Even More Caramel !

A few weeks ago I blogged the recipe for Caramel cake (a boiled fruit cake) well, I found a recipe for Caramel Meringue Shortcake in Nanna's Cookbook. It was short lived!  I made a whole tray on Saturday intending it to last about a week, but son came home and tried it - it was all I could do to save a few pieces for the next day.

I must say that I did not follow the recipe exactly - rubbed in the butter instead of creaming it for the pastry. didn't bake the caramel topping onto the shortcake etc. It was still infinitely edible and Ohhh soooo Caramel. The meringue went all sugary and crunchy on top, the caramel nice and sticky and no-one really cared that the shortcake was a bit soft - it barely lasted long enough to notice.

Caramel Meringue Shortcake

Here is the picture I took BEFORE it all disappeared - I had to work fast as pieces were disappearing as I arranged them on the plate for the photo.

Newspaper clippings

I have spent most of the day baking and browsing through the cookbooks again.  It is amazing that there are still quite a few newspaper clippings still in these books. Some I believe from the 1960"s and maybe even earlier possibly as far back as the late 40's and early 50's. Most of the recipes came from the social pages and extoll the virtues of being a good mother and housewife. Fewer women worked for wages back then, and indeed were the mothers of the "Baby Boomers".

 I think I will try some of these recipes out as well, but today I made Everest biscuits, flavoured with cinnamon, and Wheatmeal and Date Nut Roll. (Bit of a misnomer, that as it has no nuts in it at all. I guess it is called that because it is baked in a couple of Nut Roll tins. Both worked out really well, so here is a small sample (photos first this time)

Wheatmeal and Date Roll

Everest Biscuits