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  • Writer's pictureBelles Blog Editor

Comfort and joy: our centenary cookbook

Updated: Jun 23, 2020


Cookery books and recipes are often a great source of comfort, as well as inspiration. If you've not stumbled across this lovely publication, we commend it to you. The WI Cookbook - The First 100 years. Taking on the history of the WI and its purpose in the community, with each decade featuring some much loved recipes, makes for fascinating reading.


As it says, "Friendship and new skills are at the heart of what the WI provides. And a welcoming cup of tea and a slice of home-baked cake has always been an integral part of any WI meeting since the first once in Anglesey in 1915 - still very much the case in 2015. Members pride themselves on their baking ... Recipes, once handed on by word of mouth or written on scraps of paper or on the back of envelopes, may now be more likely to be exchanged online, but the secrets of a perfect Victoria sponge or jar of lemon curd are likely to be just as hotly debated at meetings, alongside topical issues of the day ... " The WI Cookbook, The First 100 Years, Introduction, page 11.




And here, just for the sheer joy of it, is the complete entry for the Victoria Sandwich from the 1986 to 1995 section of the book, The WI Cookbook, The First 100 Years - You are what you eat - p 160. "The WI rules when judging are precise: only raspberry jam for the filling; a dusting of caster sugar, NEVER icing, sugard to finish, and a 20 cm (8 in diameter). Good flavour should be at the heart of the cake's success, so use the finest quality butter and fresh free-range eggs - if you have hens, even better. The debate of what makes a perfect Victoria still rages on:margarine or butter, or a mix of both? ..."




We couldn't put it better ourselves...




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