Product Description

If as a child you devoured Enid Blyton's classics like the Famous Five or Malory Towers, or loved to lose yourself in the adventures of Pippi Longstocking or What Katy Did, then CHERRY CAKE AND GINGER BEER is the book for you.

A wonderfully nostalgic cookery book, it will take you straight back to your favourite children's books and show you how to cook the feel-good foods that feature so strongly in them. So, you'll find recipes for Swallows and Amazons Squashed-Fly Biscuits, the Famous Five's Gorgeous Ginger Beer, and Gloriously Sticky Marmalade Roll from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe amongst others.

Divided into appropriate sections like Proper Elevenses, Picnic Treats and Lessons in the Kitchen each recipe is introduced with an evocative description of the book that inspired it.

Guaranteed to take you straight back to your childhood, the book is an escapist treat for grown-ups and will encourage you to re-visit much-loved classics and share them with the next generation.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80607 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Prima
'This treasure of a book is packed with lovely recipes to transport you back to childhood.'

Review
'This treasure of a book is packed with lovely recipes to transport you back to childhood.' (Prima )

'An amazing book, heartening and delightful ... everybody should read this book ... what parenting is supposed to be about'

(Vanessa Feltz, BBC Radio London )

About the Author

Jane Brocket is the creator of the hugely popular website www.yarnstorm.blogs.com , which has a huge international following. She is the author of the Gentle Art of Domesticity and Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, both published by Hodder & Stoughton. A Master of Wine and a lapsed PhD student, she lives in Berkshire with her husband and three children. To find out more visit www.janebrocket.com.

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Customer Reviews

A nostalgic treat!
This is a very different book from Jane Brocket's first book, 'The Gentle Art of Domesticity'.

A well researched examination of various different books and stories from childhood with their associated favourite foods and tasty treats. Accompanied by black and white original drawings this 'treasury' has an old fashioned, nostalgic feel to it.

It isn't a 'recipe book' in the usual sense BUT there are many worthwhile recipes for cakes and savouries that really work - it is obvious they have been tried and tested, something that even the 'serious' recipe books seem to forget to do.

I really like this book. It feels like a 'treat' to sit down and enjoy a chapter or two with an afternoon cup of tea - not forgetting a slice of cherry cake of course!

Tastes of childhood
What a charming idea, to recreate treats from the golden era of children's literature. There are lots of favourites here: Milly-Molly-Mandy's baked potatoes, which always made my mum nostalgic for her 1920s childhood; Mr Tumnus's wonderful tea; kaffee und kuchen at the Chalet School; Anne of Green Gables' liniment cake and that wonderful box, full of Debby's jumbles and sugarplums, that reached Katy and Clover just in time to console them for Christmas at school. My only criticism is that Jane Brocket relies a bit too heavily on Enid Blyton's ripping teas, wonderful as they are ... and the book, which gives the impression of being written in rather a hurry, does get rather repetitive. Still, what a jolly wheeze it would be to pull molasses candy or make Swallows and Amazons bunloaf. And taste all those mysterious treats that used to puzzle me when I read these books as a child.

So much more than a cookery book
What a delicious way to share with our children the literary characters we enjoyed when we were their age -- and to discover which ones we missed. This is a thoroughly researched and potently evocative account of the food and the feasters featured in children's classics.