Comments on: The Historic Cakes of Spitalfields

By: Fiona Maclean

Fiona Maclean — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:07:43 +0000

I have a recipe on my blog for Somerset Easter Cakes which look very like the little plum cakes. My recipe is from a book called Cattern Cakes and Lace which is a reproduction of old recipes. The uniquely ‘Somerset’ part was, apparently, the addition of Cassia (a poor man’s cinnamon), which makes lovely spicy cakes that are something like a cross between a biscuit, a scone and a traditional fairy cake.

As you said, I think most cooks would read a recipe book and then do their own thing! I have to say I do much the same today, but I suspect it’s down to how confident you are in your own cooking ability?

By: Ho

Ho — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:36:28 +0000

Fascinating article. I am going to attempt the French Biscuits tomorrow. They sound devine.

By: Cherub

Cherub — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:19:37 +0000

I am interested in the biscuit mould – we have circular moulds like this in Scotland, usually with a thistle carved in the middle, for making shortbread.

By: MARIA

MARIA — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:01:12 +0000

the biscuit mould is most intriguing

By: Little Bites

Little Bites — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:00:01 +0000

Oh wow! What a great article! It really made me hungry! Yummy! : )

By: andrea

andrea — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:37:06 +0000

The inventor of baking powder ought to be more celebrated. I tried a Little Plum Cake at your Rough Trade coffee morning and it was a distinct chewing challenge!

Happy Easter, Gentle Author.

By: CornishCockney

CornishCockney — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:20:51 +0000

Mmmmmmm! I’m feeling hungry now! Those cakes look delicious.
Not sure I could eat Pigeons or Larks as offered in the “Second Course” though!

By: jeannette

jeannette — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:23:58 +0000

happy easter, GA.

how interesting to think americans have cleaned london out of MS recipe books; i have been aware since i was a tiny tot reading my mother’s MS recipe books — or, looking at them before i could read — how they were as you say, the stories of women’s work otherwise unrecorded.

laura shapiro — Perfection Salad — a wonderful book about how americans (fannie farmer) quantified recipes and invented “home” “economics” in an era when such was one of the few jobs open to women.

oh and plagiarizing the work of others is a tradition in cook books. madeleine kamman dedicated her feminist manifesto, When Frenchwomen Cook, to the mother and grandmother of Paul Bocuse, from whose trad peasant recipes (chicken with vinegar) bocuse bogarted his entire career.

what lovely photos and sweet scents! thank you.