Julia's Christening Party - One Party or Two? Hevva, Saffron & Gingerbread & Tea!

Thanks to Chris Barnard Photography and Red Sangre for their photography and art.

Hello Fans of Poldark:

After the birth of Julia, Demelza had ideas about a christening party.  Prudie had filled her with tales of the one Elizabeth had for Geoffrey Charles and Demelza wanted one for Julia too.

This is a painting by George Morland, 1787, of children playing "Blind Man's Bluff" a game that was played by the children at Julia's Christening party.


To set the scene, here is the conversation that Demelza and Ross have about the parties that Demelza wanted to host (from Demelza Poldark-edited):

"She decided to have two parties if Ross could be talked into it.  She put it to him four weeks after Julia was born, as they were taking tea together on the lawn before the front door of Nampara, while Julia slept soundly in the shade of the lilac tree.

Ross looked at her with his quizzing, teasing glance.  “Two parties?” We’ve not had twins.”  Demelza’s eyes met his for a moment, then stared into the dregs of her cup.

“No, but there’s your people and there’s my people, Ross.  The gentlefolk and the other folk.  It wouldn’t do to mix’em, no more than you can mix cream and – and onions. But they’re both nice enough by themselves.”

“I’m partial to onions,” Ross said, “but cream cloys. Let us have a party for the country people: the Zacky Martins, the Nanfans, the Daniels.  They’re worth far more than the overfed squires and their genteel ladies.”  Demelza threw a piece of bread to the ungainly dog squatting near.  “Garrick’s no better looking for his fight wi’ Mr. Treneglos’s bull,” she said.  “I’m certain sure he’s  got some teeth left, but he swallowed his food like a seagull and expect his stomach to do the chewing.”  Garrick wagged his two-inch stump.

“Here,” said Demelza, “let me see.”  We could gather a very nice picking of the country folk,” said Ross.  “Verity would come too.  She is just as fond of them as we are – or you if she were let.  You could even ask your father if it pleased you.  No doubt he’s forgiven me for throwing him in the stream.”

“I thought ‘twould be nice to ask father and brothers as well,” Demelza said, “on the second day.  I thought we could have that on the twenty-third of July, Sawle Feast, so that the miners would have the day off anyhow.”

Ross smiled to himself.  It was pleasant sitting in the sun, and he did not mind her wheedling. Indeed, he took an objective interest in what would be her next move.

“Yes, he’s teeth enough to make a show,” she said.  “It is plain laziness, naught else. Would all your fine friends be too fine to be asked to dinner with a miner’s daughter?”

“If you open your mouth much wider,” said Ross, “you’ll fall in.” “No, I shan’t; I’m too fat.  I’m getting a rare fudgy face, and my new stays will scarcely lace.  … discussion about whom to invite…

A cool breeze stirred between them. It lifted a frill of Demelza’s dress, flapped it idly, and let it fall.

“Gamblers all,” said Ross.  “You would not want gamblers at a christening.  And twice meeting at a card table is not a close acquaintance.”

She loosed Garrick’s slavering jaws and moved her hands to wipe them down the side of her dress.  Then she remembered and bent to rub them on the grass.  Garrick licked her cheek and a dark curl fell over one eye.  The trouble with arguing with women, Ross thought, was that one was diverted from the point by their beauty.  Demelza was not less lovely for being temporarily more matronly.  He remembered how his first love Elizabeth had looked after Geoffrey Charles was born, like an exquisite camellia, delicate and spotless and slightly flushed.

“You can have your two christenings if you want them,” he said.  For a moment, absurdly, Demelza looked a little troubled.  Used to her sudden changes of mood, he watched her quizzically, and then she said in a small voice, “Oh, Ross.  You’re than good to me.”  He laughed, “Don’t weep for it.”  “No, but you are; you are.”  She got up and kissed him.  “Sometimes,” she said slowly, “I think I’m a grand lady, and then I remember I’m really only…” “You’re Demelza,” he said. “God broke the mold.”  “No, he didn’t.  There’s another one in the cot.”  She looked at him keenly.  “Did you really mean all those pretty things you said before Julia was born? Did you, Ross?”

“I’ve forgotten what I said.”  She broke away from him and went skipping across the lawn in her smart dress. Presently she was back.  “Ross, let’s go and bathe.”  “What nonsense.  And you but a week out of bed.”  “Then let me put my feet in the water. We can go to the beach and walk in the surf.  It is quiet today.”  He gave her a pat.  “Julia would suffer for your cold feet.”  “I hadn’t thought of that,” she said.  She subsided in her chair.  “But,” he said, “there is dry sand enough to walk on.”  She was up in a moment.  “I will go’n tell Jinny to keep an eye on Julia.”

They walked arm in arm, and he thought how quickly they had refound their old companionship.

She said, “I think it would be a good thing if Verity came to both our parties.  She needs the change and new notions to interest her.”  “I hope you don’t intend to have the child held over the font two days together.”

“No, no, that would be the first day.  The high folk would see that.  The low folk will not mind if they are given plenty t’eat. An’ they can finish up what’s  left from the day before.”

“Why do we not also have a children’s party,” said Ross, “to finish up on the third day what has been left on the second?”  She looked at him.  “You mock me, Ross. Always you mocked me.”  “It’s an inverted form of reverence.  Didn’t you know that?”  “But quite serious, do you not think it would be a good genteel notion to have such a gathering.”  “Quite serious,” he said.  “I’m disposed to gratify your whims.  Isn’t that enough?”

                         * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As we know the first christening plans were altered by Demelza's father and step-mother showing up.  But, the second christening went off without a hitch with the miners and their families.

After the meal, they were all invited to drink tea and eat heavy cake and saffron cake and gingerbreads.

Heavy Cake or Hevva Cake

 Heavy Cake made up into individual size cakes 

 Heavy Cake Recipe

3 c. flour

1/4 c. sugar

4 oz butter (1 stick) unsalted

1/4 c. lard

1 tsp salt

2 tsp lemon peel (optional)

10 oz currants

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 c. milk or buttermilk

Cut butter and lard into flour, sugar, salt & lemon peel (if using, I used dried) with pastry knife.. not too finely.  Add currants.  Mix in enough milk to make a firm dough.  Roll out into a rectangle, fold ends towards middle and close it like a book, do this a couple times. This makes it like pastry dough or "shaley" as it is called in Cornwall.  Take a knife and score the top of the cake going one way, then cross the other way, this symbolizes a fishing net. 

  Bake in a hot oven, 375, for approximately 45 minutes.  Best warm with hot tea.  You can use all butter instead of lard.  Some variations include a pinch of cinnamon, even chopped peel and a modern recipe called for baking powder(!).

Heavy Cake or Hevva Cake dates back to the woman or man (this person was called a huer) who would keep watch for the pilchards off the coast and yell, "hevva", 'hevva," when the pilchards were spotted.  The story goes that this cake was made and put in the oven and would be ready to eat when he (or she) returned.  Some recipes call for it to be made like cake, other using a cookie (biscuit) cutter, but both call for taking a knife to score the top to resemble a fishing net.

A huer has spotted the pilchards and is alerting everyone!

Saffron Cake ready just out of the oven

Saffron cake is more of a bread as it is a yeast dough and baked in a bread pan.  The ingredients are somewhat variable but the end result is delicious!

Saffron Cake

7 c. flour

2 sticks, (8oz) butter, unsalted

1 1/2 c. sugar*

1 c. currants

1 c. lemon peel or orange or combination

2 packets of dry yeast

1/2 water with saffron, strained

1 1/2 c warm water (approximate)

Soak a few threads of saffron in the warm water until it has fully colored the water (couple hours), strain and save the threads (there's a reason for the expression "dear as saffron").  In a large bowl cut the butter into the flour and sugar.  Add the fruit and yeast, stir until incorporated.  Make a well in the center and add the saffron infused water and then tepid (very important it not be too hot, or the yeast will die) water (about 1 1/ 2 c.) to form a soft dough. Cover and leave to rise to double size in a warm place for several hours.  Grease three baking pans and fill each one to half full with dough.  Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes or until the top is nicely brown.  Cool and eat with butter!  Saves well, freezes well too.  * I thought this fairly sweet, I think one cup of sugar may be sufficient.  Also, about the saffron, some folks toast it in the oven, and take a rolling pin and reduce it to dust and then add to the flour.

I found a recipe that dates to 1805 that includes eggs, rosewater, milk, and for spices- mace and cinnamon as well as caraway! So any of those would be an interesting addition to try.

Why saffron in Cornwall? There seems to be no conclusion, but it comes from the autumn crocus, crocus sativus.  Some theorize the Romans brought saffron with them because they loved it.  One account says the Phoenicians brought it.  No matter, it is still very popular and even more "dear" now.

Gingerbread

Gingerbread

2 1/2 c. flour

4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. buttermilk or milk

1 cup chopped lemon peel

1 c. golden raisins (optional, but nice)

2 tsp. ginger

2 tsp baking soda

2 T. molasses

In a large bowl add the flour, ginger, lemon peel, raisins & baking soda. Melt the butter, add the brown sugar, buttermilk (or milk) and the molasses.  Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.  Put in a greased square pan and bake for  approximately 45 minutes in a 375 oven.

Turned out well.  Tastes good.  In  America we typically add eggs as well as cinnamon and allspice and use baking soda.  This makes for a lighter gingerbread.  We also use molasses whereas in the UK they would use dark treacle.

So the party served all these sweet treats with cups of steaming tea.  What kind of teas were available?  According to A Social History of Tea, a 1784 Bedfordshire newspaper reported: "It is now almost the universal practice in the kingdom to drink tea twice a day, as part of our diet.  Therefore it deserves our attention to render the constant use of it as wholesome as possible, by adopting the different qualities to our constitution - the black teas, bohea, congou, and souchong*, are of an astringent nature, and are rendered more binding when sweetened with double-refined loaf-sugar.  The green teas, singlo and hyson, are laxative, and are more opening when sweetened with fine Barbados clayed sugar, commonly called fine Lisbon sugar."
*souchong is the only tea I can remember actually named in the books (Warleggan)...it is so interestingly smokey smelling and tasting! A dear friend with a tea company sells a smokey tea as part of her Jane Austen tea line, (Dashing Willoughby), www.bingleyteas.com  Try some if you would like to drink the tea that Ross and Demelza enjoyed.

That is it for this time.  Hope you have enjoyed reading about the christening party and the culinary treats.  I want to discuss what would Julia have worn, and even Jeremy later on.  Next time I will address the baby clothing and their other needs (diapers, cloths, etc)

Bonny Wise, I am
Inspired by Poldark

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/947340/?claim=xtg2kq6n7aq">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>