We can all collude and pretend that Mrs. Neville Chamberlain wrote this recipe, and furthermore that she cooked it. A publicity stunt, working to curry favour with housewives, also enables housewives across the country to delude themselves into the mindset that; we are all in the same boat.
Another chatty recipe, that pre-empts a lack in certain ingredients and sides with the reader by stating ‘No eggs and easy on the sugar’. What more could a rationed cook want but such a chance to create a cake which carefully finds all loopholes in rationing to create a sumptuous-if a little rich- cake.
The title refers to a colloquialism of war- ‘Siege’ being war language for -complete resource use in a certain situation in the hope of gaining the upper hand. And so this recipe does the same. It resources every ingredient which has not been rationed to sweeten, bulk out and create a cake. Having written a foreword which enables the reader to opt out of said ingredients, the writer then goes on to create a simple ingredients list with a liminal note, enabling the author to suggest a similar recipe, when shortages occur. By doing this the author can maintain the illusion of food as an obtainable resource, which can be used to create interesting alternatives to the traditional sponge, and the reader can collude in this by reading the recipe... which as discovered makes a wonderful cake.
However in this collusion both parties know that the alternative ingredients will not produce the same effect, and most probably will be a less savoury nibblet, however the imagination of the reader is awoken, and the housewife is able to self-blind and pretend that the cake tastes better than it does. Simple cookery terms are used throughout such as ‘beat’, ‘sift’ and ‘bake’.
There will be no floury language from the Prime Minister’s wife. At every turn, this recipe seeks- not only to enable the reader to create a cake- but also to put Mrs. Chamberlain in line with the current mood of the day.
Another chatty recipe, that pre-empts a lack in certain ingredients and sides with the reader by stating ‘No eggs and easy on the sugar’. What more could a rationed cook want but such a chance to create a cake which carefully finds all loopholes in rationing to create a sumptuous-if a little rich- cake.
The title refers to a colloquialism of war- ‘Siege’ being war language for -complete resource use in a certain situation in the hope of gaining the upper hand. And so this recipe does the same. It resources every ingredient which has not been rationed to sweeten, bulk out and create a cake. Having written a foreword which enables the reader to opt out of said ingredients, the writer then goes on to create a simple ingredients list with a liminal note, enabling the author to suggest a similar recipe, when shortages occur. By doing this the author can maintain the illusion of food as an obtainable resource, which can be used to create interesting alternatives to the traditional sponge, and the reader can collude in this by reading the recipe... which as discovered makes a wonderful cake.
However in this collusion both parties know that the alternative ingredients will not produce the same effect, and most probably will be a less savoury nibblet, however the imagination of the reader is awoken, and the housewife is able to self-blind and pretend that the cake tastes better than it does. Simple cookery terms are used throughout such as ‘beat’, ‘sift’ and ‘bake’.
There will be no floury language from the Prime Minister’s wife. At every turn, this recipe seeks- not only to enable the reader to create a cake- but also to put Mrs. Chamberlain in line with the current mood of the day.
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