{"id":891,"date":"2016-08-12T13:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=891"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:22:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:22:04","slug":"the-great-british-bake-off-but-not-as-we-know-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2016\/08\/12\/the-great-british-bake-off-but-not-as-we-know-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great British Bake-Off, but not as we know it!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If rumour proves to be correct, the seventh series of the Great British Bake Off is due to appear on our screens towards the end of August. Fans of the show who were hoping for a repeat of the pattern of previous years will be forced to wait an extra couple of weeks this year because of the Olympics. Do not despair, however. This blog post will whet your appetites by taking a brief tour around our rare books and archives for unusual recipes and cooking anecdotes.<\/p>\n

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I personally love browsing old recipes. I find it fascinating to stumble across weird and wonderful ingredients that I\u2019ve never heard of and to imagine the challenges of adapting recipes from the past to the high-tech kitchen gadgetry of today.<\/p>\n

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Take, for example, Rebecca Dixon\u2019s recipe book from the early 19th century (MS 27). Her recipe for \u201cShrowsbury Cake\u201d feels horribly reminiscent of one of\u00a0Paul Hollywood’s technical challenges<\/a> with its minimalist approach and seeming lack of crucial detail like oven temperature, thickness of the paste, or how long to bake for. If anyone does give this a try, do let us know how you get on!<\/p>\n

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Shrowsbury Cake<\/em>
\n Take \u00bc of Butter washd in Rose Water 3oz of Sugar 1 Yolk of an Egg beat with one spoonful of cream, put it in a bowl & work to a stiff paste with flour, rowl it out then cut them with Glass bake them on Tin Sheets.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"MS27<\/a><\/p>\n

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I can also imagine Sue Perkins<\/a> making an acerbic comment about Rebecca\u2019s instructions \u201cTo Ice a Cake\u201d. Does it really say \u201cBeat it two hours\u201d?\u00a0 Without a food processor?\u00a0 Or an electric whisk?\u00a0 Not sure it would make great television but full marks for elbow grease and perseverance!<\/p>\n

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To Ice a Cake<\/em><\/p>\n

Take Three Pounds of Tribble Loaf Sugar, and the Whites of Ten Eggs, with Two or Three Spoonfuls of Orange Flour Water, Beat it Two Hours, when your Cake is Bak\u2019d Take it out of the Oven and Scrape it Smooth on the Top, then Spread the Iceing all over the Top with a Knif and sett your Cake into the Oven Aga[in] and let it Stand a little While<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"MS27\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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More recently, the star of the Special Collections Bake Off has to be none other than Adrian Mole himself. “Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years” sees him as a celebrity chef in his own show \u2013 \u201cOffally Good\u201d- with a book deal spin-off around the corner. The Sue Townsend collection (ST) is a fascinating source of information about how Sue went about researching the background to Adrian\u2019s career as a TV chef and includes a copy of “A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes” by Charles Elme Francatelli (ST\/1\/10\/1) from which she drew some of Adrian\u2019s signature dishes. The lurid descriptions of Baked Sheep’s\u00a0Heads and people\u2019s reactions to the recipe are told with Sue Townsend\u2019s characteristic humour. Adrian\u2019s 3 year old son, William, \u201cscreamed when I produced a sheep\u2019s head from underneath the worktop, and he had to be taken out by my father when I cleavered the sheep\u2019s head in half\u201d while Pandora, who is now a New Labour MP, tells Adrian that “Offally Good” is the \u201ctalk of the Commons \u2026 with sheep\u2019s heads selling like hot cakes\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\"ST_1_10_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I think in this case I\u2019ll say that if you do give this one a try, the Special Collections team is quite happy to forego the details!
\nHappy baking!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  If rumour proves to be correct, the seventh series of the Great British Bake Off is due to appear on our screens towards the end of August. Fans of the show who were hoping for a repeat of the pattern of previous years will be forced to wait an extra couple of weeks this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}