delistcious

 

I had great fun choosing my top 10 favourite food moments in children's literature for the Guardian blog. (The list includes Paddington Bear's buns and cocoa elevenses - with the buns as above, I like to imagine.)

   

Comments

[Lora]

I had the chance to find this post while there were as yet no comments on it, and so mine would make the first. This has made me decide to start commenting on your blog, which for the moment is the only one I read... I am baking a plum cake dessert today because the weather is so awful, but this picture has made me realise that I miss chocolate bakings.. I should do something soon..

[Lauren]

That looks delicious! I enjoyed reading about the top 10 food moments as well.

[Mary Smith]

So great to see a post from you and to see those scrumptious buns. Paddington would love them!

[Mary Smith]

So great to see a post from you and to see those scrumptious buns. Paddington would love them!

[Kimberley]

Lovely to see a couple of posts from you. I have missed your blog. The Guardian piece was a truly tantalizing selection of literary food moments... it made me want to simultaneously get my hands on your new book, read fav children's books and eat, of course!

[Sarah]

I'm curious; I gather from the context that elevenses is a sort of snack or meal, and from the name I assume it is served around eleven o'clock, but would you mind explaining a little more about what it is, and what kinds of food are served? I grew up in California, so it's not a tradition with which I am familiar.

[Bishty]

As a child, the first time I read a Paddington story, I couldn't understand why the housekeeper was called Mrs Bird. I had no trouble accepting that a bear from Peru could arrive at Paddington Station with marmalade sandwiches in his case but not the surname 'Bird'! Jane, I bet when you started your blog you had no idea that it would lead to such exciting opportunities, experiences and affirmation. Enjoy the ride!

[Mrs C]

Fantastic Guardian blog post - more then ever though I feel I must go and re-read my Enid Blyton collection!

[mathea]

I misread the heading for "delirious", which was what I felt on seing a new post from you! The fairy buns look delicious and that tablecloth - wonderful colours!

[catherine]

Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer - next on my list!

[Sarah]

Mmmm... yes truly incredible how evocatively tasty those famous five picnics seemed (hard-boiled eggs!). However, the consensus in the kitchen when I read this aloud was that the moment when Charlie hungrily unwraps and swiftly devours the whipple-scrumptious fudgemallow delight instead of parsing out the chocolate for as long as possible made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a certainty for top ten!

[Sarah]

Mmmm... yes truly incredible how evocatively tasty those famous five picnics seemed (hard-boiled eggs!). However, the consensus in the kitchen when I read this aloud was that the moment when Charlie hungrily unwraps and swiftly devours the whipple-scrumptious fudgemallow delight instead of parsing out the chocolate for as long as possible made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a certainty for top ten!

[Linnea]

What a fun list :o) Those buns look delicious. I wouldn't mind one (or two) myself! Hope you're having a great summer!
xox,
Linnea

[Teresa]

Glad to see MMM made it to your top ten. I'm very pleased that the book is being so well received. Justly deserved praise, me thinks.

[Kutri]

Those buns look fantastic! Just looking at them ruins my diet... :-D

[mindfulbeader]

I've always thought of "elevenses" as being a peculiarly British instituion, like afternoon tea at 4pm.

When I was a child (1960s) elevenses was a mug of milk or orange squash accompanied by custard cream or digestive biscuits. Sometimes we'd get those oblong flat biscuits with extremely hard pink icing and white pictures on top. On wintry days there might be hot ribena or chelsea buns that you could unwrap when your mother wasn't looking and pick out the currants to savour.

If I was taken "out" it would be to Fullers or Kardomah coffee shop where we children were be served foaming hot chocolate and a cream slice that we had to eat with a cake fork by a waitress in black dress and white frilled apron among chintzy china and the sound of tinkly silver teaspoons.
The grownups, of course, had coffee and the sugar came in lumps.

Tea was for breakfast, afternoons and evenings and coffee was only drunk at elevenses and in tiny bone china cups after dinner in the evenings. The coffee shops we went to all roasted and sold their own beans and my mother usually used to get some, along with toffee you had to break with a hammer and chocolate cigarettes for us.

Now I'm grown it's coffee and a chance to draw breath, either on my own or with good friends. If I were several dress sizes smaller I'd have the chelsea bun but, hey...

[Vicki in Michigan]

Love the colors in this fabric. Yum, yum.

[mbutterfudge]

Hi Jane, its just great to read your Guardian article, wonderful reminder of childhood memories I hope to pass on to my children. My son wants me to make Pop buscuits like Silky makes in the Faraway Tree!

I'm sorry I missed your talk and demo in London, I would have loved to go. Hope it went well, Im sure it did.

Love the cover of your US book, really wonderful.

I'll let you get back to your summer, all the very best, ClareX

[Ellynne Dec]

Congratulations on the lovely FT article!

[Rosemary]

I am halfway through the new book,it is great!!especially the Milly Molly Mandy and Enid Blyton parts.

[Teena]

It's all just so truly inspired! Like all the best ideas I can't imagine why no-one thought of this book before you! I am so desperate for my copy to come into the library! (note the possessive referral to public property - but whilst I"m first on the list I'm feeling possessive!) t.x

[Lora]

I have to post again under this entry because I had not actually been to see the Guardian link. The idea for this book seems excellent to me. I actually discovered this blog not from an external reference, but I was simply googling for 'Enid Blyton' and I was directed to a post in this blog that talked about food in her books. I felt very identified because I also used to read Enid Blyton books in my childhood and in particular in her books of stories the one thing that did strike me was the food references. Everyone in my house knew that Enid Blyton's books made me hungry. Especially I remember a short story which revolved entirely around some freshly baked buns that were placed on a window sill, then they would mysteriously disappear and the woman in the story would bake them once more. I don't know how she achieved it, but a simple mention of food in her writings did manage to make you feel very hungry.. Also in the Famous Five books I was attracted to the food because mostly it sounded so exotic to me. Where I come from we had never heard of anything like meat pies or ginger beer, not that I remember a lot of the things they ate, but I do remember that the food and the picnics seemed as exciting almost as the adventures. Perhaps because the moments when they ate were anticlimatic moments of 'rest' or 'formality' (if eating at the house) between adventures. I actually read a Famous Five book lately and it caught my attention that much emphasis was made on George's mother baking. Anyway, since that blog entry was talking about Blyton food and I had experienced the same about food in her books a long time ago, I became interested in this blog from then and I still continue to read it when I have time. It also persuaded me to resume some of the knitting I learned also during primary school. It will be really interesting to be able to try Famous Five food for the first time, especially if the book makes reference to the particular books or points in the plot when the food was being eaten. Sorry for the long message!

[Foodycat]

So hard to choose! Would Maria & Robin's picnic in the woods beat the afternoon tea? Or the roast pigeon served in its silver dish?

I've been very pleased to see that in Harry Potter JK Rowling has gone back to that tradition of delicious food - I had treacle tart in a pub a couple of weeks ago because it is Harry's favourite.

35 and still reading childrens' books and getting inspired by them, with no intention of stopping!

[Victoria]

I just wanted to say thank you for a lovely afternoon in Abingdon and for the treat you gave us all so generously baking a mountain of lovely things for us to have. It was most instructive to be baking rock buns having tried the author's for a change, and made me realise that I don't follow recipes all that closely - it does matter how many pieces you get out of the dough, I've been making them too small and turning out dry! Your ginger beer was a delight too.

I also discovered that when I read the quotes from the books, i did it with a fraction of the relish you put into your reading of it, and I decided that in my rush to be a good reader I may have overlooked the possibility of relishing the word! So you taught me a lot already, and I'm looking forward to working my way through the rest of the book.

Many thanks again for you and Phoebe's delightful hospitality, with icing on top!

God bless,
Victoria