One of my favourite comfort reads is The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. This fizzy, warm-hearted book is set in the 1950s and celebrates young romance, female friendship, rock ‘n’ roll, crumbling mansions, Dior dresses and afternoon tea.

If you’re a fan of novels like The Pursuit of Love and I Capture the Castle, then do give Eva Rice’s coming-of-age story a try. It deserves to be much more widely-known and praised!

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets was the February 2024 choice for The Comfort Book Club, and for our discussion video, my Mum and I came up with a recipe inspired by the book.

On a cold November day in 1954, young Penelope Wallace is (uncharacteristically) waiting for a bus in London, when she’s asked to share a taxi instead by a striking-looking girl of roughly her own age. Sensing adventure, Penelope accepts the ride and is instantly swept into the life of her glamorous new friend, Charlotte.

Charlotte is on her way to afternoon tea with her Aunt Clare and cousin Harry - ‘not at all handsome, but by far the most interesting boy you’ll ever meet’ - and begs Penelope to join her.

‘Aunt Clare always has excellent tea,’ went on Charlotte, ‘stacks of butter and raspberry jam and Eccles cakes and all the ginger scones you can eat.’

Luxuriating in the warmth of Aunt Clare’s fire-lit, book-lined study, Penelope feels at once at home amongst her new friends, and this wintry afternoon is only the beginning of many teas in their company and the eating of a great number of Aunt Clare’s famous ginger scones.

Having read the entire Enid Blyton canon at a formative age, I can never resist a truly splendid literary tea, and The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets has a good many of them. Ginger scones are the constant on Aunt Clare’s tea-table, and I thought it would be fun to recreate them.

With the addition of both ground ginger and finely chopped stem ginger, these scones pack a delectable punch and pair exceptionally well with either pear or rhubarb jam, making them a truly delicious tea-time treat.

I recommend whipping up a batch (with some Elvis tunes playing in the background, naturally) and imagining yourself in the company of Aunt Clare, Harry, Charlotte and Penelope for the afternoon. Let’s not allow afternoon tea to be another lost art!

Ginger Rock ‘n’ Roll Scones

Ingredients:

225g self raising white flour

1/2 tsp ground ginger

30g caster sugar

55g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

2 balls of stem ginger, finely chopped,

1 tsp stem ginger syrup from the jar

3 Tbsps crème fraiche, whisked in a jug with the teaspoon of reserved stem ginger syrup and enough milk to make 130ml of liquid total.

Extra milk to brush the tops of the scones

Butter and jam of your choice to serve.

Method:

1/ Preheat the oven to 220 C (Fan 200 C) and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2/ Place the self raising flour, ground ginger and caster sugar in the food processor and pulse to mix.

3/ Add the cubed butter to the flour mixture and pulse until the mixture looks well mixed with no lumps of butter visible.

4/ Scatter in the finely chopped stem ginger and lightly pulse to mix again.

5/ Then, with the food processor running, pour the crème fraiche, ginger syrup and milk mixture slowly through the food processor feed, stopping as soon as the mixture clumps together.

6/ Remove the mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly to form all into a ball, and then roll or pat mixture into a round, approximately 2 cms thick.

7/ Using a 5 cm cutter, cut out scones, bringing together any scraps and patting out again to cut more scones until all the dough is used up (I find it makes about 8 scones).

8/ Place scones on baking tray lined with baking paper and brush tops with milk.

9/ Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until scones are risen and lightly browned.

10/ Allow scones to cool a little, then serve still warm with butter and jam of your choice (my favourites are pear, rhubarb or apricot jam).

Enjoy!

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