Food and Crafts from Jane's time!

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Recipes from Jane Austen's Cookbook
Instructions on crafts from Jane's era
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A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. Jane Austen
Rout Drop Cakes
Mix two pounds of flour, one ditto butter, one ditto sugar, one ditto currents, clean and dry; then wet into a stiff paste, with 2 eggs, a large spoonful of orange-flower water, ditto sweet wine, ditto brandy, drop on a tin-plate floured: a very short time bakes them.
Makes 16-20
5 oz/ 150 g/ 1¼ cups plain (all-purpose) flour pinch of salt 2 oz/ 50 g/ 4 tablespoons softened butter 2 oz/ 50 g/ 1/3 cup caster (superfine) sugar 1 small egg ½ teaspoon orange juice ½ teaspoon rose-water 1 teaspoon sweet white wine or sherry 1 teaspoon brandy 1 oz/ 25 g/ ¼ cup currants
Set the oven to heat to 350?F/ 180?C/ Gas Mark 4. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Work in the butter to make a crumbly mixture, then add the sugar. In a small bowl, beat the egg until liquid. Add the juice, rosewater, wine or sherry, and brandy. Stir well. Then mix the liquids by degrees into the dry goods, to obtain a smooth dough. Lastly mix in the fruit. Put the cake mixture in small, neat heaps (3/4 inch/ 2 cm across) on a lightly greased baking-sheet. Bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. These little cakes are pleasant with a glass p of coffee at mid-morning or in the evening.(Black, The Jane Austen Cookbook, pp. 124-125
A Popular Craft from Jane's time!
How to Cut a Silhouette
1.Hang a large piece of white paper on the wall of a darkened room. 2.Have a person sit in front of the paper. 3.Shine a desk lamp at the person to create a defined shadow on the paper. 4.Have the sitter turn sideways so that the shadow is a profile. Tell him or her to sit very still. 5.Use a pencil to draw an outline of the sitter’s head, neck and the top of his or her shoulders. 6.Use a copy machine to reduce the drawing to the size you want. 7.Use a glue stick to fasten the copy to a sheet of black paper. 8.Cut around the outline. 9.Pull the white paper off the black one, flip the black one over and stick it on the front of a blank greeting card or on a sheet of light-colored paper.
Tips: If you use a halogen floor lamp, you can get very sharp detail. The closer to the person you set the lamp, the smaller and more defined the silhouette will be.
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