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

[katie]

wow, what a great idea! little readers and their parents will be lucky to have such a fun and inspiring resource!

[emily]

what a marvelous idea for a book! i can't wait. (will we get to peek while you're cooking? i do hope so.)

[Bethany]

I always find that food has a particularly evocative place in literature - and not just in children's books. Reading "A House for Mr Biswas" gave me a real appetite for milk and prunes - and I'm keen on neither!

[tommy]

There is a series of Japanese cookbooks based on the food in children's fairytales and I'm sure yours would be as lovely, if not more because I can understand English better. I like the title already.

[Holly]

Oh, my, what a great idea! A superb idea! I had a few cookbooks based on specific children's books when I was young - the Anne of Green Gables cookbook and the Little House on the Prairie cookbook - and I loved them. To have a cookbook based on so many classics would be wonderful!

[Alison]

What a great idea for a book.
Take care,
Alison

[alice]

Great idea! I can't wait to read it.

Will there be a recipe for classic ginger beer? I seem to remember this perpetually turning up in classic British children’s books like Swallows and Amazons! :)

[Kelly]

We're all so lucky that Hodder & Stoughton work so quickly (a July pub. date!) but what a sprint for you. Go Jane! Can't wait to see it.

[Dorothy]

That is a great stack of books! I enjoyed many of them as a girl. I've never heard of some of them though. No bookstore up here. There was one for a while, but it couldn't stay open due to the perpetual time warp/lack of interest that residents encounter when they first turn onto our highway.

Now I am even more eager to get my hands on your second book. Food and happy child memories all at once.

[Katherine]

Delurking to say what a wonderful idea, those are some of my favourite books, which I must re-read sometime.

[vanessa]

What a wonderful idea, another best-seller cooking away......... I can't wait to read it Jane, thankyou for giving us a taster.

[Liz]

Brilliant! Can't wait to see the book. I remember as a youngster always trying to recreate whatever it was the characters in whichever story I was reading had been eating. It helped that my parents had a grocery shop which we lived behind, although I never managed to find potted shrimps (Enid Blyton again) and had to improvise with a tub of cheese spread with prawns!

[Eunice]

what a wonderful idea. might i also suggest Betsy-Tacy-Tib series by Maud Hart Lovelace? They had such lovely tea parties, if I recall.

[Bee]

Oh it's such a lovely idea for a book Jane. All my favourites..I adored MMM and used to gaze at the map of the village choosing where I'd most like to live.

[Linsey]

Ohhhhhh! So excited about this book. I was a HUGE EB fan as a kid but living in Canada, the food types/names were different than what we could get. Would love to finally be able to taste what these characters were eating. Looking very much forward to it.

[Sarah]

OMG what a great idea! I love the descriptions of food in children's books. I am a big fan of EB - I am sure there must be tuck box and midnight feat references in Malory Towers and St Claires as well as in TFF. And as for Anne of Green Gables - just watch out that your cordial doesn't get anyone tipsy! otherwise you'll have to save a younger sibling from the croup with hot water, towels and imagination before you are forgiven! ah Jane, you are SUCH a kindred spirit! I will buy armfuls of this book when published.

Sarah x

[Kristina]

Great idea, I look forward to seeing the final product. You also seem the best person to execute this project, seeing your baking creations throughout the blog they all have the perfect touch of whimsy for both adults and children to enjoy :)

[Sister Diane]

Lovely, lovely lovely! I cannot wait to read this book. I've been enjoying your musings on 'Little House on the Prairie' books and the maple sugar-on-snow candy. As a little girl, I always yearned to try this, too. (Although, sadly, no available snow in the Arizona desert.)

[Mary]

As a children's librarian, I cannot wait to have this book on my shelves!

[cd&m]

Brilliant concept for a book, my children and I actually self published one based on this idea a few years ago. It was brilliant fun to work on together with book and recipe sugestions coming from all directions. It made a great gift for friends and family and a good fund raiser for charity.

[Fiona]

This book sounds delightful. I'm just re-reading Elizabeth Goudge's Henrietta's House and there's a wonderful description of when tea becomes high tea (at about six o'clock)."One adds cold ham then, you know, and then as time goes on the tea gets higher and higher and one adds damson cheese and stewed fruit, and sardines if you have any. And then after eight o'clock it isn't high tea any more, but supper, and you fry bacon and eggs."

[Laura]

Great idea for a book--but most of all, what a great excuse to get to read children's books/young adult books. I often go back to them myself--the stories are so satisfying.

[Katherine]

Yummy! What a lovely idea for a book. May I also suggest a research trip to Little Bettys (much more quaint than the 'proper' Betty's around the corner) in York for a genteel afternoon tea, just the sort of thing Enid would have enjoyed... Meanwhile I'm eagerly awaiting my Christmas present copy of Gentle Art.

[Mrs. Lear]

This is EXCELLENT news! I cannot wait for your first book to be distributed here in the U.S. = but the idea of "Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer" makes me giddy! And believe me, I have been through my share of "Little House" molasses candy and ginger water experiments! Do you know the "All of a Kind Family" books?

[Sue]

I too can't wait to read the finished book Jane. I'm a bit cross though, as it's an idea I've had floating about in my head for years -my mother keeps telling me to write it or someone else will. I'm sure you'll do a much better job than I could. Love the title.

I see you have The Little White Horse in your pile, excellent food descriptions in that one, I love Marmaduke Scarlet's cooking. Don't forget Harry Potter -treacle tart, rhubarb crumble, steak and kidney pie, Mrs Weasley's chicken and ham pie followed by strawberry ice cream. Wind in the Willows -Mole and Ratty's picnic. Lion, Witch and Wardrobe-the beavers fish supper followed by marmalade roly poly. Box of Delights and the policeman's posset. Milly Molly Mandy's baked potatoes and the picnic of hard-boiled eggs, bread and butter and apples they have with Little Girl Jessamine.