Our dear friend Betsy Franks, proprietor of the Marytown village shop, has passed on. Those of you who have read Flora Brown, will know that she has been ailing for some time, but at the start of Book 8 (yet to be completed) she goes to her grave in the Marytown churchyard. Many say that Edgar won’t be far behind her, together in death as they have been in life for many a long year. Betsy was one of the first residents of the settlement that later became Marytown, along with James Mackenzie, Sophia and her first husband, Samuel and Carrie Morling and Reverend Job Nicol and his wife Clara. Something of a stickybeak, she nevertheless grew her business from a small vegetable stand to a thriving village hub where almost anything could be bought. In recent years, she ran the postal service too. Betsy and Edgar never had children of their own, but they became aunt and uncle to every small child who passed through Marytown. In times of need, Betsy’s famous red sofa made a comfortable bed for small children to sleep on, almost always having eaten far too many sweet treats from Betsy’s table. And children rarely left Marytown without a twist of barley sugar in their pockets.

It is always good to talk about memories of those who die, and while reminiscing with a friend about Betsy’s famous baking skills, we got talking about old cookery books and the handwritten notes our mothers and grandmothers used to write in their recipe books. Although a hundred years on from Betsy’s time, I was reminded of moving into a house in about 1990 that had belonged to a recently deceased elderly couple. We found a few bits and pieces that had been left behind by their family, including, rather poignantly, the old chap’s gardening shoes lined up neatly by the garden shed.

In a kitchen drawer we came across this recipe book, dog-eared and greasy with splashes and finger marks, stuffed full of handwritten messages and clippings from magazines. I can tell you that the 1963 Christmas cake used the same recipe as 1962 and 1961, but was much improved by an extra knob of butter and chopping the raisins finely. It was made in May 1963 for the following Christmas and it improved once cut. By 1967 a small orange, peeled and squeezed had been added, and the ingredients cost 17/4 – about 87p in today’s UK money.

The recipe book itself has no pictures but is jam-packed with good basic recipes. I particularly like the ‘NICE FISH DISH FOR LUNCHEON OR HIGH TEA’ and the ‘PLAIN JANE’ for pudding.

I notice the ‘Plain Jane’ recipe uses the weight of eggs to measure the other ingredients. This is something I inherited from my mother too. I still use old fashioned balance scales for cake making and weigh the butter, sugar and flour against the weight of the eggs. It works really well and takes account of different sized eggs.

So go on, hunt out those old recipe books and have a go at creating something – our forebears knew a thing or two about using ingredients in a frugal way, not wasting anything and spending their pennies wisely. Betsy Franks will be proud of you.

Mind you, I can’t find tinned lobster on the shelf at our local supermarket, maybe I will have to make do with a can of tuna!

The post Betsy Franks’ baking appeared first on Amanda Giorgis.