Cooking our Books

We make a swiss roll and reflect on the challenges of getting this one right.

We bake a 1960s recipe for Orange Butterflies, an orange-flavoured cupcake that delights kids and adults alike. Helen's hack meant her cupcakes were the hit of her party, while we investigate why there are so few references to cupcakes in the cookbooks.

With Christmas around the corner it's the perfect time to make this Christmas Cake from Queen Elizabeth II's former cook Mrs McKee. We take a look at her life and get some insights from her time cooking for multiple royal households. The cake itself is light and packed with dried fruit - and was ultimately a huge task to assemble and bake. We also discuss the myriad of other Christmas recipes in the cookbooks.

Helen's culinary skills are on show with this impressive looking apple tart - combining a apple puree filling with a lattice pastry construction. The real lesson is, try not to make pastry dishes in Spring/Summer!

With Cornish Pasties on the menu we invited our friend Deb, who is from Cornwall, to tell us all about this delicious comfort food and where it comes from. She also gives us a lesson in how to pronounce 'pasties' which we manage not to get quite right! We agreed this recipe was pretty spot on and easy to make.

With a name that sounds both sweet and savory, we crack open store-bought puff pastry to build these beehives, which resemble a mix between a sausage roll and a scotch egg.

We're cooking up a double dose of sweetness: from the cookbooks we bake Small German Biscuits - a super simple and tasty bikkie perfect with a coffee. Plus we're joined by Angela who gives us her favourite recipe for Hungarian Cherry Cake (Cseresznyés Lepény) a fruity and dense sponge cake well worth waiting for after a long drive.

Fancy a fruit-filled pastry delight? We finally get to taste Stuffed Monkeys which turned out yummier than the name suggests.

Cut out from a 1984 edition of Family Circle magazine, the Pineapple Upside Down Cake is an easy recipe for beginner cooks and perfectly showcases the sweetness of tinned pineapples. We delve into theories about how this recipe was created and compare notes on making it.

We make a step-by-step recipe of Chilli Con Carne. We also look at references to the British Royal Family in the cookbooks and plan dishes to serve at a coronation party.

We're making a cake full of boozy sultanas with some surprising how-to instructions after baking. A recipe from the 1980s perfect as we commence Autumn.

We make a French dish of baked vegetables in stock, get reacquainted with parsnips and thanks to a newly discovered photo of Helen's, reminisce about children's birthday cakes.

From book 4 in the cookbooks, we make Chicken and Asparagus Croquettes and talk about why these breaded goodies are so popular.

We make cheese triangles and reflect on the challenge of working with filo pastry. We also chat collecting and deli meats.

From book number 2 we bake a tea cake with a crunchy topping, a recipe that tested our washing up and sieving skills. We also chat slow cookers, pressure cookers and our shared love of cinnamon.

In our first episode we make a passionfruit slice and discuss the history of our mum's cookbooks.