Thursday 27 February 2014

Health Food Pudding and Nursery Cake - 250 recipes by Elizabeth Craig

 I can't wait to try out some of the recipes in this vintage cookbook

Health Food Pudding



4 oz breadcrumbs, 
4 oz flour, 
2 eggs,
 little nutmeg, 
2 oz currants, 
2 tablespoonfuls treacle, 
1 teaspoonful Borwick's baking powder, 
2 oz brown sugar, 
 oz shredded suet, 
Rind and juice 1 lemon.

Mix all well together and steam two hours in a basin covered with a buttered paper. Turn out on a hot dish. Spike if liked with blanched, peeled and browned almonds. Serve with custard sauce.
Yum I feel better already!

Nursery Cake
2 cupfuls flour
1 cupful sugar
1 egg
3/4 cupful water
3 teaspoonfuls Borwick's Baking Powder
2 tablespoonfuls butter
Grated rind 1/2 lemon

Beat butter till creamy. Gradually stir in sugar, then egg, and beat well. Stir in water, lemon rind, then flour sifted with baking powder together thrice. Beat thoroughly and bake in a moderate oven. If wanted fruity, add a cupful of picked sultanas, washed and dried currants, or chopped raisins, or half sultanas and half chopped mixed peel. 


Welsh Cream Tea Cakes

1 lb flour
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/4 lb currants
Grated nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoonfuls Borwich's Baking Powder
1/4 lb butter
2 oz sugar
cream to mix

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a basin. Rub in butter, then mix in washed and dried currants, sugar, and a grated nutmeg to taste. Mix to a stiff batter with fresh cream, and foll out on a floured pastry boards. Cut into squares. Bake on a greased tin in a quick oven. Sometimes I make mixture a little thinner, and cook it in buttered muffin tins. Again, I fork out pieces of dough, and arrange them on tin, like rock cakes, without rolling mixture.

Swiss Trifle
6 sponge cakes
2 egg whites
1 oz ground almonds
3 gills Borwick's Vanilla Custard
1/2 tin pears
1/2 teaspoonful vanilla

Cut fruit into dice. Put two-thirds of it into a glass dish. Cover with sliced sponge cakes, ground almonds, and syrup from the fruit. When custard is ready, stir in the whites of eggs frothed, and vanilla. When cool pour over the sponge cakes, and decorate with sweetened whipped cream, ratafias, miniature glace oranges, and silver strands.


250 Recipes by Elizabeth Craig 

If none of the above tempt you how about Peter Pan Pudding (made with apples), Red Riding-Hood pud (made with red berries), Wendy's pudding (made with golden syrup and chopped nuts), Jack Horner slab cake, or Mother Hubbard buns!  

If you fancy something savoury you could try potato dumplings with bacon fry or Toad in the Bunker ~

6 oz flour, 1 egg, 1 breakfastcupful milk, ½ teaspoonful crushed herbs, ½ teaspoonful Borwick’s baking powder, pinch salt, 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley, 10 oz pork sausages.

~ Arrange skinned and halved sausages in the bottom of a greased pie-dish. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a basin. Beat up egg and mix with milk. Stir into flour mixture gradually and beat till smooth, then stir in parsley and herbs and pour gently over the sausage. Bake in a good oven from forty-five minutes to one hour. 

Please don’t ask me what a ‘good oven’ is as I have no idea!  

Happy Baking.

This lovely little book is no longer available, thank you for your interest.


42 comments:

  1. What a wonderful book! I love the illustrations and cute names for the dishes. I'm sure it will be snapped up by a collector very quickly. M x

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    1. It’s not the kind of book I usually buy but the illustrations are so beautiful I just couldn’t resist. Thanks for your visit, Barbara xx

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  2. Good morning Barbara! I LOVE THIS! This reminds me of the old recipe books my mother used in the 50s and 60s...Betty Crocker. But these are very telling to me, since I have never had a "pudding" - and if this is still accurate, out there in England, you say "pudding" for what we here call a general "dessert", correct?

    Either way, what lovely photos from books that I'm sure bring back so many memories for you! Have a lovely day!!! Anita

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    1. You are 100% correct Anita, well done! Pudding will always be pudding to me, although many restaurants now refer to them as sweets or desserts. My mum was a dab hand at making them with bread & butter pudding and rice pudding being two of her best. It was lovely to ‘see’ you today, thanks for calling in. xx

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing these, Barbara. These all look wonderful, especially those Welsh Tea Cakes (my mom used to make Welsh Miner's Cakes for us, whiich we called Welsh cookies). I am definitely going to try them. I am a big supporter of nursery food nad even has some English sausage stashed in my freezer for some future Toads in the Hole.

    I wonder what a good oven is, as well.

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    1. Hello Alex, I am always happy to share! I can honestly say I’ve never tried a Welsh Tea Cake or a Welsh Miner’s cake. It’s also ages since I made toad in the hole, I really must get down to some cooking soon. Thanks for your visit.

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  4. I used to watch my mum cook stuff like this many decades ago. If I was good, and more to the point, silent, she would let me lick the bowl clean. What a lovely book.

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    1. Hi Roger, licking out the bowl is definitely the best bit! I used to love it when mum iced the Christmas cake for that exact reason. Thanks for calling in.

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  5. What a gorgeous book, I love old recipes.

    We're making Welsh cakes on Saturday as it's Saint David's Day :)

    Thank you for sharing x

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    1. Hello Yvonne, I’m enjoying your Saint David’s Day posts and the Welsh cakes you shared look delicious. I hope you have a very Happy Saint David’s Day. xx

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  6. How precious. Would love one of them with my tea right now.

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    1. Now that sounds like an excellent idea! Thanks for your comment, Barbara.

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  7. Ooh nooo, it's 11pm over here in Singapore and I'm getting hungry! I'd love to try the Trifle (love vanilla) and Wendy's pudding. I imagine there will be pie recipes as well. I can't bake well (set the oven on fire once) but I do LOVE cakes and pastries. What a wonderful, scrumptious post, Barbara! (I have no idea what 'a good oven' means either. Perhaps the author merely means 'a still-functioning oven?' Kind of redundant then, huh?)

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    1. Hi Claudine, maybe you could sneak a little snack just before bedtime!
      My mum used to make sherry trifle but as far as I was concerned the sherry spoilt the taste of the custard. Like you, I love anything tasting of vanilla – vanilla yoghourt, vanilla cheesecake and best of all vanilla cream – now I’m feeling hungry!
      My grandma used to say the fire was ‘good and hot’ so I wonder if that has anything to do with a good oven – maybe it just means hot?

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  8. For the most part they seem like simple, easy recipes. I like the terms "moderate oven," "quick oven."

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    1. Hello Bish, they are simple and that is exactly why they appeal to me. I also love the vintage artwork.

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  9. mmmmmm! Rice and Bread and Butter Pudding? Now that sounds so good! My mother used to make rice pudding, but we here have several versions of that...being of Mexican heritage, my mother used to use cinnamon and lots of vanilla. Her version was creamy, where as my husband's mother is from Puerto-Rico, and used coconut and it was thick and you could cut it with a knife. Oh my, I'm getting hungry now! But your bread and butter version sounds lovely, my friend! Anita

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    1. Hello Anita, the version with cinnamon and vanilla sounds delicious - now I'm getting hungry! Have a lovely weekend. xx

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  10. Oh, yes please to the red riding hood cake with red berries. That sounds like something I would love!

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    1. Me too! My dad used to grow soft fruit when I was a little girl. The bushes were protected by netting. It probably deterred the birds but my small fingers always found a way in!

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  11. Nice recipes.Would love to try for my kiddoo..Thanks for posting Barbara :-)

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    1. Thanks Nagini. I’m sure they will taste good – go for it! Thanks for your visit.

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  12. I love old cookbooks. This one is delightful. I'm actually going to a welsh cake demonstration on Saturday at a Cookbook Store. I'm going to compare recipes.

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    1. What a great idea Darlene. I hope you enjoy the demonstration. This cookbook is quite old, so the recipe might have been adapted somewhat by now.

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  13. How wonderful, I seem to remember Borwick's baking powder? All those carbohydrates, delicious!

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    1. We all need comfort food from time to time and the more carbohydrates the more comforting it is! Thanks for your visit.

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  14. How fantastic! I love recipes that are old and that tie into books. Hearing about all of these makes me want to make the goodies and eat them while reading. So special! Of course, it is probably best to space out the recipes or at least plan for some exercising after the reading and eating. Beautiful find! You will have to let us know how the recipes turn out!

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    1. Hi Stephanie, I think perhaps one a week would be enough, but they do sound delicious and hold many memories for me. Thanks for calling in.

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  15. Old cook books provide a healthy. Nice to see cookbook offering clear and simple recipes with easily obtained ingredients as an antidote to some of what's out there.

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    1. Hello Robin, I couldn't agree more! I sometimes pick up glossy cook books in bookshops but when I start flicking through the pages have no idea what half the ingredients are. This one I do understand. Thanks for your visit.

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  16. I especially like the sound of Nursery cake! Hope you enjoy making some of these. Lovely images from the book too.

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    1. Hi Lindsay, I don’t often buy vintage cook books but having seen the images in this one I will be on the look out for more. I like the look of the nursery cake and the Welsh cream tea cakes so will be trying those first. Thanks for calling in.

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  17. Yum........Looks so tempting.Images are beautiful.I like the blue cup set, the doll with sun hat, the fire in the hearth and all other details in the photos.As for the recipes all are sounding so delicious and I want to try the Swiss Trifle but I think Microwave is not the 'good oven'. Thanks fro your lovely post and have a lovely day, Kokila

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    1. Hello Kokila, the photos are what attracted me to the book; it’s so unlike cookbooks of today. I often make a trifle. I like it because there is no baking required (unless you make your own sponge cake). I use a microwave all the time, especially for steaming vegetables but most of these recipes do call for a ‘normal’ oven.
      Have a lovely day, thanks for your visit.

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    2. :) glad to know about the microwave .... going to try :) Love, Kokila

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  19. ~ Dear Barbara...Although I'm not the greatest cook..I LOVED seeing these nostalgic pictures and hearing the descriptions made me smile...'Good oven' was one....My Mama used to say these sayings...I'm a thinking possibly not every one had the 'best', like these days...and if your oven wasn't quite so new...It may not have the same result in the rising ....Thank you for always being so kind when visiting...
    Hugs Maria x

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    1. Hi Maria, I’m not a great cook either, but I do love the illustrations in this little book, and it might just tempt me to ‘have a go’. Thank you for just being you! xx

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  20. What a wonderful recipe book. I had to copy the Nursury Cake. It just suits me. I think it'd be yummy with the right cup of tea.

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    1. Hi Donna, let me know how you get on with the nursery cake. I've got the ingredients now just need to make it. I hope it goes well with that cup of tea! x

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  21. If you still have this book Sister, would love it (Birthday perhaps???)
    lots of love
    Sue x

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    1. Hello Sue, I was hoping this little book would be going to a good home, but I had no idea it would be yours. I can’t think of a better person to look after it. Not a birthday present an un-birthday present. xxxxx

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I really appreciate your comment. Thank you!
Barbara xx