Sweet Things

Most of the recipes throughout this book were originally designed for feeding a family on what little there was available. With that sort of ideal, the sweet course must be viewed very much as a treat. In fact, quite a few of these recipes are for the kind of cake and biscuit which would be dunked into coffee at breakfast time, or eaten as a snack at teatime rather than as a dessert at the end of the meal. The ingredients are all fairly basic and cheap, the antithesis of the impressive, flambée dessert carried to the table with a flourish. Prepared mostly with the children in mind, a few of them are treats prepared for Carnival-time, Christmas, or weddings and other such occasions, or for times of plenty when there was an abundance of sugar, eggs and flour available.