August Recipe Challenge results: Lemon Pudding

Many magazines published articles featuring certain brands or as content for specific types of women to buy their magazines. Often these recipes would be aspirational for entertaining featuring detailed lists and schedules for arranging dinner parties or family meals.

In our previous newsletter, we set a challenge for our readers to make ‘Lemon Pudding’ from a recipe published in January 1903 from Ladies World magazine.

Our chairman, Richard Roberts, had a go at making the recipe and the results were in his words “interesting yet tasty”. The recipe was very similar to lemon meringue pie filling.

Richard said that while it came out less solid than expected it was devoured by his friend’s family and he would definitely make it again.

In modern terms or a conversions, cornflour used instead of plain flour would have helped it set better. Cornflour was available in the UK at the time of the publication of this recipe but perhaps it was not yet availbale to the majority of home bakers during the early 1900s. It was used in many foods including Bird’s Custard Powder which was invented by Birmingham chemist, Alfred Bird in 1837.

Cornflour would be a better option in this case because it makes oobleck - a non-Newtonian fluid, becoming more viscous under pressure and at a lower temperature. Cornflour removes the need to use butter, plain flour or gelatine as setting agents in both savoury and sweet recipes.

September Recipe New Challenge: Marzipan Logs

This month we are challenging our readers to make some sweet treats – Marzipan Logs from November 1938 ‘Woman and Home’ magazine. These sweet little morsels are made from sponge cake wrapped in a chocolate flavour marzipan paste and would make darling petit fours alongside mini battenberg cakes, fondant fancies and run truffles.

Our trustees Angie and Richard are going to be having a go at recreating this treat and their results, along with anyone else who would like to join in this challenge, in the next newsletter coming in October. If you would like to send photos of your results to richardrobertsarchive@gmail.com by Friday 24th September 2021.