Bexley, Baking, Books, Berry and Buns…
What-ho! Welcome my old Bexley baking bibliophiles and crust-loving companions…
Close friends of the Blogbrarian will doubtless be aware that he is something of a `dab hand` at the art of the patisserie, whose cup-cakes have been `mentioned in despatches`, whose `Bedfordshire Clangers` are unlike any others, and whose macaroons have made strong men swoon…
So, like me, have you been left bereft now that the wonderful BBC series The Great British Bake Off has ended? Well, never fear, for some books are here that, I am certain, will rekindle your love affair with the bun and the bap, the pie and the pastry, the flan and the fairy cake…
Bake it by the book!
And how splendid to see Mary Berry in person on TV and in such rude health…Mary has been tempting book borrowers for many years with a range of tantalising titles, so here’s the chance to put her recipes to the taste test…
What else can Bexley Libraries tempt your taste buds with? A little morsel of fictional chocolat perhaps?
Or a more robust northern recipe, with pies & prejudice?
But I`m confident that Bexley readers will be able to suggest some other great books; you are, after all, such a well read and well bread bunch…
Well, that’s me done, my creative juices are spent, my inspiration has run dry…what I need now is a biscuit, a nice cup of tea and a sit down.
All that remains is to invite you, dear readers, to contribute any bookish or baking-related feedback using the comments box below.
TTFN
What-ho! Welcome my old Bexley baking bibliophiles and crust-loving companions…
Close friends of the Blogbrarian will doubtless be aware that he is something of a `dab hand` at the art of the patisserie, whose cup-cakes have been `mentioned in despatches`, whose `Bedfordshire Clangers` are unlike any others, and whose macaroons have made strong men swoon…
So, like me, have you been left bereft now that the wonderful BBC series The Great British Bake Off has ended? Well, never fear, for some books are here that, I am certain, will rekindle your love affair with the bun and the bap, the pie and the pastry, the flan and the fairy cake…
Bake it by the book!
And how splendid to see Mary Berry in person on TV and in such rude health…Mary has been tempting book borrowers for many years with a range of tantalising titles, so here’s the chance to put her recipes to the taste test…
What else can Bexley Libraries tempt your taste buds with? A little morsel of fictional chocolat perhaps?
Or a more robust northern recipe, with pies & prejudice?
But I`m confident that Bexley readers will be able to suggest some other great books; you are, after all, such a well read and well bread bunch…
Well, that’s me done, my creative juices are spent, my inspiration has run dry…what I need now is a biscuit, a nice cup of tea and a sit down.
All that remains is to invite you, dear readers, to contribute any bookish or baking-related feedback using the comments box below.
TTFN
15 comments:
Cupcakes, sounds a bit southern to me. Bring back the good old northern bun!
Dear ‘Anonymous Northerner’…
Thank you for your comments, but I can see nothing wrong with cupcakes...Could we not tempt you, perhaps, with a little soft Bexley Battenberg?...
On a different matter, one book due out next month which might be of interest to you? – It’s called `The northern monkey survival guide: how to hang on to your northern cred in a world filled with southern jessies` by Tim Collins.
I believe we have a copy on order…
TTFN
Hope it's better than Pies and prejudice.Too few pies and too much loitering in the wrong side of the Pennines in my opinion although there are some of England's best bakers in Lancashire. Battenburg? Sounds suspiciously foreign to me
Right on, Anonymous Northerner!! What IS all this nonsense about cupcakes these days? They are buns, right? And if they are iced, they are iced buns. Right!
Dear contributors…
Well, we seem to have opened up an internecine North-South rift here, don’t we? And all over a simple cup-cake debate…(Would it be too, incautious, I wonder as to delve into the thorny ‘scone’ or ‘scon’ pronunciation question?)
TTFN
I didn't know the pronunciation of that word was a North/ South thing - I just consulted 2 colleagues (one Yorkshire, one Essex) and both say scone. I'm a Midlander and say scon. The OED (free online courtesy of my local library) says both.
One colleague says the pronunciation is a class thing - let's NOT go there!!!
Well, this is interesting…(Or I thought it was, anyway…). Someone has asked me why Battenberg cakes are so named. “A two-coloured sponge cake, baked in an oblong tin, usually covered with almond paste; named in honour of the marriage of Queen Victoria 's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg, in1884” I naturally replied, “Which soon became known as Queen Victoria’s favourite confection…”
Surprisingly, my questioner then began to yawn, much to my disappointment…
Anyway, if anyone else has any cake related/historical trivia to raise, do let us know.
TTFN .
What about Dripping Cakes?
I don't recognise Namby Pamby Cup Cakes so called because of the American way of measuring.
Anybody ever tried a Dripping cake?
Loaded with calories but extremely yummy can also be compared to Lardy Cake but not really the same.
Thank you, Sparkle...
Dripping cake, anyone?
Nothing beats a Bakewell tart (the Mr Kipling version with loads of white icing)...
Bakewll Tarts?
Yes, I`m not immune to the lure of this particular confection either…
And, thanks to the wonders of Bexley’s online resources, you could discover much about its provenance simply with the click of your mouse! (Just use `Oxford Reference Online`)…
Bakewell tart Bakewell tart, or Bakewell pudding, as it was originally called (tart seems to be an early twentieth-century alteration), appeared on the scene in the mid-nineteenth century. The first recorded reference to it was made by Eliza Acton (in her Modern Cookery, 1845), who wrote ‘this pudding is famous not only in Derbyshire, but in several of our northern counties, where it is usually served on all holiday-occasions.’ Its basic concept, however, of a layer of jam beneath a main filling, was far from new then; it is part of a long tradition of so-called ‘transparent’ puddings, in which a layer of jam, preserved fruit, or candied peel was overlaid with a sugar, egg, and butter mixture and baked. They were made with or without a pastry case—and indeed Eliza Acton's recipe for Bakewell pudding makes no mention of pastry (Mrs Beeton, however, in 1861, has a version of Bakewell pudding with a puff-pastry case). The characteristic feature of Bakewell puddings, as opposed to all other such puddings, was and is almonds. Originally they were introduced in the form of a few drops of almond essence in the overlaying sugar, egg, and butter mixture, but gradually it became the custom to use ground almonds, thereby radically altering the nature and consistency of the topping. The dish is of course named after Bakewell, a town in Derbyshire, but how this came about is not known. Legend (and probably no more than that) has it that the pudding was created by accident in the kitchens of the Rutland Arms in the centre of the town.
c Oxford Reference Online
TTFN
For a cook book you can't beat Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management - oh, for the days when clarified beef dripping was the staple of many a pudding..(!)
Well I'm off to plan an elegant dinner for 18 persons, and thankfully I now have plenty of ideas for the 'desserts and ices' section!
Dear `Nineteenth Century Girl`…
Yes indeed, both Mrs Beeton and clarified beef dripping are both dear to my heart too…(Indeed, The Blogbrary has for some time been considering publishing an article in praise of the aforementioned Isabella, and now I am resolved to do so at some date in the not too distant future).
Meanwhile, I wish you every good fortune in preparing for your `elegant dinner` for 18…Eighteen!
Finally, I am intrigued by the pseudonym `Nineteenth Century Girl`…Is it any way related to the late great Marc Bolan, a `Twentieth Century Boy` whose choice of pastry lard would undoubtedly have been Trex?....
Not sure about Mrs Beeton.
Is Marguerite Patten still around? I used to enjoy her books.
H.H.
Re Marguerite Patten ~ yes, she's still around, I believe, and still writing.
We have quite a few of her books in Bexley Libraries, including one about the basics of baking.
Enjoy!
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