Dear all, as I navigate a life without an income and work on my 1st recipe book, I have to think of other streams of income that can help support my channels and I. We’ve all heard of “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and I have learned this is very true!
Over the coming months I will alongside, the recipe book (and video creation and blogging) be creating the “Ration Book Emporium” on Etsy (launches late February here https://www.etsy.com/shop/RationBookEmporium ) where I will be selling downloadable and physical products such as rationing themed books, ebooks, recipe cards, posters, tea towels, aprons and much more, for all rationing fans PLUS I will also be introducing a membership level in February to my YouTube channel (called the “Ration Book Club”).
Nothing currently will change on the channel at all, and I will continue to create free content for everyone as I currently do, but going forward, I will be creating some EXTRA content such as LIVE streams for the “Ration Book Club” where we can meet once a month for a natter as well as extra useful and helpful content for members. This membership will be the minimum amount I can set it at which will be 0.99p per month in the hope that this will be affordable to more people. I will announce this when the “Ration Book Club” is ready to launch.
Thanks again for all your support…. I am working sooooo hard to make this dream come true and not have to return to a day job!
There are occasional moments in my day where I feel time unexpectedly slip, and today was one of them. Standing in Tesco, I spotted a familiar little tin on the baking supplies shelf: Borwick’s Baking Powder, priced at just 95p, quietly unchanged while the world around it has rushed on.
Borwick’s Baking Powder has been a staple of British kitchens since the mid-19th century. First produced in the 1840s, long before electric mixers and glossy cookbooks, it helped generations of home bakers coax lightness into cakes and scones cooked in wood and coal-fired ovens. By the time the 1940s arrived, Borwick’s was already old-fashioned, in the best possible sense, as a trusted cupboard essential.
What struck me most was the tin itself. The design you can buy today looks remarkably similar to those from over a century ago. Original Borwick’s tins regularly appear on eBay for £15 or more, but if you are watching the pennies, this modern version does the job beautifully. Tucked into your kitchen cupboard, it would pass perfectly for something lifted straight from a 1940s wartime home.
Here are some advertising images below for “Borwick’s Baking Powder” from 1892 through to 1947 I found that you might like to see! I LOVE old advertising ads and signs!
A Brief History Timeline of Borwick’s Baking Powder
1840s Borwick’s Baking Powder is first produced in Britain, at a time when home baking relied on skill, experience and often unreliable raising methods. Baking powder quickly proves revolutionary for everyday cooks.
Mid–Late 1800s Borwick’s becomes a trusted household name. Its distinctive tin design begins to take shape, practical, recognisable, and reassuringly plain.
Early 1900s The brand is firmly established in British kitchens. Borwick’s tins are commonly found in pantries and baking cupboards across the country, used for cakes, breads, and puddings.
1939–1945 (Second World War) During rationing, Borwick’s remains an important baking staple. Reliable raising agents help home cooks make the most of limited ingredients, and the tin would have been a familiar sight in 1940s kitchens.
Late 20th Century While many brands modernise or disappear, Borwick’s retains its traditional look, becoming quietly nostalgic even while still in everyday use.
Today Still available in UK supermarkets for under £1, Borwick’s Baking Powder continues to use packaging that closely echoes its Victorian and early 20th-century designs. Original tins are now sought-after collectibles, while the modern version remains a practical and affordable link to the past.
Question:“Do you remember this tin from your childhood kitchen? Or did your mum bake with Borwick’s during the war years? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments!”
A quick touch in today! I’ve had a very busy day with lots of typing involved and trying not to get too distracted! I’m having such a great time discovering old WW2 recipes and am trying to decide what recipes to re-create for the cookbook!
I came across this so thought I would share it. This cookery booklet was published by the Self Help Co-Op grocery group to assist people to produce good food during wartime rationing. (New Zealand, 1942).
A BIG weight loss this first week, a lot will be water weight but also I have been eating a lot less than I normally would! Honestly, I’m glad a lot has dropped off even though some of it is because of my abdo pain episode. It has given me a shock, especially my high blood pressure reading and oxygen sats level.
I’ll be updating you on all things rationing throughout the week and this weekend as I have a lot to say!
I’m not getting out and about too much right now (I’m typing this from my bed as my abdomen feels most comfortable here) as honestly, every mild twinge I am worrying the big pain will come back again! Ultrasound on January the 30th.
In the interim, I’m sticking to rationing but eating small portions of food every 2-3 hours. I do seem to feel twinges about 15 minutes after eating but honestly, I don’t know if that is just me taking notice more around meal times! I’m keeping a food diary however!
I have also been out a couple of times for some gentle, short walks. This all adds to feeling happier and good health so I will continue this when I can!
What have I been eating this week?
Well, I started the week off with a couple of really large stews such as the kale and bean stew above. However, since Wednesday’s abdo pain episode and visit to urgent care, I’ve been careful to eat small portions and have foods that give me less wind. I’ve only used half my fat ration, a smidgen of my sugar ration, I ate my cheese, half my milk, most of my tea ration, and I used up all my meat ration (pea protein alternative). I didn’t bake or eat any puddings.
I’m hoping to bake a few things this week and eat small portions of them. I do feel hungry as I am not eating enough but I am building this up this week and will aim for 1500 cals daily this week on small portions. At the moment I am averaging 1200 (not from choice!).
I recorded a chatty catch-up video for YouTube which premiere’s tonight at 7pm. Hope you’ll join me there for a chit-chat.
You may know already that I had an abdominal pain issue that had me in urgent care this past week so I’ve been taking things easy and strictly watching my diet (yes, even on rations!) so I am currently eating very small meals every 2-3 hrs and am keeping a food diary over the next couple of weeks to keep an eye on things.
I hope to be back to baking and cooking next week though, while this week I am muddling through eating bits of potato, porridge, toast/jam and apples! I’m slowly starting to add other bits of food in..
Dear all, I need your feedback, and I’ll likely ask you another 10 times too until I get this right! How do you feel about this book cover design? Is it boring, sterile, not nostalgic enough, is it modern with a little hint of vintage thrown in? (I’ve used Gill Sans font used in the 1940s and a modern, fun retro font too) Would it stand out on a bookshelf among other recipe books? (I don’t want it to look like many of the others.) Do you like or dislike it? Do you have an idea? I need to know how it makes you feel (please), and I will not be offended, so please be brutally honest! >>> Thank you xx
For new readers: I quit my job, and I’m taking a leap of faith to self-publish a recipe book in 3 months as a personal growth project (and because I’ve always wanted to so badly). But I also want to create everything around it to from the design to marketing, socials and ecommerce (as well as the baking, photography and writing) as for me this is also all about learning and acquiring new skills too.
Where do I begin? I’m currently on extreme rations while trying to understand what is going on with intense, upper-right abdomen cramps yesterday. I ended up in Urgent Care, had a long, long wait, but received lovely care, treatment, blood and wee tests, and a referral by the surgical team for an Ultrasound scan. Oh, and they gave me strong drugs (codeine phosphate) in case I had another attack.
All is absolutely fine, and the hospital feels it is likely to be a post-gallbladder removal syndrome where there can be spasms of the sphincter or a change in concentration of bile salts (among other things), even several years after having your gallbladder removed. This makes sense to me as it feels so similar to the pain and cramps I had in 2019 and little cramps and tension I’ve had since then over the years too.
To cut a long story short, I’m going to avoid massive stews with lots of beans and lentils, keep to smaller meals and make sure that they are fairly low in fat, keep a food diary for a week and see if I get any further pain and cramps after eating, and take notes!
Yesterday I barely ate at all, apart from several dextrose tablets borrowed from my daughter’s handbag while we spent several long hours waiting in urgent care. Today has been a little better, with 50g of oat bran for breakfast, then half a small baked potato for lunch, followed by half of a low-fat pasty I made yesterday using wartime economical pastry, filled with a meat substitute, leeks, and potatoes that I’d prepared the day before.
Here is the recipe I used for the “economical pastry”.
1 oz fat
4 oz flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (or none if using self-raising flour)
milk to bind
Makes enough pastry for 4 pasties.
And here is my daughter giving me a pep talk when we got in late last night. Honestly, she really looked after me and is a treasure.
This is a super quick recipe for a bread roll when you haven’t got time to bake a loaf with yeast. This took me less than 30 minutes to create from mixing to the moment I took them out of the oven! These are slightly denser than your typical bread roll (and would have been even more so with National Flour) but absolutely delicious nevertheless! Perfect to dip in gravy!
8 oz (225g) of self-raising flour or plain flour sifted with 2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 oz (25g) margarine
1/4 pint (150 ml) of milk
pinch of salt
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 230C (450F) Gas Mark 8 – I made my rolls a little larger and cooked them at 180C for longer
Lightly grease a baking tray
Sift the flour/baking powder/salt into a bowl
Rub in the margarine
Add enough milk to make a soft binding consistency (the mixture mustn’t be too stiff but more on the side of sticky)
Divide the dough into 10 portions and roll into balls with floured hands
Place on the baking tray and cook for 10 minutes or so (longer if you bake them at a lower temperature) until they feel firm and are golden brown in colour
Am back to rationing, and as crazy as it sounds, I feel like I am coming home!
Starting yesterday (January 12th) I am committed to following the allowances during rationing (in 1940) for as long as it takes to write and publish my >>>WW2 Ration Book Recipe Cook Book<<<
I will also commit to doing short touch ins on my blog and social channels during this journey but also do weekly long form video updates on my YouTube channel at >>>www.RationBookRecipes.tv<<< and a full weekly update on my blog too!
I haven’t planned recipes this week because
I am literally still using up stuff the best way I can before they go “off” so this week I am mostly eating stews!
Next week I start cooking, baking and photographing the recipes for the cook book so my focus for planning is with that (I’ll be sharing glimpses)
It was fun the other day to work out in today’s prices, here in the UK, what it would cost someone to purchase their full WW2 food ration. I’ve enclosed some screenshots from my notes below! NOTE: I am going to be using a pea protein meat substitute (its processed but far from ultra processed) some weeks so I can create MEAT RECIPES that look authentic for the recipe book. Most weeks I will be using extra dried beans/legumes.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about my weight and some of the food I’ve been eating!
But for now here is the “Kale and Haricot Bean Stew” I’ve made myself for lunch (and hopefully there will be enough for tomorrows lunch too!)
My birthday was perfect, exactly how I like it. A gentle, low-key day, family, coffee, cake and a last splurge on pizza day before rationing starts today on January the 12th! I will share my rationing updates with you this week, likely a series of short daily written updates with a few photos thrown in for good measure!
Today I start back to work after a few weeks rest over the festive period. When I say work, I of course mean “working for myself”, planning and writing my very first WW2 cook book (and other exciting things in the mix) so every day I am now committed to 6-8 hours of book writing, content development as well as a focus on creating delicious WW2 recipes and photographing them all while living on WW2 rations while doing so. I want to feel the reality while I write….
Thank you once again for all the lovely comments and messages you have been so kind to leave me. It made my 60th birthday so very special, thank you.
C xxxx
PS: I had a mystery gift the day before my birthday on January the 7th, the gift came from a company called “The Ration Room” and I know you’ll love looking at this video!! I couldn’t work out who sent me the gift but in the end it transpired it was from my friend Kaytie and some of my ex-work colleagues (Oph, Kaysh and Ellie). I absolutely love it…. thank you
