Amy Levy's 1888 novel Reuben Sachs has plenty of food references to inspire my baking to go with Dovegreyreader's post on the book itself. Leaving the many lavish fish dishes aside, there are lots of scenes in the oppressively decorated drawingrooms of the period when afternoon tea was a feature of the day.
Early on, "while sipping tea in the fading light of the September afternoon", Adelaide Sachs cuts herself "a fresh slice of the rich cake which she was devouring with nervous voracity" (a greedy girl this one, she later suffers from having taken a surfeit of muffins), so fittingly for a family of Sephardim, I've made a Sephardic Chocolate Cake from Claudia Roden's A New Book of Middle Eastern Food, and this should not harm the digestion as long it's consumed in moderation.
Later in the book, Judith Quixano visits her young brothers and hands out chocolate and burnt almonds to them, so this cake, being rich with dark chocolate and ground almonds, is quite in keeping.
Lucky Judith had her wits about her at that point because further on, when affairs of the heart mean her mind's not on the needlework in hand, she puts green silk instead of blue into the cornflowers she's stitching!
For our next Persephone books and cakes extravaganza, Lynne and I shall be reading Lettice Cooper's The New House. Join us to talk about that and eat some virtual cake on 31st. March.
The cake, the cake! Ummmmmm... Looks delish. Where can I find the recipe?
Posted by: Nancy | 24 February 2010 at 03:15 AM
Just now, I googled "Sephardic Chocolate Cake" and got a link to a google news site, to the Reading Eagle, July 27, 1973 - with an article on Claudia Roden & her cookbook. The recipe was included in the article.
Now, to get Bill to make this for me!! :-)
Posted by: Nancy | 24 February 2010 at 03:32 AM
Why on earth consume this in moderation? One of the few cakes I bake and always absolutely delicious. No serious cook should be without Claudia Roden's A New Book of Middle Eastern Food in my opinion.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 24 February 2010 at 09:03 AM
Yes, three cheers for Claudia Roden--although I browse through her book more than I cook from it. I will be reading "Reuben Sachs" and am ashamed not to have heard of it or the author. Meanwhile I am entranced by the plate on which the cake is sitting...
Posted by: Erika | 24 February 2010 at 12:32 PM
The 31st of March is my birthday so I think I shall be eating some non-virtual cake :)
Posted by: Claire (Paperback Reader) | 24 February 2010 at 12:37 PM
Delicios Karen, I can taste it from here! x
Posted by: dovegreyreader | 24 February 2010 at 12:49 PM
A surfeit of muffins is better than a surfeit of lampreys I should think and Henry I would most likely agree.
Such a delicious looking cake, Cornflower!
Posted by: Darlene | 24 February 2010 at 12:50 PM
Having just listened to you on i-player whilst eating my lunch. You sound amazingly relaxed - well done! By happy chance I started reading The New House last night. Extra interest will be added now trying to guess what you might bake. Only a few pages in but I know I'm going to enjoy it.
Posted by: Claire | 24 February 2010 at 01:44 PM
Thankyou, Claire. I must say I didn't feel relaxed, especially having to wait til the very end to be on, but I'm glad I sounded alright!
Posted by: Cornflower | 24 February 2010 at 03:25 PM
Yum!
Posted by: Verity | 25 February 2010 at 04:34 PM