CakesAndCookies Cupcake Wrappers

My personal taste in recipe books are those that read more like stories above those which simply have recipe after recipe without much inbetween.  By far the most enjoyable amongst my collection of books are my vintage ones which are filled with little cameos illustrating life before the Kitchen Aid.  I have to admit that probably my absolute favourite comes out of a book called “Any one can Bake” – published in 1929.  There is a half page, dedicated to “How to open any Royal Baking Powder Tin ”, followed by an interesting foreword which goes on to say, “In the cottage kitchen and in the kitchen of the great house upon the hill, there is equal facility for producing foods which combine pleasing appearance with exquisite flavour”…….

I must say that I was fairly horrified recently when I read on a popular facebook page that Woolworths was running “tours” for parents to learn what to put into their childrens lunchboxes.  My little book has a section on “Wholesome Baking For Children” with a delightful black and white illustration captioned “Oh, look what mother gave me!” and followed with a section on “The School Lunch Box”. It goes on to say -”Sandwiches of home-baked nut and fruit breads, preferably sweetened with molasses – home-made cookies, cup cakes and muffin surprises – with what youthful glee is each new thing in the dainty “mother-packed” lunch box pounced upon and devoured! In the preparation of the lunch to be carried to school there is a big opportunity for the mother to use her ingenuity in selecting wholesome, nourishing foods of sufficient variety, so that the child welcomes the lunch hour”.  The page is then filled with delightful suggestions of sandwiches thinly cut into “lady fingers” and other things which are complete common sense.  I wonder what happened to us along the way……1929 seemed to have it right, and my mother got it mostly right – besides once giving me a fruit salad in a Tupperware beaker that burst in my school bag.  Sometimes I think we need to get back to basics – none of us 1954′ers were raised on organic, and vegetables still had ladybirds crawling around on them. Woolworths tours?………I say commercial clap-trap! And in case you have never managed to open your Royal Baking Powder Tin, do read on…..