Regency Queen Cakes for Jane Austen's Afternoon Tea Party

A wonderful and very well known Regency recipe for individual cakes studded with fruit and flavoured with rosewater and almonds; I am sure Jane Austen would have served these for afternoon tea on dainty plates with her bone china cups and saucers! I remember making these with my Mum when I was little, and of course licking the wooden spoon and scraping out the mixing bowl! They are easy to make and are delicious with an afternoon cuppa or for a lunch box treat. I have not found out the true meaning behind their name yet - but maybe they were aptly named as they were "fit for a Queen" to eat! The use of rosewater and almonds is a lingering memory left over from our Medieval cooking days and was still very much in evidence throughout the Regency period. This recipe makes about 24 to 30 Queen cakes - depending on the size of your tins, but the quantities can be cut back with ease. However, they DO freeze very well, so maybe making a full batch is a good idea - as long as they make it to the freezer!

Edward Knight’s Silk Suit

This silk suit- a suit of two pieces, frock coat and breeches- has been in the Knight family since the 1790s.

Edward inherited the Godmersham estate in Kent and the Chawton estate in Hampshire from Thomas Knight. He was a relative of George Austen, Edward and Jane’s father. Thomas and his wife were childless and had “adopted ” Edward, and made him their heir. This grand inheritance enabled him to provide a productive and happy home for Jane Austen her sister, Cassandra, their mother, Mrs Austen and their friend Martha Lloyd from 1809, at what is now the Jane Austen’s House Museum in the village. Austen only

Miss Austen Regrets

Imogen Gay Poots^[1] (born 5 June 1989) is a British actress 

Miss Austen Regrets is a BBC-produced drama film. The film is based on the last few years of Jane Austen's life as she looks back on her life and loves and helps her favorite niece, Fanny, find a husband.^[1 

Regency Fashion:

In the 18th century the hand-made net was very expensive and was made of the finest thread from Antwerp: in 1790 this cost £70 per pound, sometimes more. At that time the mode of payment was decidedly primitive: the lace ground was spread out on the counter and the cottage worker covered it with shillings from the till of the shopman. As many coins as she could place on her work she took away with her as wages for her labour. It is no wonder that a Honiton lace veil before the invention of machine-made net often cost a hundred guineas. Heathcoat’s invention of a machine for making net dealt a crushing blow to the pillow-made net workers. The result is easily guessed. After suffering great depression for twenty years the art of hand-made net became nearly extinct, and when an order for a marriage veil of hand-made net was given, it was with the greatest difficulty that workers could be found to make it. The net alone for such a veil would cost £30. – A history of hand-made lace: Dealing with the origin of lace, the growth of the great lace centres, the mode of manufactures, the methods of distinguishing and the care of various kinds of lace, Emily Jackson, p. 170
janeaustensworld

Jane Austen and Wedgwood.

Jane Austen possessed some Wedgwood china: let’s read this extract from her letter to Cassandra Austen of the 6th June 1811:
 

On Monday I had the pleasure of receiving, unpacking and approving  our Wedgwood ware. It all came very safely and upon the whole is a good match, tho’ I think  they might have  allowed us rather larger leaves, especially in such a year of fine foliage as this. One is apt to suppose that the Woods about Birmingham must be blighted.There was no bill with the Goods- but that shall not screen them from being paid. I mean to ask Martha to settle the account. It will be quite in her way for she is just now sending my Mother a Breakfast set, from the same place. I hope it will come by the Waggon tomorrow; it is certainly what we want and I long to know what it is like: and as I am sure Martha has great pleasure in making the present,I will not have any regrets.





Jane Austen and her mother were not the only fans of Wedgwood’s wares in the Austen family. Still extant at The Jane Austen House Museum is the set of Wedgwood ware that Edward Knight, Jane’s brother ordered, exactly  as Jane Austen described it: 

The pattern is a small Lozenge in p
mp; it is to have the (Knight) crest austenonly/jane-austen-and-london-wedgwoods

Chawton Cottage

 

The dining room is at the front of the cottage. Jane sat at the window here looking out onto the road. It was the main road from London to Gosport, Winchester and Alton.She wrote at a small table positioned in the window. A large table is set with Regency tableware, for dinner. To the left of the fireplace is a cupboard in which Jane kept the families precious supply of tea.
 

This is a sight Jane would often see. It is the view as you come out of her bedroom to walk downstairs.

general-southerner/chawton