Joan's Baking Recipes
Joan was given a recipe book in 1941 by her father, but it wasn't until she moved into her own, shared digs in 1943 that she had ample opportunity to experiment with cookery, and began to document recipes in earnest.
Click on any food to read a transcription of Joan's recipe - including the date upon which it is mentioned in the diary - or click the boxes to the far right to view actual pages from her recipe book.
Chocolate Cake
Rub the butter into the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the cocoa and sugar and mix in the milk and water. Dissolve the soda in the vinegar and add to the cake mixture, with the essence. Mix, turn into a greased 6-inch tin and bake in a moderate oven, gas mark 5, for 1 ½ hours.
Baked on September 27th, 1944
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Food rationing began in January 1940 with bacon, butter and sugar. These were soon followed by all other meats, and then tea and margarine. The next two years saw jam, cheese and eggs, sweets, chocolate and biscuits added to the ration books. |
Ingredients:
3 oz margarine or fat
7 oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ oz cocoa
3 oz sugar
¼ pint warm milk and water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp vinegar
½ tsp vanilla essence
Ginger Cake
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5. Grease and flour a 7-inch round cake tin. Sift the flour and baking powder with the ginger into a mixing bowl. Rub in the margarine, mix in the sugar and then the milk. Blend the bicarbonate of soda and the vinegar – the mixture will bubble. Beat this into the cake mixture. Spoon into the tin and bake for 20-30 minutes.
Baked on September 19th, 1943
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Coupons allowed people to purchase up to 2oz butter and 4oz margarine per week.Housewives were encouraged to save their home cooking waste fats, and bring them to their local butcher's. This used fat was processed into explosives. |
Ingredients:
6 oz plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
2 oz margarine
2 oz sugar
6 tbsp milk
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp vinegar
Shortbread
Ingredients:
2 oz butter
4 oz plain flour
1 oz sugar
Extra sugar for sprinkling
| Propaganda posters were used throughout the war to encourage people to eat healthily and maximise the country's diminishing food resources. |  |  |
Melt the butter, then add the flour and sugar and mix well with a wooden spoon. Once mixed, knead with your fingers until the mixture binds together (If the mixture is too dry, add a teaspoon or two of milk and knead again).
Put into an ungreased baking tin, then press firmly all over to form a neat round about half an inch in thickness.
Score with a knife into 6-8 sections, then prick with a fork and bake in the centre of a moderate oven (gas mark 4) for about 20 – 30 minutes.
When cooked, sprinkle a little extra sugar on top.
Baked on November 21st, 1943
Rock Cakes
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Rub in the margarine to make breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and spices. Add the egg and milk, stir to make a dough. Add the raisins. Grease a baking tray and spoon small heaps of dough on the tray with a bit of space between! Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown.
Baked on November 2nd, 1943
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Fresh eggs were rationed during the war to one a week - and otherwise replaced by imported powdered eggs - though Joan was fortunate enough to have access to farm eggs during her time as an evacuee in the West Country. |
Ingredients:
2 tsp baking powder
3 oz margarine
3 oz castor sugar
3 oz raisins
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Potato Scones
Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt, then rub in the fat. Add the mashed potato (drain and mash potatoes without adding anything or use leftover mash) and mix until it forms a soft dough (add a little milk if needed). Press into a round, then cut into 6 slices. Brush the top with milk. Bake in a moderate oven, gas mark 5, for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
| The Ministry of Food encouraged people to eat healthily. Potatoes and carrots were easily grown and relatively plentiful. A campaign was launched with the introduction of characters called Potato Pete and Dr Carrot. |  |
Ingredients:
4 tbsp plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp margarine or cooking fat
4 tbsp mashed potato
Baked on February 15th, 1943
Cheese Straws
Ingredients:
4 oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 oz grated cheese
1 1/2 oz buter
A little milk, salt and pepper
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Wartime ration allowances fluctuated, and were increased if supplies allowed. Cheese was generally rationed to 2oz per week. Joan always shared digs, which gave her the option to combine rations and have more ingredients available for cooking. |
Mix 4 oz plain flour in a basin with a teaspoonful of baking powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add 3oz grated cheese, and rub in 1 1/2oz butter. Moisten to a stiff dough with a little milk, turn out onto a floured board, and, after kneading the dough, roll it out a quarter of an inch thick. Bake in the oven gas mask 6 for 10-15 minutes until the fingers are lightly browned, then brush with milk and sprinkle with grated cheese. Return the dish to the oven for a minute or two. Serve hot.
Baked on October 24th, 1943
Bread Pudding
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Put the stale bread in a basin, add cold water and leave for quarter of an hour, then squeeze dry with your fingers. Crumble bread into a bowl. Add all the other ingredients, adding enough milk to make the mixture sticky. Spoon into a greased 8-inch baking tin and bake in the middle of the oven for an hour.
Baked on January 27th, 1944
| Many posters encouraged people to eat more potatoes and less bread – convoys of British merchant ships bringing wheat from America and Canada were very vulnerable to German U-boats. |  |  |
Ingredients:
8 oz stale bread
2 oz grated suet
1 oz sugar
1 tbsp marmalade
2 oz raisins
1 egg
4 oz plain flour
Milk to mix
Pinch of cinnamon
Apple Crumble
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The process of de-rationing began in 1948, but made slow progress until 1953. Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain finally ended at midnight on the 4th July 1954 when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted. |
Ingredients:
8 cooking apples
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 pinch cinnamon
4 oz plain flour
2 oz margarine
3 tbsp sugar