Table of Content
Instead of fats, like butter, they used dried fruits - this helped keep the cake moist for a long time which was perfect for the long journey to the front line. The recipe included very little flour – this helped to keep it small and dense, ideal for fitting in a parcel to post to the trenches. And finally, you won’t find any eggs in this recipe - they substituted vinegar for this luxury item to help the cake rise. While the chocolate is melting, mix the two flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the buttermilk. At the time, it was often difficult to get ingredients so the recipe contained no eggs, and a combination of vinegar and baking soda were used to give the cake rise.
Hello there Laurie - just wanted to ask you if i can be of some practical help to you all there regarding helping to halt the progress of the destructive upheaval currently occurring - due to this huge wind farm being erected.. I only heard about it this morning via seeing Paul bloomers recent drawings.. & am obviously seriously concerned about the impact it will have on everything there. I too am an artist & also write. If you would like my assistance in any practical way please get in touch.
Bake a WW1 Trench Cake - Learning Activities for Kids
Granny Eliza (as I'm calling her) was born in 1878, married George and had six children, including my great-granny Barbara, or Grandmam as I knew her. All the children were born between 1910 and 1921 – Grandmam herself born in 1916, just two years into the war, so it seemed fitting that I use this bowl, which was itself in ‘active service’ during the war years to make the trench cake. That, or hiding under the tables if Robbie and Finn decide to tell me, their commanding officer, to ‘do one’ and use it as a missile instead. It’s astounding that in the depths of war, the Post Office still managed to deliver 12 million parcels and letters every week to men at the Western Front. We agreed (yet again!) that none of us knew what we’d really do if faced with similar circumstances to the men who fought in the trenches of World War One.
Traditionally, fruitcakes and trench cakes were stored wrapped in cloth soaked in brandy, and then that in turn in a sealed tin. In the 21st Century we’d of course add a layer of plastic inside the tin–such as a food grade Ziplock bag. If stored for long periods of time, then the tin can be reopened and the brandy on the cloth can be renewed — at least once a year. Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour hour 30 minutes - if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don't worry if it cracks a bit).
First World War Trench Cake
How people can survive in harmony with nature has fueled my food safety and survival gardening practices. It was an absolute treat for soldiers used to living on the eternal cans of macaroni and bully beef – when they could get them. The fact that it was baked with loving hands and hearts made it even more special. If she was making a very rich Christmas cake the fruit was not boiled.
Perhaps they too worked together in their busy kitchen in Voe, mixing up cakes as Lena and I did on that rainy Saturday morning in November. A few months ago, I was given my great-great grandmother’s earthenware mixing bowl, one of her few personal possessions which has been passed down through the generations. She was called Eliza Johnson and came, originally, from the island of Papa Stour on the west coast of Shetland.
Support SurvivalBlog
He has a particular interest in the First world war! Sometimes I explore further afield too, and I'm particularly passionate about Scotland's islands. Hello, and welcome to my blog. I hope that you find what you're looking for - whether you're planning that perfect holiday or maybe you're from Shetland and looking for some 'home' inspiration. Hopefully, there is something here for everyone.
I found it best eaten fresh – like still a little warm from the oven, with some icing sugar sieved over the top. Perhaps to our 21st century tastes it’s a bit on the stodgy side, but let’s face it, during wartime and food rationing any kind of cake was welcome. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl – the flour, cocoa, spices and lemon zest .
World War One Trench Birthday Cake
There are no eggs in this recipe and vinegar was used to react with the baking soda to help the cake rise. Now, people back home during World War One weren’t totally ignorant of the realities of the war. They would have seen men returning bandaged and broken, unable to speak of their experiences and worked out that maybe this war wasn’t the jolly 20th century Butlin’s holiday it had been billed as. Soldiers also wrote home to their families to tell them of their experiences. If it did, or if it contained information that wasn’t classified but was deemed too graphic or likely to lower morale, that section could be deleted or crossed out.
It was an incomprehensible time – in everything I’ve taught, nothing comes close to matching the futility and horror of trench warfare and the impossibility of how people coped with it. Take Herbert Burden, a soldier who fled the battlefield after seeing the carnage and massacre at Bellwarde Ridge , where over 1000 men were slaughtered in a 1/2 mile square battlefield in 12 hours. Aged just 16, he was still 2 years too young to have officially and legally signed up to the war but he had lied about his age – like many others, he had been swept along in the propaganda campaigns promising excitement and adventure. Still didn’t stop him getting executed by firing squad for desertion, though. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.
But instead of the 8 inch spring form pan, I used a #10 can which is 6 inches. Though I wouldn’t want it any thinner. With or without cream cheese, everyone who tried it, loved it. Incorporate margarine into the dry mixture from step 2 using a pastry cutter or simply a fork will do. Traveler, photographer, writer. I’m eternally curious, in love with the natural world.
Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break the chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Tip in the butter, then mix the coffee granules into 125ml/4fl oz cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted - don't overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through. Trench cake, a home-made fruit cake has its roots in the kitchens of the First World War.
No comments:
Post a Comment