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