ORANGE
FRITTERS AND RHUBARB CAKE!!!
Thank you to all who voted on which recipe
to try from the first edition of the Australian Woman’s Weekly dated 10 June
1933. Here’s what I cooked:
Orange
Fritters: (Recipe is at the end of the article)
These were basically thick slices of orange
cooked in pancake batter. From the recipe, I wasn’t sure if it was a pancake
which the slices sat in, or if the slices were dipped into the batter, so I did
it both ways. The pancake way didn’t really work as it didn’t cook evenly
through and ended up in the bin. The battered slices worked well, but there was
a problem…they weren’t very nice! I’m being a bit mean, as my son and his
friend ate them, but the majority of us didn’t like the sourness of the hot
orange. However, if you had sweeter oranges, or served it with ice-cream, it
might be better. Even trying them cold didn’t really redeem them.
Rhubarb
Cake: (Recipe is at the end of the article)
Very yummy! This is more of what we would
call a rhubarb pie. I love how the recipe just says to make a short pastry. I
guess every woman worth her salt already knew how to make pastry without
instructions – however, I’m not one of those women and I used a recipe for Mrs
Beeton’s recipe book form the 19th century. (Find recipe at end of
article)

I halved the recipe as rhubarb is so
expensive at the moment, and if I hadn’t of halved it, it would have been a
very large pie! The rhubarb was cooked until soft, then sugar, eggs, and flour
added and cooked until thick. This was poured into the tin lined with pastry
and baked until pastry was golden. Sugar was sprinkled on top to finish it off.
Served with ice-cream, This was really yummy and I don’t think it’s done any
differently today.
Orange
Fritters
250g flour
15g melted
butter
2 eggs
Pinch salt
Enough milk to
make it batter consistency
An orange or two
Mix flour with
melted butter, eggs, and salt, then gradually add milk until right consistency.
Thickly slice oranges and dip into the batter, before frying in a little butter
in a frying pan until lightly golden.
Short pastry:
250g flour
30g icing sugar
45g butter
150ml boiling
milk
Rub in butter
into the flour then add icing sugar. Add the milk and combine until a soft
dough forms. Roll out to required thickness
Rhubarb cake (Half size):
250g rhubarb
“A little water”
– I used about 3-4 T
75g sugar
1 beaten egg
½ T flour mixed
into a little water.
Put rhubarb and
water into saucepan and cook over med high heat until rhubarb collapses and
purees. Add sugar, egg, and flour. Combine and continue to stir until mixture
thickens. Pour into pie/cake tin lined with short pastry and cook at 180°C
degrees until pastry is cooked through.