Delicious, with Dried Eggs.

With fresh eggs in short supply for much of the war, the Ministry of Food in Britain in WW II worked hard to “sell” the idea and the reality of dried eggs to the general public. The Ministry’s weekly Food Facts and Dried Egg leaflets assured housewives that the product was ‘made from top- quality new laid eggs, with only the shell and water taken away’, was ‘easy to get, easy to cook, and easy on the purse’, and that ‘the main secret in using dried eggs is to be very careful about the reconstituting …’

The Ministry was still telling the dried egg tale for years after the war ended. Rationing of many goods remained in force in Britain until July 1954, and food shortages were at times worse afterwards than they had been during the war itself. In 1948, as Easter approached, the Ministry’s regular Food Facts leaflet contained a recipe for “An Easter Treat for the Family” - a chocolate cake made with dried egg (no need to reconstitute when used in baking).

Delicious, Easy to Make Chocolate Cake.

If you are planning to use some of your sugar and fats for Easter Baking, whey not a chocolate cake? This one is delicious. You’ll find the recipe, which is kitchen-tested, is not too hard on the rations. The cake is excellent even withoug the icing.

Chocolate Cake.

2 oz. margarine; 3 oz. sugar; 2 level dessersps. Syrup, 3 level tablesps. dried egg, dry; 6 tablesps. water; vanilla essence; 6 oz. plain flour; 1 level teasp baking powder; 2 level tablesps. cocoa; ¼ level teasp. salt; 1 level teasp. bicarbonate of soda; about ¼ pint milk and water.
Cream margarine, sugar, and syrup. Beat in egg, then water and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients (except soda), add to mixture alternately with milk in which soda is dissolved, to make a soft consistency. Spread evenly in well-greased 8 inch sandwich tin, and bake in a moderate oven for 25-30 minutes.

Chocolate Cream Icing.

1 ½ oz. sugar, 1 ½ oz. margarine, 1 teasp vanilla essence; 2 level tablesp soya flour; 1 level tablesp cocoa; 1 tablesp hot water.
Cream sugar and margarine well, add essence, and cream again. Add soya four, cocoa, and hot water gradually. Beat again until smooth and light in colour. Spread over cake and finish by marking in circles with prongs of a fork.

Quotation for the Day.

Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)