Kitchen Essential

Basic Needs

Now for the stores required:

Flour—plain is essential; self-raising highly desirable; wholemeal a slight “extra,” but it makes wonderful scones. Baking powder and cornflour, which is used in many cake and biscuit recipes and also for fillings.

Bicarbonate of soda has its place in many scone and other recipes, and cream of tartar is often wanted for scones, too, and also for some toffees and sweets.

Oatmeal is obtainable — fine, medium and coarse. Usually the fine is required for biscuits and similar baking. Ground rice is wanted in such things as Sand Cake.

Sugars: castor, for light cakes; granulated for heavier cakes, puddings and many sweets; Demerara or Barbados (sometimes called “pieces”) for fruit cakes, gingerbread and toffee; icing, for sweets and decorative purposes.

Condensed and evaporated milk should be available for sweet- making. Golden Syrup and treacle are useful for sweetening purposes and essential for such things as gingerbread. Jam and marmalade.

Dried fruits: currants, raisins, sultanas, peel (preferably ready chopped), prunes, dried apricots.

Other fruits: glace cherries (tend to get sticky if kept too long) and canned fruits, such as pineapple.

Nuts: almonds, walnuts (cheaper in the long run to buy these shelled), ground almonds, desiccated coconut (which does not keep well for long periods).

NOTE: Hazelnuts make an excellent nutty flavouring for a cake if put through a Mouli-mincer.

Flavourings

Always buy a good brand of essence. It is cheaper in the long run than those of poor quality, which invariably taste horrible.

Vanilla pods give a very delicate flavour if you are using liquid in which they can first be soaked. They can be dried off after use, ready for the next time.

Lemon: fresh lemon juice can now be bought and many people prefer it to the essence. Fresh lemon peel, finely grated and the juice of the lemon is, of course, excellent.

Almond essence.

Coffee flavouring: one of the coffee powders may be used in preference to the bottled liquid.

Powdered chocolate or cocoa: do not buy in large quantities as it quickly gets stale. Block cooking chocolate is also required sometimes. Incidentally, an excellent flavour results if you melt chocolate in black coffee instead of water.

Colourings

Cochineal colours from pale pink to deep red, depending on the quantity used. Saffron for yellow. There are also other vegetable colourings for special purposes.

Decorations

Most professional results are often achieved with decorations, and it is fun to add, as and when you can, to your jar or tin of “pretties,” angelica for flower stalks, silver balls, violet and rose petals (crystallised), mimosa balls (available in several colours), hundreds and thousands, chocolate vermicelli. Marzipan also is useful for making your own decorations.

Always keep in stock a box of birthday cake candles with suitable holders. Father Christmas, a robin, snowmen and lots more will ultimately find their way into your collection. Clean them properly after use, and they will last for years.

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