Month: October 2016

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Wartime Christmas Cake – Ministry of Food – Recipe No. 156

So here is the first promised Wartime Christmas themed recipe for our ‘Wartime Christmas Countdown’ here on www.the1940sExperiment.com.

This is a recommended Christmas Cake recipe from the Ministry of Food in the mid 1940’s and the rationed ingredients make a very acceptable cake. My son works in Tesco’s so I was able to go shopping last night with him and get a 10% discount on my shopping! (he has a staff discount card!). Every little bit helps!

Wartime Christmas Cake – Ministry of Food

4 oz (115g) margarine
3 oz (85g) of soft brown sugar
1 lb dried mixed fruit
2 reconstituted dried eggs or 2 fresh eggs
3 level tablespoons of warmed treacle or golden syrup
8 oz (225g) of plain flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
3 tablespoons of cold strained tea
(I also added a slug of dark rum!)

Method

Line a 7 inch (18cm) cake tin with greaseproof or parchment paper.
Pre-heat oven to 150 C (300 F), Gas Mark 2.
Cream the margarine and sugar.
Gradually add the beaten eggs then the syrup or the treacle.
Sift all the dry ingredients together then add to the creamed mixture and then add the fruit and tea. Add a slug of rum or rum essence if you wish.
Spoon into the cake tin and make a hollow in the centre so the cake will be flatter on top.
Bake for 2 to 2.5 hours or until the top is firm and the sides are slightly sinking away from the side of the tin. (You may need to cover top with foil half way through cooking).
Cool in the tin.
When cool remove from the tin and place in airtight container.

Over the coming weeks you can feed the cake with rum/whisky/sherry and nearer Christmas you can finally ice and decorate!

“Do you enjoy my blog and recipes? I’m raising money for the Royal British Legion by running the London Marathon in April. Please consider giving a few £’s – thank you 🙂 “

DONATE HERE

ingredients
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Subscribe to the 1940’s Christmas Countdown!

Christmas is literally around the corner and from now until the big day, once a week, I will be posting a 1940’s Christmas Wartime Recipe or Do-It-Yourself 40’s Christmas Craft.

[Subscribe here to my e-mail newsletter here to keep you up to date with this 1940’s Christmas Countdown!]

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This weekend will be part 1 of a ration book Christmas cake from a wartime ‘Ministry of Food’ recipe pamphlet.(photo above is one I did several years ago!)

And it’s never too early to start thinking about recycling old Christmas cards, newspapers and magazines for pretty tree decorations and paper chains!

Above all, I don’t know about you, but there is something very comforting about a Christmas where we have made things ourselves, sometimes out of very little AND saved money.

If anyone has any festive home front ideas or recipes you’d like me to recreate why not drop me a line!

Love C xxxx

PS: A little video just to get you in the Christmas mood!

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Facebook Live 1

Just silly, and upside down for a few seconds, and eating dinner, a gloopy 40’s style stew which was rather dangerous seeing as I was wearing my new dress…

My Facebook page is HERE.

C xxx

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I’m running the London Marathon…

What a whirlwind of emotion, of disappointment and elation. I never seem to have a happy medium but I can’t complain as in 2017 I am

“RUNNING THE LONDON MARATHON FOR THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION” …..(drops to floor in utter shock) – CLICK HERE

Yes I’m shouting that out loud in a hugely excited and animated way with a smidgen of pure terror thrown in for good measure!

carolyndonateTEAM LEGION selected me as one of their charity runners. Just the week before I had got the bad news after applying through the Virgin London Marathon ballot that I didn’t get through so then I applied to the Royal British Legion, filled in their application form and gave them my reasons for wanting to do the London Marathon for them. The chances of getting chosen are VERY remote… so to get this wonderful news last night has filled me with joy.

To be honest it’s been my saviour right now.

I’d been training for the Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon to walk/jog for the ‘Children’s Hospital Charity’ through my employer http://www.pmsdiecasting.co.uk, when two days before the race I was up all night with a horrible ‘vomiting and D’ (I can’t say that word and definitely can’t spell it!). Regardless we caught the train to York and convinced myself that by Sunday morning I’d be OK. Although I wasn’t sick anymore the D’s continued and by Saturday evening I was so dehydrated I had stopped peeing…

Sunday morning still no pee. I got dressed in my Marathon gear, ordered the taxi to the starting line and 5 minutes before it arrived promptly had a gushing nosebleed. My daughter begged me not to run, “your ill, don’t do it” and a call from my brother in Australia knocked some sense into me and at the last moment I withdrew and went back to bed.

Later in the day we went to the finish line to watch my work colleague Alicja finish her first Marathon for the charity we were fundraising for in an incredible 6 hours and 4 minutes!

It was so emotional to watch…it really was. And thank you to all who supported as we were able to raise £750 and reach our goal for the children’s hospital.

The reason this unexpected news has been my saviour is that for the past 3 or 4 weeks my eating has started to go off the rails. I’ve eaten chocolate, crisps, and lots of cake and cheese and my 1940’s eating had gone out the window. That horrid feeling of “I’m-slowly-losing-control-and-all-this-weight-I’ve-lost-will-go-back-on-again” was taking over. Infact over the last 3 or 4 weeks I put on 10 lbs…

I weighed in the other day at 260 lbs (still 85 lbs down from my heaviest ever but brought my weight loss back up to only 45 lbs this year)

NOW, with this news, I have focus, I have a really big challenge ahead and I LOVE challenges!

For TEAM LEGION I will be raising £2000 and raising awareness of the Royal British Legion and what they do for ex-service people and veterans.

For myself, my own personal challenge will to be lose 60 lbs in 6 months and run the London Marathon in under 6 hours.

Today I’ve been back on my rationing plan and today I am full of hope 🙂

Lots of love

C xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS: My fundraising page is at www.donatepoppy.uk

liveon1

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Vegan Cheesy Pizza Puffs – Non-1940s Recipe!

Yes occasionally I do bake and try foods off ration. I try not to do it too often but once in a while it satiates my need to experience new things and I do so love cooking!

I wanted to try a recipe I had seen online but convert it to a ‘Vegan Party Food’ and I also tried a very quick video style (one handed with my phone!) which I think I would like to adapt using 1940s music for some of my recipes going forward (although I think some of the iconic 40’s recipes deserve longer videos to tell the story!).

I’ll set a page up for occasional vegan recipes as I know there are a lot of people out there moving away from dairy etc because of lactose intolerance and ethical reasons and I really don’t want to have to create another blog or website when my main passion is historical cooking!!!

I’m catching up on life a bit here and really looking forward to creating some 1940s Christmas Recipes and also some wartime Christmas decorations too which I will of course photograph and video for the blog to share.

Lots of love

C xxxx

All ingredients from Sainsbury’s!

RECIPE
1 roll of Puff Pastry (Just Roll is suitable for Vegans)
Dairy free margarine
Tomato Puree
Dried mixed herbs
Dairy free cheese, I used half Vio-Life Mozerella and half Cheezly
3 or 4 spring onions chopped finely
Parchment paper for baking tray

METHOD
Roll out the puff pastry sheet leaving the backing on
Spread a very thin layer of margarine
Spread a thin layer of tomato puree
Sprinkle on the grated dairy free cheese (I used half a block of each)
Sprinkle on lots of dried mixed herbs
Sprinkle on the chopped spring onions
Roll the pastry sheet up into a sausage shape
Create pin wheels by chopping into slices about 1/2 inch thick (mine made 12)
Place on baking tray
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 200 c for 20 mins until golden brown
Remove, leave to cool so not hot
YUM!

Thank you to www.bensound.com for the music!