The Great Historic Bake Off

Get into the baking spirit with these historical recipes and baking related collections!

Recipes

Think you can create the Quake, a 16th Century pudding so called because it should wobble like a jelly. It can be decorated with almonds to resemble a hedgehog.

A Wartime Buttery

Think you can make a buttery using margarine? In 1944 the Rowett Institute issued a Wartime Cookery Book which included a recipe for butteries made with margarine.

Fountain Cake

We'd love to see if you can make a cake with swans and a fountain using this showstopping design by the confectioner Joseph Bell in his book from 1817.

Albert Pud

Have a go at this classic Victorian steamed pudding from Matilda Lees Dods' recipe book. If you get royally stuck, we've included a link to a modern version.

Baked in a Pie

'The Universal Cook', Collingwood & Woolams, 1792 [SB415Col]

Collingwood and Woollams, were the "Principal Cooks at the Crown & Anchor Tavern in the Strand". Their cookery book includes long-held favourites alongside recipes with more questionable ingredients.

Showstoppers

A Treatise on Confectionary, Joseph Bell, 1817 [SB 6415 Bel]

Confectioners were well-regarded in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their skills were more refined than those of a mere cook or baker. Some were employed by the aristocracy, others ran their own shops.