Lucinda Matthews-Jones (LJMU)
Inspired by the recent celebrity Great British Bake Off, Helen Rogers and I have decided to do our own bake off at Liverpool John Moores University for Comic Relief. We’re in the process of inviting staff and students across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences to join us; the results of which will be tasted and judged at a Victorian tea party in early March. Pictures will be uploaded on to the website.
Rather than keep this baking fun to ourselves, we would like to extend this invitation to fellow Victorianists and readers of the Journal of Victorian Culture online. We would love for you to join us for a virtual bake-off, where readers and a judging panel will choose the best cake.
Prize
Thanks to the generosity of Taylor and Francis the winner of this virtual bake off will receive a year’s free subscription to the Journal of Victorian Culture.
Runner-up prizes to be announced
Getting involved:
To register you are asked to email me at l.m.matthew-jones@ljmu.ac.uk with your details and an indication of the cake you would like to bake.
To be considered for the competition you must submit a short post that includes pictures of your bake as well as pictures or video of the all-important tasting.
Don’t forget to share your efforts on Twitter with our hashtag #JVCbake
Can’t bake/ won’t bake
We are asking for those who can’t join us in this bake off to dig deep into their pockets and sponsor our efforts. We will be posting details on how to do this shortly.
The rules of the bake off:
- Your recipe must be Victorian and should accompany your post
- You are not allowed to use electrical equipment!
- You must bake to the measurements of the original recipe
- Your finished product must be tasted and rated by family, friends or colleagues, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.
- You will need to write/ submit a short post for Journal of Victorian Culture Online which must be accompanied by pictures/video.
Examples of previous baking posts:
Mrs Beeton’s Valentine’s Day Bake Off
When Mrs Beeton isn’t right! Making her Creamed Apple Tart
Tasting the Neo-Victorian Christmas: Mince pies and Chocolate Santas
Victorian cookery books digitised:
Mrs Beeton Household Management download here
The Lady’s Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory download here
Nelson’s Home Comforts download here
Cre-Fydd’s family fare download here
You might also want to look at www.archive.org to see if can find an additional Victorian cookery book. Alternatively, you may have an old family recipe that you could use!