Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer

I was quite excited last week when Amazon.co.uk delivered my copy of Jane Brocket’s Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer. I’ve been reading Jane’s yarnstorm blog for a few years now and have also thoroughly enjoyed her first book, The Gentle Art of Domesticity.

Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer follows such an amazingly simple idea for a book that in a way I’m amazed that no one has thought of it before! Whilst on a family holiday Jane and one of her daughters, Phoebe, started talking about all the different foodstuffs in various children’s books and soon came along the idea of a cookbook based on all these different things. Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer was born!

I finally found the time today to sit down, naturally with a cup of tea and a slice of cake , and be transported back into the books of my childhood. The book groups the recipes into food occasions and Jane takes us through the books that she has taken the ideas for each from. Between the recipes are fantastic reproductions of illustrations from the children’s books. I can remember many of these from the books I read as a child, especially the Enid Blyton ones, and there’s something quite special about seeing them again after all these years.

I’ve not yet had time to try out any of the recipes themselves, but I’m certainly looking forward to doing so. The book has also reminded me of so many childhood books, as well as mentioning a few that I have to admit to having never heard of. I just wish I had an excuse to read them all again – or maybe I don’t need an excuse…