1970's recipes Archives - Page 18 of 22 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: 1970’s recipes

19
Jun
2015

Skippy Cake For Sara. Kinda, Maybe, Sorta

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Australasia, Birthday Cake, Cake, Children's Cakes

My friend Sara recently sat, and passed with flying colours, her Australian citizenship test. By way of celebration, she asked me to bake her a cheesecake. Sara has asked me many times to make her a cheesecake and, to date this has not happened. This time was no exception

“In honour of your new Australianness I will make you a Skippy* Cake” I said.

There was a long pause. Then.

“What’s a Skippy cake?”

That night I emailed her this picture of a Skippy Cake which is from “The Party Cookbook” from 1971, edited by Ann Marshall and Elizabeth Sewell.

The next morning she sent me this:

Well, never let it be said that I’m the type of gal who goes around promising to make people Skippy Cakes and not delivering, so, here it is Sara, your very own Skippy Cake!

Actually, rewind and delete that. I am exactly the kind of gal who promises a Skippy Cake and does not deliver because sadly, Sara works in our Canberra Office and I am in Melbourne. Technically, yes that 1400 kilometre round trip is do-able in a weekend. But so is an ultra-marathon. And I’m not doing one of them either!

The Skippy Cake and the Mushroom Cake I made a few weeks ago got me thinking back to the awesome cakes my mum used to make me.

There was this when I was….hmmm….how old? Four? Six? If only it was completely obvious what year I was celebrating….

And she crocheted that purple dress for me too!

A few years later and I got my very own Dolly Varden! The utter joy of this was hard to describe. And her skirt is the exact same colour as my 5 year old birthday dress!

It’s just a shame you can’t see the detail in the dress. It was gorgeous! And every rose, every detail hand made! There was one to top that too. One year she made me a.market barrow full of fruit and vegetables and flowers. So imagine this:

But in cake and LOADED with vegies, fruit and flowers. Hundreds of teeny hand made fondant apples and roses and oranges and eggplant, bananas and tulips, pumpkins and tomatoes…it was loaded! And how did we repay her hours and hours of painstaking work? By not taking a single damn photo.

How much do we suck? We are the worst family in the world. Seriously.

So, filled with nostalgia, it was it was hardly surprising that my eye was drawn to this in my local supermarket on the weekend:

The cover calls it Australia’s most famous children’s cake book. Others go as far as to call it the “best book ever written in this country”.

And you know, there’s not that many children’s cake books that have a comedy routine and a song dedicated to them.

So fancy a peek at some of my faves?

For the budding artist there is a paint palette:

Got a mini-maestro in the house ? How about a piano cake? Can you believe it? A freaking piano! Can you see why this is ~~Australia’s most famous children’s cake book?~~ ~~the best book ever written in this country?~~ the best book ever written?

And the one I always wanted and never got. The Pool Party cake. If I didn’t already have an AMAZING cake figured out for my own birthday this year, I would be making this one. Next year for sure!

I mean they’re no Skippy cakes but they are all kinds of awesome.

Not all is wonderful though. There is a very cryptic message in the forward where editor Pamela Clarke advises that “four of your little friends are missing”. I really want to know what those four missing cakes are. Obviously something nowadays seen to be massively politically incorrect – my money is on at least one Golliwog. It’s certainly not gender based stereotypes because the book is full of them. The section on boys cakes has 3 cars, a rocket and a helicopter. The girl’s cakes have a sewing machine, a stove and a dressing table. It would really piss me off except that stove cake is just adorable!

Then, there is some stuff that borders on the downright creepy. Take this thing, called a Mary Jane, which looks like it should be the leading role in a horror film:

And surely you’d only make the Happy Clown if you wanted to psychologically scar your kids for life.

But then clowns totally creep me out anyway. This is how much. You know that actor Brian Dennehy? I watched him in a movie where he played John Wayne Gacy aka The Clown Killer. This sounds like he killed clowns but he actually dressed up as a clown and killed young boys. Lots of young boys. And then buried them in the walls of his house. Since seeing that, I’ve never been able to watch anything with Brian Dennehy in it again. Because in my mind, he is a creepy clown serial killer. Which I’m sure he isn’t. I’m sure he’s a lovely man. But that movie scarred me. Don’t take my word for it. Watch this. And tell me it doesn’t give you the screaming heebie-jeebies. Mute your sound though, I don’t know what that noise is but it’s awful. The entire movie can also be found on You Tube if you want the full extent of the horror.

What? How did we get onto serial killing clowns? We’re meant to be talking about cake dammit. Children’s cakes in general. Skippy Cake in particular. Here is the recipe which I followed pretty much exactly. It’s a really nice butter cake even if you don’t want to go the full Skippy. Do try the toasted coconut over the icing though, that was delicious.

You don’t have to use all that food colouring. You could puree some raspberries for the pink cake. I didn’t even bother with the yellow colouring in the icing because kangaroos are brown or grey not yellow. I added some cocoa powder to the icing mix to make it brown but the coconut pretty much covered it all up anyway. And remember when I destroyed that curry with the bright green pandan essence? No you don’t because that’s a kitchen nightmare I’m saving for a special occasion. Well that’s what I used to make the grass.

The hardest part was making the kangaroo template:

The actual cake was lovely!

For those of you who might not know, the cake was named after a very famous Australian kids tv show called Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Skippy was a problem solving kangaroo. It was set in a national park and if hikers got lost, Skippy would find them or if someone fell into a hole in the ground Skippy would summon rescuers to help them. Iconic childhood viewing!

Also, you may be wondering what happened to The Skippy Cake seeing as Sara did not get it? Well it just so happens that it was my bosses birthday that same week and he just happens to support a football team called The Kangaroos.

I took the Boomerang part with Sara’s name off and we ate that at home and then I took The Skippy Cake into work and we had a birthday morning tea. I went back into the kitchen an hour or so later to wrap up the last few pieces for some of my friends who were not in that day and it had all been eaten so I think everyone liked it. My boss even took photos and showed his kids that night!

And I already have an order to make a cake for someone else’s birthday.
He wants a cheesecake….

Hope your week is a piece of cake!

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14
Jun
2015

Eat Your Tapenade Eggs Princess

categories: 1970's food, Eating Alone, Eggs, Margaret Fulton Cookbook

Today is a twofer as I have a whole mess of things that I want to get out before I go on holidays….less than a month to go now!!!!

I was intending to do two posts from The Margaret Fulton Cookbook, which is the current selection over at The Cookbook Guru. But they were both about eggs so I thought I may as well combine them and do a kind of then and now. Because you see, one of these recipes comes from the 1977 edition of the book which I own. And the other comes from the 2010 edition which I borrowed from the local library. Neither features in both.

So, this time, it’s up to you to guess which is which….leave a note in the comments along with what you most like to cook and, if you get it right, I will send you a vintage Margaret Fulton Recipe from the 1977 version. You can choose from:

The First Course
Soups
Eggs
Fish
Poultry
Meat
Vegetables
Salads
Pasta and Rice
Desserts
Cakes
Biscuits
Entertaining
International

But now, on with, on with, on with the show.

Tapenade Eggs

I was really worried about this one. Because tuna is pink and egg yolks are yellow and olives are black and the good Lord only knew what colour of hot mess might end up being crammed into some poor unsuspecting egg whites!

I think that colour is called puce. But that is not a nice word, particularly when describing food. Actually I have no idea what that colour is called. But it’s inoffensive, and given the ingredients, could have been a lot worse!

I made these for dinner one night.

When I get back from holiday I am going to start a series of posts on the stuff that I eat when Mark is working nights. Sometimes it’s the best. And sometimes, I steam a bunch of asparagus, make some toast into soldiers and microwave a jar of hollandaise sauce. And I sit and dip.

I won’t post that but I do find I tend to veer from the more experimental or foods he is not fond of (vis a vis the AMAZING prawn and fennel fritters I made the other night) to just plain lazy which can also sometimes be pretty awesome. Both of these recipes are from what I call “Me Alone” nights.

Whilst the Eggs Tapenade were pretty good on the night, I had some left over which I took for lunch the following day and….AWESOME….I don’t know what happened in my fridge overnight but those ingredients totally chilled out and got to know each other a little better and the result was spectacular! If you make this try it out – eat one fresh, then let the mix sit overnight. And let me know if you too could really taste the difference!

Tapenade Eggs Recipe

125g pitted black olives
6 anchovy fillets, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp capers, drained
100g tuna in oil, drained
1 lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
8 hard boiled eggs

Crush the olives in a mortar or chop in a food processor. Add the anchovy fillets, capers, tuna and the juice of half a lemon. Pound or process until the mixture has formed a fairly smooth paste.

Still pounding, or with the motor running add the oil in a slow steady stream.

Taste and add more lemon juice and pepper to season.

Set aside (can be made a few days ahead and stored airtight in the refrigerator).

Halve the eggs lengthwise. Mash or sieve the yolks and mix with the tapenade. Pipe or spoon into the egg whites and arrange on a serving platter.

(I also decorated my eggs with some chopped parley, chopped piquillo peppers, capers, toasted pine nuts and a sprinkle of smoked paprika).

Eggs Princess

How could I resist a recipe with this name? And thank the Lord for the night time. And this recipe. Because it lead me to MY discovery of the year. And I’m highlighting the word my here because I really don’t know if this is a super amazing thing that not so many people know or if you have all known about it forever and I was the one “discovering onions”. I have absolutely no idea of what that means either but it is a phrase my family use when you come late to the party on anything.

Mum. Elucidate. Please.

But here is my discovery and it has seriously CHANGED. MY. LIFE. You can poach an egg to perfection. In a microwave.

Perfectly poached eggs in 50 seconds.

FOR SERIOUS.

Here is a link.

Microwave Poached Eggs

And if you all knew this and didn’t tell me before? You’re too mean! I love a poached egg. I also love a poached egg with a creamy ham and mushroom sauce with a dash of cayenne!

The recipe says to serve this with toast triangles as a lunch dish. I popped mine on a toasted English Muffin and had it for another dinner alone!

Eggs Princess Recipe

4 poached eggs
180g mushrooms, sliced
90g butter
180g ham, diced
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 egg yolks
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp lemon juice

Saute the mushroom in 2/3 of the butter in a frying pan. Add the ham and half the parsley. Heat through on a low heat.

Mix cream, egg yolks, remaining butter and lemon juice in a double boiler. Stir with a spoon or whisk until slightly thickened then season to taste with salt.

Heap ham mixture into a serving dish (or an English Muffin) and arrange eggs on top.

Spoon sauce over eggs and sprinkle with parsley.

So, retro lovers over to you.

Which is the vintage recipe and which is the modern? You’ll have a week from the date of posting to post your guess and the section of the Margaret Fulton Cookbook from which you would like your recipe to come. And if you cook it really quickly, you could even get if featured on the Cookbook Guru which is featuring this awesome book until the end of June.

Good luck and have a great week!

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08
Jun
2015

My, My, Belgian Onion Pie – Pieathalon 2

categories: 1970's recipes, Cook A Long, Onions, Pie, Pieathalon

My, My, At Waterloo, Napoleon Did Surrender

It seemed quite appropriate that I made my Pieathalon pie on Eurovison weekend. After all, my pie was a Belgian Onion Pie with French Pastry Dough. And in 1974 ABBA won Eurovision with their song Waterloo which draws its inspiration from the site in BELGIUM where the Brits defeated the FRENCH army lead by Napoleon.

The coincidence is almost spooky.

But would this pie take me down like a diminutive French General? Or, like a bearded drag queen was I going to “rise like a phoenix” to Euro glory?

And I Have Met My Destiny (In Quite A Similar Way)

A few weeks ago, the lovely Yinzarella put out the call and 19 bloggers answered. We were going to take part in a global event to rival Eurovision, Pieathalon 2.

The History Book on The Shelf (Is Always Repeating Itself)

My recipe, which came from S.S. over at A Book of Cookrye is taken from The Cotton Country Collection from 1972:

Which looks and sounds like it comes more from the Mississippi Delta than any field in Flanders I ever saw. Which is fine, I just finished reading Miss Hazel and The Rosa Parkes League for bookclub. I’m feel like I’m down with the M, I, crooked letter, crooked letter….

I also recently made a French Apple Flan, so my credentials for France are also solid.

I have driven through Belgium on a bus.
I have watched “In Bruges“. Twice.
They have waffles. And chocolate. And smurfs.

And that’s pretty much the sum total of my knowledge about Belgium. If there’s going to be a weak link here, it’s bound to be Belgium…is Pieathalon going to be my Waterloo?

My, My, I Tried To Hold You Back (But You Were Stronger)

I feel like the The French Pie dough recipe is very French. And by that I mean both annoyingly pedantic in some details (Triple sifting flour? Really?) and then just gives a big Gallic shrug and leaves others mostly up to your imagination. The implication being if you are that much of a dummy to not know what spices and liquid to use in your pie dough, you probably shouldn’t be making pie dough.

My imagination told me to use a pack of French Onion Soup Mix for both – a spoonful of the dry mix as my dough spice, then make up the rest of the soup and chill it down for my liquid.

My imagination is a psychopath.

The soup mix made the pastry quite salty. If I had added more salt by adding the soup, I’m pretty sure it would have become inedible. So, after a moment of panic and some highly creative swearing I used some pear cider as my liquid. Purely because I happened to be drinking it at the time of making.

And you know what? It worked!!! Really well. The sweetness took out some of the salt and I think the bubbles helped to make the pastry really light and crisp.

I loved this pastry. It had a real French Onion Soup flavour. I am going to make it again but into “cheese” straws to have with dip. And I will probably use Pear Cider as my go to chilled liquid again too!

Now to the first way I “tweaked” this recipe…you may know that have a weakness for small round food. I’m also very much of the mind that more is more. So, why make one pie when you can make a lot of pies?

And Now It Seems My Only Chance Is Giving Up The Fight

I was actually pretty confident with the filling. Because pastry is the hard part of any pie right? And honestly, I nailed that French pie dough like a….like a….French hammer…Yeah…just like that. (Note to self, find some better metaphors).

So bring on the filling….

First up -looking at this very cute picture made me think the pie was baked in onions. I’m not actually sure HOW you would bake a pie in an onion but I do know I want to find out. Another entry into the bucket list of weird food I want to make. I think it also may have sub-conciously influenced my idea to make party-sized pies instead of one big one.

Then? Chopping three large onions? There were tears before bedtime. Then I weighed the butter. Half a pound of butter seemed like an awful lot. I checked my measurements from ounces to grams and weighed it again. No, my measurements were right and that was still a, pardon me for using a very technical baking term, a shit ton of butter.

Suddenly my mountain of onions seemed like barely a hill next to that Everest of butter. In the end, I couldn’t do it. That skyscraper of butter was too overwhelming. I cut off about a third of it and stuck that back in the fridge. I felt really bad about this because I had wanted to follow the recipe exactly. But I was convinced this was just wrong.

And I could just add some extra butter if I needed, right?

Then I started to saute my onions. I was a bit worried that the onions would suck all the butter up and it would be too dry. It seemed ok when the onions were sautéing, however once I added the flour the butter problem became apparent….

Far from being too little butter there was still too much. WAY too much…it was pooling everywhere…

I made the decision to tip some more butter out….turned out to be about another two tablespoons.

I was kind of worried about doing this but as soon as I added the milk and cream, it all came together perfectly and I knew I had made the right decision. Look how lovely and smooth the filling looks.

I only had filling for ten little Belgian onion pies so I ate the additional pie shells. That pastry was awesome!!!!

And half an hour later they came out like this. Puffed up, golden brown, the Belgian Onion Pie babies looked like little golden buttercups!!!

I was so happy with these. And not only were the baby Belgian Onion Pies so pretty to look at, they were delicious too – the light crisp pastry, the creamy filling, they were gorgeous!!!! And they tasted just like French Onion Soup!

You could almost say they were souper!

Gahhh…….Thankfully, the Belgian Onion pies tasted better than my puns!!!!!

I Feel Like I Win….

So despite a couple of hiccups, Pieathalon 2 was a total success.

Huge thanks to S.S. for the recipe and Yinzerella for the opportunity. I LOVED it! Here is my slightly twisted Muriels Wedding thanks to you both:

“I used to sit in my room for hours and listen to ABBA songs. But since I’ve met you and ~~moved to Sydney~~ joined in Pieathalon , I haven’t listened to one Abba song. That’s because my life is as good as an Abba song. It’s as good as Dancing Queen”

High praise indeed!

And as a fitting finale to this Pieathalon, Ladies, Gentlemen…bring out your best moves and your favourite satin jumpsuit and join me, Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths in a little celebration of all things Pieathalon. Feel free to sing along with my ever so slightly modified lyrics below as you bust a synchronised move…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U4kDzwZAMk

Pieathalon, Belgian pie with butter galore,

Pieathlon, promise to love you for ever more

Pieathalon, couldn’t escape if I wanted to,

Pieathalon, Knowing my fate is to be with you,

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Pieathalon,

Finally facing Pieathalon!”

The entire list of bloggers and pies are here. Please check ’em all out but check out Sarah who made my Fiesta Almond Peach Pie recipe first!

Mandee from Vintage Recipe Cards – Peach Pizza Pie
Susie from Bittersweet Susie – Blueberry Cream Pie
Ashley at A Pinch of Vintage – Pecan Pie
Saucy Cherie at cookbookcherie.wordpress.com – Prune Whip Pie
Kelli from Kelli’s Kitchen – White Christmas Pie
Heather from Yesterday’s Menus – Pasta Cheese Pie (link no longer works 7/11/21)
Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers – Magic Cream Pie
Kelly from The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en Web Series – Swiss Pie with Hot Dogs
Dr. Bobb of Dr. Bobb’s Kitschen – Mincey Peach Pie
Sarah from Directionally Challenged Cooking – Fiesta Almond Peach Pie
Clara at Heritage Recipe Box – Cottage Cheese Apple Pie
Poppy of “Grannie Pantries” http://granniepantries.blogspot.com – Brandy Alexander Pie
RetroRuth from Mid-Century Menu – Cheese Pie
S.S. of A Book of Cookrye – Gowanda Pie
Emily aka Yinzerella from Dinner is Served 1972 – Melton Pork Pie
Erica Retrochef from Retro Recipe Attempts – Steak and Mushroom Pie
Catherine at Battenburgbelle – French Onion Pie

Have a great week, and go eat some pie!

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05
Jun
2015

Birthday Mushroom Cake

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Vintage Cookbooks, Vintage Recipes

Why should you invite a mushroom to your birthday?

Hands up all of you who thought I was going to go with that corny old “Because he’s a fun guy” schtick? Well boo to you!!! My jokes are never that bad. Are they? I’m actually terrible with jokes. The only one I can ever remember is “Why are pirates called pirates?” And the answer is “Because they are” Only you have to say the “are” in that pirate voice. “Arrrre” See? The only joke I know and it’s not even funny written down.

So, mushrooms, parties…I made a cake!!! In fact I made lots of little cakes. And they looked kinda like mushrooms. And you should definitely have them at your next party!

Oh and the taste? So good. Chocolate, marzipan and sour cherry jam….how could you go wrong?

Have I ever mentioned exactly how much I love marzipan? Well, it’s this much – I ate the left over marzipan from making this recipe by itself. Then I bought another pack and ate that by itself too. Then I felt sick for about three days. But it was worth every minute of it.

My mini mushroom cakes are based on a recipe from The A-Z of Cooking which has it as one large cake. This is from the Children’s Favorites sections which means we have hit C. Why does it feel like I have been cooking from this book for YEARS? How can we be only up to C?

To be honest, I’m not sure of the validity of the mushroom cake as a child’s favourite. Teddy Bears, Thomas The Tank Engine, one of those awesome Barbie Pool Party Cakes – hmm whatever, yes and definitely yes, yes yes! (Note to self, Make Barbie Pool Party Cake for next year). I’m not sure there’s many children asking their mum to bake them the fungi cake. Not even back in the hippy ’70’s.

Mushroom Cake – Original

You start with one big or lots of little chocolate cakes. I used the recipe from The A-Z of Cooking but you could use any chocolate cake you wanted. This would be A-MAY-ZING using your favourite brownie recipe too.

Here is the original recipe, my slightly tweaked recipe is below.

Spread the top your cakes with the sour cherry jam,

Roll out your marzipan until quite thin, then cut into rounds large enough to drape over the top and sides of your cake. Trim additional marzipan so the marzipan is flush with the bottom of the cake. Turn over so the uncovered part of the cake is now facing the top.

Roll another long thin piece of marzipan. Spread with the sour cherry jam and roll up, lengthways. Cut this into 4-5 pieces depending on how long you want your stalk. Repeat until you have the same number of stalks as you do cakes.

Pipe or spread your icing onto your cakes. I spread mine and made the mushroom gills with a toothpick.

Then place your stalks onto the middle of each cake.You may need to hold these in place with a little dob of jam or icing.

Despite their dubious credentials as a children’s favourite, these mushroom cakes are just adorable and so tasty, and you know what would make then even better and certainly not kid friendly? Douse the cakes with a little bit of kirsch before adding the jam.

Now that’s what I call a magic mushroom cake!

Three sleeps to Pieathalon!!!! I can hardly wait

Have a great week!!!

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Retro cakes & a bit of kitchen history
Apple Cake
Amazing birthday cake recipes (that even adults will love)

30
May
2015

Birthday Cocktail – The Rum 007

categories: 1970's recipes, Apricot Brandy, Cocktail, Margaret Fulton Cookbook, Rum

Well, hello there,

So remiss of me, we’ve been celebrating a while now and I haven’t offered you a drink. Well, my parched friends, this is worth the wait. Meet the Rum 007!

This may be my favourite cocktail EVER.

It’s sooooo good.

And to think, because of the apricot brandy, I was a bit scared of making it. A few years ago I needed to buy some cherry brandy for a cocktail and it was disgusting. Like that revolting fake cherry cough syrup you had to drink when you were young. I was a very sickly child and I must have drunk a ton and a half of that stuff and the thought of it still gives me the horrors.

Thankfully, Apricot Brandy is utterly delicious. Almost too good if you know what I mean.

Of course if anything is called 007, you automatically think of Bond. I could find no links to this recipe and JB although a Rum Collins apparently features in Thunderball.

So, when in doubt, make it up…that’s totally a thing isn’t it?

My explanation for the story behind the name has nothing to do with a certain spy. It’s simply that when you take you first sip, thinking the Apricot Brandy will be disgusting and cloying and sickly sweet, you say “Oh”…then the nutty sweet, tangy pineapply, rummy wonderfulness hits you and you say “OH”. Then you want six more. Because it’s THAT good.

I found this recipe in the Margaret Fulton Cookbook which happens to be the selection current selection over at The Cookbook Guru. My edition of this book, which incidentally is STILL in print dates from 1977 which is the same year The Spy Who Loved Me was released.

For those of you not familiar with Margaret she is a complete cooking Australian legend. It says so right on the Margaret Fulton stamp. And Australia Post does not lie. Or make stamps of just anyone. This lady is the grande dame, the mec plus ultra of Australian cooking.

…And, as a heads up, back in the day, she made the most amazing cake, which I will attempt to replicate for my own birthday later in the year. You’ll have to wait til August to see that but, if I can pull it off it will be worth the wait.

There are many reasons to love Margaret Fulton, but in terms of inventing an awesome cocktail, possibly based on James Bond?

Nobody does it better!

And because it’s my favorite Bond song, here it is

‘Kay, I’m done here, I have another ~~six~~ five 007’s to drink….I like to call it quality control. I couldn’t possibly give you a recipe that I hadn’t personally tested multiple times.

Here’s the recipe.

Enjoy and have a fabulous week!

Eight days to Pieathalon 2….I can hardly wait!!!

Two weeks still to go in the win a vintage cookbook comp! Sign up, tell your friends!

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Category: 1970’s recipes

Tapenade Eggs

Tapenade Eggs Recipe

Eggs Princess

Eggs Princess Recipe

My, My, At Waterloo, Napoleon Did Surrender

And I Have Met My Destiny (In Quite A Similar Way)

The History Book on The Shelf (Is Always Repeating Itself)

My, My, I Tried To Hold You Back (But You Were Stronger)

And Now It Seems My Only Chance Is Giving Up The Fight

I Feel Like I Win….

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