Pound cake, 1930s

Front cover detail of the Radiation Cookery Book, 1936

A new addition to by kitchen library is the Radiation Cookery Book.

The Radiation Cookery Book was one of the many cookbooks issued to instruct the proud owners of the new gas cookers being sold in the 1920s and 1930s. This one was published to promote Radiation ‘New World’ Cookers which claimed in the book to be “the most efficient gas cooking appliance in the world”.

A New World Cooker

New World cookers were manufactured in Britain by 6 manufacturers, ‘who were already household names’, who have been largely forgotten but are referenced in Grace’s Guide to British engineering:

• Arden Hill & Co, Birmingham and London
• The Davis Gas Stove Limited, Luton & London
• Fletcher Russell & Co Limited, Warrington & London
• Richmonds Gas Stove Co. Limited, Warrington & London
• Wilson & Mathieson Limited, Leeds & London
• John Wright & Co, Birmingham & London

The book was first issued in October 1927, but my copy is the nineteenth edition published in 1936. This book is a bit worn round the edges but I don’t mind as I get the impression it was used for a long time by someone who loved pastries and cakes. Inside the book are lots of press cuttings and magazine articles for cake recipes from the late 1930s and the 1950s. The latest one is a cut out and keep Family Circle recipe for Choux pastry from 1974. I wonder whether the New World cooker lasted as long as the cookery book.

The Radiation Cookbook is full of useful recipes for almost every type of dish and has a dedicated section to bread, biscuits & cakes with a long introduction to baking in your new gas oven! As a lover of fruit cakes I was drawn to the Pound Cake recipe on page 150 and also due to the newspaper article that marked the page. I like to think this was a humorous reference by my predecessor, rather than something to make the baker feel guilty. ‘SOME SLIMMING RULES by Jane Gordon’ – an apple, crispbreads and a salad with celery and shredded brussel sprouts!    No thanks Jane. Lets eat Pound cake!

Pound cake recipe in the Radiation Cookery Book

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb butter
• 1/2 lb castor sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 lb flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 lb each of currants, mixed peel and sultanas
• 2 oz of chopped almonds
• Grated rind of 2 lemons
• 1/2 glass of brandy (I would recommend it!)
• Almond paste and Royal icing to finish (optional)

Cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in, until the mixture is stiff. As shown on the left. Stir in the sifted flour, baking powder, lemon rind, dried fruit, almonds and brandy. Then spoon into a greased and lined tin that is 3 inches deep and  7- 8 inches wide. Put in a preheated oven at gas mark 2 or 150 for at least 2 hours until the cake is brown and a cake tester comes out clean. 140 if using a fan oven.  It is worth the wait.

Yummy Pound Cake, straight from the 1930s!