was distinctly disappointing).

Noel Streatfield's mealtime descriptions always sound so COSY - the governess serving up buttered toast by a hot fire. Yum.

[michael]

Congratulations, and I think it is a delectable topic for a book. I await it much too eagerly!

[Sarah]

That will be a FANTASTIC book. I can confidently say that I would buy several copies. I am such a literature-loving fool, and I do love to eat!

[Kristen]

What a wonderful thing to share with your daughter. I will enjoy sharing the tasting of these recipies with my daughter when the book is out. Right now, my kids are learning about a different country each week...and we always try to sample a food of that country. It's amazing how food enriches the experience.

[patricia]

ohhh, write quickly, I need that book now!

[Patti]

Fantastic idea for a book. I always remember the Chalet School series where the girls had "Kaffee und kuchen" during the day and the new girls were always amazed at the school dinners exclaiming "I'm sure there's caraway in it". I would love to see my favourite Elinor M Brent-Dyer included (if you can squeeze her in) she seems to be quite forgotten nowadays.

[Ruth]

What a marvelous idea! I am Canadian, but grew up reading the British children's classics. I always longed to experience the lavishly described feasts that seemed to materialize at every turn.

[laura]

What an incredibly fabulous idea. I can't wait to purchase it! I can remember food from so many books, but one food that sounded particulary gross to be (and thus you would not want in the book) was tongue from the Ramona books. Ramona hated tongue!

[kaela]

Oh, I am so excited for this book I'm already thinking of ways of acquiring it (have amazon UK ship it, or indulge in trip across the pond?). My favorite of children's literature foods is in Little House in the Big Woods when they make maple candy on the snow. I was so sad that I lived in California where it's as likely to be 80 degrees on Christmas as anything else. I remember thinking how lucky they were that they lived in the woods and got snowed in every winter (in retrospect, ha - what was I thinking?).

[Clare]

That pile of books is pretty much my childhood imagination. I had Ballet Shoes as a book on tape and I remember being fascinated by Petrova being taken to tea by the chap with the car, it was to Lyons or Tate & Lyle or someother very British baking ingredients maker's tearoom, which sounded brilliantly other-worldly to me.

[Juti]

One of the few times my mother indulged my curiosity in the kitchen was when I wanted to make divinity according to the recipe at the end of _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang_. We didn't have a candy thermometer and used the hard ball/soft ball test, with little success. The result was a lot of goop, which my father used on ice cream.

[Kathleen Rogers]

WHAT A WONDERFUL THEME FOR A BOOK ! MY CHILDREN,ESPECIALLY MY PERPETUALLY HUNGRY SONS, ARE ALWAYS COMMENTING ON FOOD IN BOOKS. HAVE YOU READ CYNTHIA RYLANT'S MR. PUTTER BOOKS? THEY ARE EASY READER BOOKS AND QUITE SHORT, BUT FULL OF COMFORT FOOD AND SWEET HUMOR. ENJOY!