Let Them Eat Cake

French Indulgence and Villette

In Villette Bronte offers us a menagerie of food moments, in part drawing on appetite to enhance certain character traits. The flighty Ginevra Fanshawe 'fed on creams and ices like a humming-bird on honey-paste: sweet wine was her element, and sweet cake her daily bread', whilst the reserved protagonist, Lucy Snow, prefers hot beverages and cake; 'To my great joy this food was limited to coffee and cake: I had feared wine and sweets, which I did not like.' 
These recipes of the French inspired (and to my knowledge fictional) Petite Pates a la Creme and the English Citrus Seed Cake are my interpretations of the simple, moist cakes which Lucy preferred; they are perfect fruity numbers for a summer day with a few pitchers of Pimm's!

Just click on the link under each image to view the recipe... 

Lemon and Vanilla Petite Pates a la Creme 

Citrus Poppy Seed Cake

Brunching Like Little Women

"Not far away from here lies a poor woman with a little new-born baby. 

Six children are huddled into one bed to keep from freezing, for they have no fire.

 There is nothing to eat over there; and the oldest boy came to tell me they were suffering hunger and cold. 

My girls, will you give them your breakfast as a Christmas present?" 

They were all unusually hungry, having waited nearly an hour, and for a minute no one spoke; only a minute, 

for Jo exclaimed impetuously: “I’m so glad you came before we began!” 

“May I go and help carry the things to the poor little children?” said Beth, eagerly. 

“I shall take the cream and the muffins,” added Amy, heroically, giving up the articles she most liked. 

Meg was already covering the buckwheats, and piling the bread into one big plate. 

“I thought you’d do it,” said Mrs.March, smiling as if satisfied. “You shall all go and help me, 

and when we come back we will have bread and milk for breakfast, and make it up at dinner-time." 

[Louisa May Alcott, LIttle Women] 

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March are transcendentalists living during the American Civil War. 
Their creed, under the guidance of Marmie, is self-suffiencency and charity,

demonstrated in this part of the novel as the family choose to  give away 

their Christmas breakfast to the poor. 

These recipes of Cinnamon Brunch Buns, Banana Date and Walnut Bread,

and Irish Date and Walnut Wheaten Bread are the kind of muffins and breads

 which the frugal and hard working March family could have made with minimal costs.

These ingredients are similarly (conveniently) perfect for the student budget! 

Tip: If  you don't have a muffin tray then bake the cinnamon muffins in old tin cans, 

then simply either tip out, or open the other end of the tin and poke it out!

     

Just click on the link under each image to view the recipe...    

Cinnamon Brunch Muffins 

Cinnamon Drizzle

Banana, Date and Walnut Bread 

Irish Date and Walnut Wheaten Bread