"To go to oven"

To go to oven in old Kentish dialect meant to go to bake. That's what I did today. The weather has been changeable with some heavy showers and a clap of thunder thrown in so it was an indoors day. My current read is The Old Wives Tale (set in the Victorian period) by Arnold Bennett and he describes Mrs Baines as having a Pastry Day weekly.

'The day sanctioned by custom in the Five Towns for the making of pastry is Saturday. But Mrs Baines made her pastry on a Friday,......Mrs Baines wore black alpaca,shielded by a white apron whose string drew attention to the amplitude of her waist.Her sleeves were turned up, and her hands as far as the knuckles, covered in damp flour. Her ageless smooth paste-board occupied a corner of the table and near it were her paste-roller,butter and some pie dishes.'

Well today I had a baking day and 'went to oven' . I didn't use my pastry board or roller but made  chocolate cupcakes and rock cakes to restock my depleted store as my son has been home for a few weeks.
Rock cakes were the first cakes I learnt to make and are a favourite here so on a baking day they are usually on the list to make.

Baking day is also the day when  I will look through my books and pick out a new recipe to try for the next session. It gives me time to gather the ingredients and look over the recipe and to add other recipes for the ' to oven' time.Some of my books are very old and some are family notebooks from my Mother, Grandmother and Great Gran. They contain newspaper cuttings from the 1930's ,40's .

The top book was published in 1910 and has been in the family since then with other books.

Today I also made a rice pudding as I love rice puds covered in nutmeg. My Mother used to make a fabulous one. She also had a day when she would make suet and we would have savoury and sweet dishes steamed in the same pan.