Tea with Jane Austen

Today I have a treat for you!  I had the pleasure of reviewing the new book Tea with Jane Austen by Pen Vogler; food photographer Stephen Conroy.  This book, though little in size, packs a lot of baking for delicious tea time treats.  

The book was inspired by the novels and letters of Jane Austen.  In this 64-page book are recipes for cakes and pastries based on authentic recipes from the Regency era which have been updated for the modern cook.   The book has 22 recipes in total in which 6 are from Martha Lloyd's Household Book.   Martha Lloyd was Jane Austen's dear friend and lived with her many years penning a collection of recipes called Martha Lloyd's Household Book.  

Some of the recipes included are English Muffins based on the muffins, served with after-dinner tea in Pride and Prejudice, a Buttered Apple Tart as served by Mr. Woodhouse to Miss Bates in Emma, and Jumbles inspired by the cookies enjoyed by Fanny in Mansfield Park.   The original recipes are given along with the modified versions.   

I chose Jane's Sponge Cake to bake today with tea.  The book states that the Oxford English Dictionary noted the first recorded use of the word "sponge cake" is by Jane, writing to her sister Cassandra.  The recipe is taken from Martha Lloyd's Household Book. 

The cake is essentially a pound cake.  They are often topped with just a dusting of powdered sugar.  Mine came out to perfection.  I have actually made two other recipes for the traditional tea time sponge cake and they both flopped.  This recipe was a winner.  Simply topped with fruit and powdered sugar it was a tea time treat befitting a relaxing afternoon spent reading this little treasure of a cookbook.

My teacup reminds me of the Regency era.   It is by Grace's Teaware.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the recipe book.  Filled with interesting introductions to each recipe and delightful photography.  I really loved the addition of adding the original recipes in their handwritten form.  I always love reading historical recipes.  I am a history nerd.  I highly recommend this book for any tea lover, but if you are also a fan of Jane Austen it is a must read!  I know a lot of you tea lovers are also Jane Austen fans, like me.  It would make a perfect Mother's Day gift!    

I wish to thank Sara and Neha for the opportunity to review

Tea with Jane Austen by Pen Vogler; published by Ryland Peters & Small, and CICO Books Inc ($14.95).  They provided me with a copy of the book.  The review and opinions were entirely my own. 

Sherry

Home Sweet Home #183

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  This week I was In the Garden with Jane Austen discussing this book for the reading event Austen in August.

I featured this little elephant teapot in A Little Something Wild...

There are so many great ideas, great decorating, and delicious recipes at the Home Sweet Home Party each week.  Here are a few that caught my eye from last week.

Laurel at The North End Loft had a beautiful Master Bathroom Reveal.

Custom Comforts daughter refinished a piece of furniture that might be one of my favorite pieces of painted furniture ever in A Chip Off the Old Block.

Faye at Wild Rose Vintage had a fantastic vintage display in her post An Old Box Spring Transformed and New Treasures.

And, every now and then I see a post that truly reminds me of the meaning of Home Sweet Home...it is wherever those you love are.  I saw that in this very touching post by Laurie at Heaven's Walk entitled The Healing Beach.

I had on several occasions wanted to feature some of your entries but, you don't create a link back to the Home Sweet Home party.  So, please include that link so I can feature you too!

I am really lucky to have all of your amazing posts because, it is you who make the Home Sweet Home party so special!  You are all so talented and share such wonderful posts!  It is really hard to feature a few and, remember to be featured you must have a link back to the Home Sweet Home party.   Thank you to everyone who joins me at Home Sweet Home!  It is wonderful to have you here!

Sherry

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In the Garden with Jane Austen

This month I am participating in a reading event called Austen in August.  This event is hosted by Lost Generation Reader.  It's an annual event where you can read as many Jane Austen novels as possible; or just one, which is what I did.  Having seen so many of Jane Austen's movies it tweaked my interest to read a little more about her.  The book I decided to read was In the Garden with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson.

I really enjoyed this book.  The book follows Jane's footsteps through many of the gardens she was documented on visiting regularly and many of the gardens featured in the movies made based on her novels.  The book is extremely well researched and has many references to correlate and document the gardens and the visits Jane made or the actual text from her novels that mention the gardens.

I will share a few of my favorite gardens discussed in the book.   

Source: www.general-southerner.blogspot.com

Chawton Cottage

Chawton Cottage was the home to Jane Austen, her mother, and her sister Cassandra after Jane's father died.  This cottage is where Jane wrote many of her novels.  This house had a very traditional English cottage garden with a mix of flowers, herbs, fruit, and vegetables.  

    You cannot imagine-it is not in Human Nature to imagine what a nice walk we have round the Orchard.  The row of Beech look very well indeed, & so does the young Quickset hedge in the Garden.  I hear today that an Apricot has been detected on one of the Trees.

~Letter from Jane Austen at Chawton Cottage, to her sister, Cassandra, 31 May 1811

source: http://www.chatsworth.org/

Chatsworth House

Home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, the grand estate of Chatsworth is supposed by many to be the inspiration for Pemberley.  The 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice's (starring Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen) scenes of Pemberley were filmed here. Great estates such as this had huge gardens.  These estates had areas that were generally used for timber, deer, and livestock.  But, the pleasure grounds, closer to the house, were for the use of the people that lived there.  They might include, wooded walks, maybe leading to temples, inspirational structures to sit quietly for contemplation.  Closer to the house there might be shrubberies and drier walks, lawns, flowers gardens, and conservatories.

 Source: www.tripadvisor.co.uk

Stoneleigh Abbey

Stoneleigh Abbey is a great estate passed to Thomas Leigh, a cousin of Mrs. Austen, in 1806. The Abbey was converted (just like Northanger Abbey) to a private house when Henry the VIII dissolved the monasteries of England.  It is a large house with extensive pleasure grounds.

   Here we find ourselves on Tuesday....everything is grand & very fine & very large.  The house is larger than I could have supposed....I expected to find everything about the place very fine and all that, but I had no idea of it being so beautiful...The Avon runs near the house amidst green meadows bounded by large and beautiful woods, full of delightful walks...

~Letter from Mrs. Austen to Mary Austen, 13 August 1806 

Source: www.gardenvisit.com

Goodnestone Park

Goodnestone Park was a charming brick house that Jane visited regularly.  The home has 15 acres of gardens including the famous Walled Garden (pictured here).  It has an old fashioned rose garden, a summer garden, a kitchen garden, an alpine garden, and an ornamental greenhouse.

This is just a small sampling of the gardens and grounds discussed in this book.  It was a delight to read and fun to walk of in the footsteps of this Regency era novelist sharing her love of the garden. 

I have read Tea with Jane Austen also written by Kim Wilson.  I read this book at the end of winter this year.  It was interesting to read how important tea was to the culture and with how much care was given to picking out tea for the home in Jane Austen's day.

Have you read a Jane Austen based novel or biography lately?  Have you watched any of the movies based on her work?  

The teacup in the top picture is by Spode the pattern is Blue Italian.  The teapot is marked I. Godinger & Co.

This post was written by Sherry of The Charm of Home blog. 
She can also be found at Pinterest.com/charmofhome and Twitter@ SherryTCOH.