Rout cakes - part 2

In my last post I wrote about rout cakes in Jane Austen's Emma (1815) and Vanity Fair by Thackeray (1847-48).  Rout cakes were small rich cakes, flavoured with dried fruit and alcohol, which were commonly eaten at large parties and evening assemblies.

The earliest printed recipe for rout cakes that I could track down dates from 1806, from Mrs Rundell's A New System of Domestic Cookery.  However, George Gascoigne advertised his new shop in the Leeds Intelligencer of Monday 6th July, 1795, noting that amongst the desserts he served up were ‘rout cakes’.

Rout cakes 1

Mrs Elton was a little shocked at the want of two drawing rooms, at the poor attempt at

rout cakes, and there being no ice in the Highbury card parties.  (Jane Austen, Emma)

Mrs Elton is one of Jane Austen's dislikeable female characters.  She arrives half-way through the novel as the new wife of the vicar of Highbury, Mr Elton.  Mortified to have been rejected by the novel's protagonist Emma Woodhouse, and offended that she had been trying to create a match between him and her friend, Harriet Smith, of dubious social origins, Mr Elton leaves Highbury for Bath.  When he returns he is engaged and, as he makes clear to his parishioners - knowing that the gossip will spread and reach the ears of the woman who has turned him down - 'he had not thrown himself away - he had gained a woman of 10,000 pounds or thereabouts'. 

A Jane Austen Summer Party

The idea was to host a summer picnic party in my North London garden - a 21st century version of the Box Hill party in Jane Austen's Emma, but hopefully minus the 'downright dullness' that Emma feels and recklessly seeks to overcome by participating in Frank Churchill's cruel games which lead to the humiliation of the annoying, but harmless, Miss Bates and Emma being soundly reprimanded by Mr Knightley.  The food -  like all the food in my blog - would be inspired by food and meals referenced in Austen novels, though with a 21st century twist on them and an adaptation for vegetarians, whose needs are not recognized in early 19th century novels!

The Denial of Food

When food is referred to in literature, it is usually - not surprisingly - because characters are eating it.  And when characters don't eat, it is usually because they have been deprived of food or the food is inedible, as is the case with Jane Eyre at boarding school - see http://pagetoplate.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-hungry-child.html

However, there are also literary characters who refuse to eat the food that is set before them, deliberately starving themselves and making themselves ill.  In Jane Austen's Emma, Jane Fairfax, orphaned niece of the impoverished Miss Bates, has a poor appetite which Miss Bates comments on at any opportunity:  ‘they had to listen to the description of exactly how little bread and butter [Jane] ate for breakfast, and how small a slice of mutton for dinner’ (ch. 20).

Jane Fairfax at the picnic at Box Hill (from the 2009 BBC dramatization)

A Danish Break

A deviation from my journey through food in English literature, but after a recent short break in Copenhagen I felt inspired to try my hand at a bit of Danish baking, and blog about it.  So this post is more about moving from the pages of the guidebook – rather than those of literary texts – to the plate.
Copenhagen is a very user-friendly capital city.  With a city population of just over 1, 200, 000, and an area in size of 88.5km2 (almost half the size of London), Copenhagen’s main sites are easily accessible by foot if you stay centrally.  Whilst there are a number of sites to see, Copenhagen is also the kind of city that it is nice – and practical – to wander around in, stopping off now and again for a coffee (and a pastry!).

Interesting sites – literary / culturally – inspired include the following: