Mrs Beeton's Coconut Cakes

Winter brings out the baker in me. There is something
about a warm oven and the smell of baking that seems
so nice on a winter's day. I have been wanting to try
one of Mrs Beeton's recipes for some time. And I've been
reading her biography, so now seems like the perfect time.

COCOA~NUT BISCUITS OR CAKES
Ingredients: ~10oz of sifted sugar,3 eggs, 6oz grated cocoa~nut.
Mode.~Whisk the eggs until they are very light; add the sugar
gradually; then stir in the cocoa~nut. Roll a tablespoon of the
paste at a time in your hands in the form of a pyramid; place
pyramids on paper, put the paper on tins, bake the biscuits in
rather her a cool oven until they are just coloured light brown.
Time. About 1/4 hour. Seasonable at any time.

I used shredded coconut, and increased the amount, to make

a cake rather than a biscuit. I had the oven at about 180 degrees,

which is hotter than "rather a cool oven" but did the trick.

I also took the liberty of sprinkling a bit of coconut on top of each

cake, before it went into the oven.

And why the choice of coconut cakes you ask?

"Pretty baskets of work stood about in different places: and

books, not cared for on account of their binding solely, lay on one

table, as if recently put down. Behind the door was another

table, decked out for tea, with a white table~cloth, on which

flourished the cocoa~nut cakes, and a basket piled with

oranges and ruddy American apples, heaped on leaves.

It appeared to Mr Thornton that all these graceful cares were

habitual to the family; and especially a piece of Margaret."

Elizabeth Gaskell, North And South, 1854.

My cakes really were quite nice....although I am sure they would

not be up to Dixon's standard!

::Winkie::

There is something unquestionably book-ish
about winter. So let me share a bit of vintage
goodness with you. A little winter-ish treat.

Let me introduce you to Winkie.......



Published in 1949 and belonging to my
mum when she was a little girl, it is the
tale of a little squirrel called Winkie.



A baby squirrel, who is rescued and carried
home in the pocket of some one's raincoat. Where
he is duly fed, raised and soon up to all sorts of
mischief!



I love the richness of the watercolours and the lovely
post war domestic details. Here he is teasing Bessie the maid.
"In a flash he leaped on to the top of the door and crouched
ready to spring on her...."



And more than anything else I want to
be on one of those deck chairs on the lawn,
as the the "tea wagon" is brought into
the garden at four o'clock!



"It was crowded with good things to eat;
bread and butter, scones, a plate full
of exciting little cakes and right in the
centre was a large fruit cake. So he lightly
jumped upon it and helped himself-by
eating a hole right into the middle...!"



And all this before he hibernates for the
winter, then returns next spring~with
his wife.

Its such a beautiful book and somehow
in all its domesticity, fits with the
the adult books I have been reading
of late. Enjoy!

"Winkie the Grey Squirrel"
by Albra Pratten, Illustrated by
Ralph S.Thompson, Oxford University
Press, 1949.

::Winter Wonderfuls::

I think there is a week in every winter, when it is particularly

wuthering. And despite the joy of so much rain, cabin fever sets in.

I find myself feeling a bit dreamy about blue skies, dry days~

and if the truth be told, living vicariously for a moment through

the sunny life of a certain little Lego man!

And so I am planning a few Winter diversions for this

space, some little snippets of cosy enjoyment.....stay tuned !

~A Dream~

For such a long time I have dreamt of doing this,
super imposing one picture on another. Since I got my
first SLR when I was 16 in fact, when it would have involved
manually rolling the film back to expose the same frame
twice. (Or probably a dark room, which I didn't have....) I was
so very excited to discover the wonders that can be achieved
by downloading Picasa 3. The quote is one that I loved when
I was in my late teens, and is very right for me still.



The snow goose need not bathe,

to make itself white....

Neither need you do anything,

but be yourself.

Lao~Tzu

::A floral something::

I feel very wintry~just now. Wallowing in woolly jumpers,
frozen dew drops and cosy evenings. But a small part of me
is longing for bare arms, pretty flowers and skirts swishing in
the warm breeze.



A little bit of summer really.......