After a long
break, The Old Foodie is back. I wont promise at this stage that I will return
to five posts a week as I did without fail for ten years, but will begin with
one only - a single little story for your delectation – each week. How is that
for starters?
Thanks to
all of you for your messages of love and your many requests for my return.
As it is
Halloween, I thought I would begin with a few recipes from old Aussie
newspapers, to make the spooky scary night even more fun. I have chosen a
couple of apple-centric bakery-type dishes, because everyone likes bakery
goods, and because apples are associated with autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.
Of course, here in the Southern half of the globe, spring has truly sprung and apples
are well past their peak and already being usurped by mangoes and stone-fruit -
but as a population we have not as yet managed to disentangle ourselves from
the handicap of seasonally inappropriate wrong-hemisphere ingredients when it comes to ‘traditional’
celebrations.
I have also
included a Hallowe’en beverage in the style of liquid fruit salad, or the
alternative style of a couple of bottles of ruined cider, and leave you to make
up your own minds about its potential deliciousness. I dedicate this recipe to all who still think
of England as “The Motherland.”
HALLOWE'EN APPLE CAKE.
1lb. flour, ¼
lb. golden syrup,6oz. moist sugar, 2oz. citron peel or crystallised ginger, 1lb.
apples (stewed, but not watery), 2 eggs,1 teaspoon each ground ginger and mixed
spice, cinnamon, grated rind of 1 lemon, I gill sour milk, 1 teaspoon
bicarbonate soda.
Sift flour
and spice, and rub in the butter. Add the sugar, chopped peel, and lemon rind. Stew
the apples to a pulp in a very little water. When they are soft, stir in the
golden syrup, milk, and bicarbonate of soda, use for mixing the cake. Add
the eggs, and beat the mixture for a few minutes before pouring into a greased
tin and baking for about
When the cake is
cold spread with coffee butter icing, then stand it on a sheet of paper containing
2oz. hundreds and thousands. By lifting the sides of the paper they can be made
to stick to the cake.
Stick
coarsely chopped walnuts round the edge, and decorate the top with crystallised
fruits.
Queensland Times
(Ipswich) 26 October, 1936
HALLOWE’EN PUDDING.
One pound of
cooking apples, 2 oz. breadcrumbs, 1 ½ oz. ground almonds, ¼ lb. sugar, 3
dessertspoons butter, 1 egg, a few almonds. Peel and core apples, cut into
quarters and cook in a little water till tender. Mix crumbs with the apples,
and put into a greased pudding dish. Mix sugar, butter, ground almonds, and
beaten eggs, put on top of apple mixture, decorate top with almonds and bake 40
minutes. Serve cold.
Chronicle
(Adelaide) 12 October, 1944
HALLOWE’EN CUP.
To-morrow is
Hallowe’en – party time for those in whom English sentiment stirs deeply.
This recipe
is for Hallowe’en Cup, with which to toast distant friends in the Motherland.
Into a glass
jug place a cup of castor sugar and the strained juice of six lemons and an orange.
Leave until dissolved, stirring occasionally.
Add a cup of
pineapple cubes, a cup of unpeeled apple cubes, a peeled sliced banana, six maraschino
cherries or whole strawberries, with two cups of crushed ice.
Leave for
five minutes, and then add two large bottles of ginger ale and two bottles of cider.
The Sun (Sydney) 30 October,
1941
Here are the
links to previous Halloween blog posts:
Two Excuses to Celebrate.
Fourth Blogoversary
A Mysterious Stew for Halloween [FOR 3
MEALS]. 1906
Theme it Orange: A Halloween Menu and
Recipes, 1928.
Queen Victoria’s Hallowe’en, 1879
Pumpkin Wine, Grown on the Vine.
Witch Cakes and Goblin Sandwiches.
Recipes for Goblin Sandwiches, Witch
Cakes, Witches Brew.
