As I was Reading Juliet Greenwood's blog, she said that  while researching for her new book, "Those That Are Left" discovered that rose hip syrup was used quite extensively in the two World wars as a very palatal remedy for various ailments and she made some to try.  She published the recipe t and there was a lot of interest in it and it made me wonder if anyone would be interested in the wartime carrot cake that I made for the launch of "Keep The Home Fires Burning". I enjoyed making it and it was far nicer than I imagined and it fact so popular amongst my Novelista friends that I was asked for the recipe by some of them, so I wondered if any of you would be interested as well. So here goes,

Wartime carrot cake. Serves 8
225g self raising flour
115g margarine
115g sugar
50g dried fruit
85g grated raw carrot
1 1/2 tablespoons malt vinegar
6 1/2 tablespoons milk

Rub the flour and margarine together till they resemble breadcrumbs. Mix in the
sugar, dried fruit and carrot. Mix the vinegar and milk together and add to the mix. Turn in to a greased and floured 8cm tin. Bake in a 180C/350F/Gas 4 oven for 1 hour 10 minutes. The mix, maybe for a special occasion, can be divided in two and a layer of marzipan laid over half of the tin, then the rest of the mix and another layer of marzipan laid on top of that.  Wartime marzipan was probably home made, but I bought mine ready made at Asda,

Compare this with the more modern carrot cake below which has far more margarine, sugar which were rationed in the war.  All dried fruit too were in short supply as they had to be brought in by our merchant ships and while people should have had one egg a week one egg every fortnight or three weeks was more the rule. Wartime housewives were very grateful for the Americans introducing dried eggs in 1942, though that too was rationed and nuts didn't feature in the wartime version at all.

225g brown sugar
4 eggs
125g chopped walnuts and 50g ground almonds
350g raw grated carrot
175g self raising flour
5ml (1 level tsp) baking powder

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Slowly add the eggs beating well with each addition. Add the carrots, raisins and walnuts. Sift the flour and baking powder and add the ground almonds. Add to the cake mixture. Turn in to a greased and lined 20cm cake tin. Bake in a 180C/350F/Gas 4 oven
for about 1 1/4 hours. It is done when a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake,  This cake would usually be served with soft icing dribbled  or spread over the top,

If anyone trues these out could you please tell me what you think - Thanks

If You Were The Only Girl.

Hi again
This is the  book that came out on 17th Jan, but unfortunately I had computer problems and I was unable to access this site.  The title was one thought up by my editor, Kate and initially I didn't like it at all, but my writer friends did and then I began to see it in a different light altogether. It is in fact a very good title for if Lucy and Clive had been the only girl and boy in the world they wouldn't have been ripped apart by duty and class.  But then of course I wouldn't have a story at all.

To help promote this book I was due to give four talks at libraries in Birmingham towards the end of January, but the weather had different ideas and the quite extensive snow they had there made this impossible, but it was deferred rather than cancelled and will now take place on Thursday 14th Feb- just how romantic is that? when I will be at a library in Ward End at 10.30 am and Hall Green at 2.00 pm and then on Friday 15th I am at Yardley Wood at 10.30 in the morning and Frankley Library at 2.00 pm.

In the meantime I have had a short story printed in My Weekly out last week called "We'll Meet Again" and an article in People's Friend and they are printing the story I wrote for them this week called, "She Couldn't Help It."  It was a new venture for me writing short stories and I found it very interesting but a little limiting and though i wouldn't mind writing one or two more. I think I'll stick to writing novels.