January 10, 2013: Vintage Baking

I got some great books for Christmas.  Rather, I ordered some great books for myself for Christmas.  Today the sun was shining and it felt like a great day to dig into one of them and bake.  Here's what I worked from:

It really is a lovely book.   I have a small collection of vintage cookbooks and I love reading the recipes for the old fashioned baked goodies.  There is hardly a chocolate chip or package of cream cheese mentioned in most of them; mostly just butter, sugar, flour and lots of dried fruit.  This book is basically a collection of the most popular of the oldies, but with lovely photographs.  After reading through it the first time I just had to make a round of the thrift stores to see if I could find any lovely vintage baking treasures.

So today I dusted off my Mix Master and made the Victoria Sandwich Cake, which is the cake you see on the front cover.  It's like a strawberry shortcake but with jam instead of strawberries in the filling.  I didn't want to use just any red jam though.  No, indeed, I wanted to use this:

It's rose petal jelly from Provence and it's gooo-ood!  It smells like roses; it tastes like roses; it even has rose petals in it.  I bought a jar before Christmas and loved it so much I bought another jar and wrapped it up and told Mr. Crafty he was to put it in my stocking.  I am a little stingy with it though.  Today  I thought it would bring an extra vintage touch to a vintage cake so I let up a little.  I like it , and it got three out of four thumbs up.  Only three because My Favourite Boy has not tried the cake yet.

My Favourite Girl and I did not even wait until the boys got home from school/work to try it; we just got out the forks and indulged.  I had it with a cup of Zhena's Gypsy Rose tea and I was in rose heaven. Next time - and there will be a next time - I will not sweeten the whipped cream because the jam is sweet enough.  The recipe did not call for sweetened whipped cream but I did it anyway.

I was hoping to get a little sewing done with some new vintage style fabric afterwards, but it didn't pan out.  However, the laundry room is cleaner than it has been in months and lots of washing and ironing got done, so I can't complain about the way the day went.  Perhaps tomorrow:)