by Diane Allen
Pot into jars, pressing down the mincemeat well. Cover tightly and store for at least 2 weeks before using.
Victoria Sandwich Cake
Originally the Victoria sandwich cake was oblong, filled with jam or marmalade and then cut into fingers, or ‘sandwiches’. Now the same basic mixture is used with many different fillings, and it is served as a single round cake.
fat for greasing
150g / 5oz butter
150g / 5oz caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
150g / 5oz self-raising flour,
or plain flour with 1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
raspberry jam or other filling (such as lemon cheese)
caster sugar for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. Line and grease two 18cm / 7-inch sandwich tins.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs gradually, beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, then stir into the creamed mixture, lightly but thoroughly, until evenly mixed.
Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25–30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, then sandwich together with the jam or other filling. Sprinkle the top with caster sugar.
Westmorland Parkin
fat for greasing
200g / 7oz butter
450g / 1lb black treacle
450g / 1lb fine oatmeal
200g / 7oz plain flour
5ml / 1 tsp ground ginger
2.5ml / ½ tsp salt
10ml / 2 tsp baking powder
200g / 7oz Demerara sugar
100 ml / 3½fl oz milk
5 ml / 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F / Gas Mark 3. Line and grease two 20cm / 8-inch tins.
Heat the butter and treacle gently in a saucepan, stirring until the butter has melted. Mix together all the dry ingredients, except the bicarbonate of soda, in a mixing bowl, making a well in the centre.
Warm the milk in a saucepan over a low heat until hand-hot. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda until dissolved. Pour in the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the melted butter and treacle.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for about 1½ hours, until cooked through and firm to the touch. Cool in the tins and then cut into squares.
Farmhouse Pork and Rabbit Stew
Serve this delicious dish with jacket potatoes baked at the same time.
Serves 4
1 rabbit, jointed into portions
25g / 1oz flour, sprinkled with salt and pepper
1 head of celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped
225g / 8oz boneless pork, finely cubed
½ teaspoon sage
½ teaspoon thyme
275ml / 9fl oz milk
120ml / 4fl oz chicken stock
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F / Gas Mark 3.
Coat the rabbit portions in the seasoned flour. Put half the celery and onion into a greased casserole dish. Arrange the rabbit on top and then the pork cubes. Sprinkle on the herbs. Cover with the remaining celery and onion.
Mix the milk and chicken stock together and pour over the ingredients in the dish. Cover and bake for 2½ hours. Serve with the baked potatoes to mop up the sauce.
Yorkshire Dream Cake
100g / 4oz butter
100g / 4oz plain flour
25g / 1oz soft brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. Grease a Swiss-roll tin.
Rub the fat into the flour and then add the sugar. Put into the tin, flatten out the mixture and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin.
225g / 8oz soft brown sugar
25g / 1oz plain flour
100g / 4oz chopped walnuts
75g / 3oz dessicated coconut
½ level tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten
Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the eggs. Combine well, spread on the top of the cooked mixture in the Swiss-roll tin and bake for a further 20 minutes. Do not overcook, as the cake will harden as it cools.
Sugar Apple Cake
100g / 4oz margarine
100g / 4oz sugar
2 eggs, beaten
100g / 4oz self-raising flour
grated rind of 1 lemon
milk for mixing
2 large cooking apples, peeled and sliced
2 tsp cinnamon and 2 tbsp of sugar, mixed together
25g / 1oz butter, cut into small pieces
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6. Grease a 20cm / 8-inch cake tin.
Beat the margarine and sugar to a cream, then add the beaten eggs, flour and lemon rind. Mix with enough milk to make a stiff consistency. Pour into the cake tin.
Place layers of apple slices on top. Sprinkle the cinnamon-and-sugar mixture over the apples and dot with butter. Bake for 35–40 minutes. When cold, serve with cream.
Author’s Note
Although this book is a work of fiction, and most names have been changed and the events are completely fictitious, two Yorkshire families have influenced my writing. Here is a little history about these two great trading families.
ELIJAH ALLEN
This family-run business was started in 1860 by Thomas Allen, who was a farmer in Gayle, a tiny hamlet above Hawes in North Yorkshire. Thomas owned livery horses that he would hire out for use pulling carts, or for funerals and weddings. During the great railway-building era of the 1870s Thomas decided to diversify and had the good idea of filling a cart with food to sell to the hundreds of navvies working on the railway line at Ribblehead. Every week he filled his cart with provisions such as tea, sugar, eggs and tobacco, and the local butcher came along as well – with a shotgun under the seat, in case of trouble. Later Thomas’s son, Elijah, and his wife Alice, a very resourceful lady, moved to larger premises in the centre of Hawes, where their shop can still be found today.
WILLIAM MOORHOUSE & SONS
The Moorhouse family hailed from The Bull at Broughton, near Skipton in North Yorkshire. William Moorhouse lived with his mother at The Bull, and moved to Skipton in 1851. He was William Stockdale’s apprentice in a grocery shop on Sheep Street and, while there, visited outlying farms and was introduced by a Dales family to the delicacy they called ‘lemon cheese’. In 1873 William married Angiolina Porri from Caroline Square, whose father owned a business in Sheep Street, Skipton, and the couple moved to Leeds and produced seventeen children. While working for his new employer – the grocer Ellison’s – William produced lemon cheese, which he supplied to them and other grocers. It proved very popular, and in 1887 the family moved to Burley, where he started the Moorhouse business by making lemon cheese, orange marmalade and mincemeat; Moorhouse’s became the first company to produce mincemeat on a commercial basis in April 1891. The Moorhouse business grew stronger year by year as William’s sons joined the business, and it became a household name, known for its jams and spreads and especially for its Christmas puddings.
By Diane Allen
For the Sake of Her Family
For a Mother’s Sins
For a Father’s Pride
I wish to acknowledge my thanks to Roy Sedgwick, of Cowgill, an ex-signalman on the Settle-to-Carlisle Railway. His knowledge of the line gave me inspiration and guidance for this book. I am also grateful for the use of information from Memory Lane, Leeds, Volume 1, published by the Yorkshire Evening Post, with its valuable insight into Victorian Leeds.
First published 2014 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2014 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-4598-8
Copyright © Diane Allen 2014
Cover design by Gordon Crabb
The right of Diane Allen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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