This week I am still dreaming about the past and cooking from my lovely old antiquated cookery books. The latest grand dame of the kitchen is Maura Laverty and her book ‘Full and Plenty’, which was fondly known as a doorstopper due to it’s hefty size and weight. This book was first published in 1960 and was the first ‘real’ Irish cookbook. Before that, the only cookbook Irish people owned, was the one you got free with the cooker! Maura was quite the character and her cook book is filled with funny little anecdotes. She was something of a Renaissance lady with a talent for writing and broadcasting as well as cookery. She was a woman before her time and if she was still around today she would most likely be a millionaire. Maura initially started writing pieces for the paper, and then progressed to writing novels (some of which were banned) and plays. Her cookbook came about from her love of food which was shaped by the time she spent in Spain working as a governess. Her first cookbook was commissioned by the government and its intention was to show Irish housewives how to make do with what little food they had at their disposal.
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Each chapter in ‘Full and Plenty’ is prefaced with a little tale and it almost reads like a series of short stories with recipes thrown in. That said there are definitely plenty of recipes in this book. About three times the amount you would find in a normal book. Of course, there are very few pictures. And this book was really only written for people who can actually cook. There is none of the long descriptive methods and step by step guides that you get in modern day books. The methods are so brief that you almost have to imagine for yourself what your cake is supposed to look like at each stage.
I very ambitiously tried to recreate two of her recipes, Geneoese sponge fancies and éclairs. I wanted to produce the perfect assortment of small fancy cakes, which seemed so de rigueur in the 1960’s. I don’t think I quite anticipated how time consuming and fiddly it would turn out to be. I am not sure if I am really up to all this 1960’s power baking 🙂
Here’s how:
Genoese sponge fancies
– 7 oz of flour
– 1 oz of cornflour
– 8 oz of castor sugar
– 1 teaspoon of baking powder
– 4 eggs
– 4 oz of butter
Line a baking sheet with butter, mine was 9 x 9 inches and pretty deep. A square or rectangular baking sheet works best as there will be less waste when you cut the cake up into small rectangles. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder together into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs together over a saucepan of hot water; continue beating as you add the sugar to the eggs. Beat until mixuture is light and thick enough to hold trace of your egg whisk. I started out using a hand whisk, but quickly resorted to an electric whisk when my hand felt like it was going to fall off! Gently fold in the flour and cornflour.
Meanwhile melt the butter in a small saucepan. Then lightly fold the melted butter into the flour and egg. Place the mixture into your pre-prepared tin and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. The cake should be golden brown and resilient to touch. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
When the cake was fully cooled, I cut half of it into small rectangles, diamonds and triangular shapes. For the other half of the cake, I used a heart shape cutter to cut small hearts.
For the iced hearts and diamonds, I brushed the tops of each with warm apricot jam. I then placed a layer of marzipan on top of the jam and sealed with some glace icing. Once the icing was set I decorated with red and yellow coloured icing.
For the mini coffee cakes, I covered the cake rectangles with coffee buttercream icing and decorated with chocolate pieces and wrote coffee in white icing.
For the coconut triangles, I dipped the shaped cake bits in raspberry jam and rolled in desiccated coconut.
Choux pastry for éclairs
– 1/2 pint of water
– 4 oz of butter
– 5 oz of flour sieved
– 3 eggs
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
Bring the water and butter to the boil. Then quickly stir in the sifted flour. On a low heat cook this batter until it forms a stiff paste and comes away from the side of the saucepan. It should be smooth and elastic. Then cool the mixture for a few minutes until it reaches room temperature. Beat in the eggs one at a time, ensuring that the mixture is well blended before adding the next egg. Using a piping bag with a medium sized nozzle, pipe the éclairs onto the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle a few drops of cold water onto the baking sheet as this will help produce more steam when cooking and will give a crisper pastry. Cook the éclairs for about 20 minutes. They should be golden brown all over. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, slit a hole in the side and spoon in some whipped cream. I iced some of my éclairs with coffee icing and some with chocolate icing.
