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Victoria Buns, Victoria
INGREDIENTS for 6 buns.-2 oz. of pounded loaf sugar, 1 egg, 1½ oz. of ground rice, 2 oz. of butter, 1½ oz. of currants, a few thin slices of candied peel, flour. AVERAGE COST, 6d.
Whisk the egg, stir in the sugar, and beat these ingredients both together; beat the butter to a cream, stir in the ground rice, currants, and candied-peel, and as much flour as will make it of such a consistency that it may be rolled into 6 or 8 balls. Place these on a buttered tin, and bake them from to hour. They should be put into the oven immediately or they will become heavy, and the oven should be tolerably brisk.
TIME. to hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
A small rubbed-and-beaten bun rather than a yeasted one, and the printed text has lost both its fractions and one step. Read the points below before starting.
- The missing stepAs printed, the egg-and-sugar foam and the creamed butter mixture are never joined. Beat the sugared egg into the creamed butter a little at a time, then fold in the ground rice, currants and peel before adding flour.
- The missing time"Bake them from to hour" and "TIME. to hour" have lost their fractions in setting; the original almost certainly read a quarter to half an hour. For buns this size, 15-20 minutes is right, until firm and lightly coloured.
- Tolerably brisk ovenBeeton gives no temperatures; modern glosses usually put a brisk oven at roughly 400-425F (200-220C). Get it fully up to heat first, since the text warns that the buns will become heavy if they are not put in immediately.
- Pounded loaf sugarLoaf sugar was a hard refined cone broken and pounded at home. Use caster sugar, or granulated pulsed briefly, for 2 oz (about 4 tablespoons).
- Ground riceA coarser grind than modern rice flour, which is the nearest thing on sale today. It gives the buns their characteristic short, slightly sandy crumb, so do not substitute more wheat flour for it.
- Flour to consistencyNo quantity is given because the dough is judged by feel. Expect roughly 3 to 4 oz of plain flour: enough to roll into balls that hold their shape without cracking, no more.
- Candied peel"A few thin slices" means about half an ounce, chopped small. Modern mixed peel comes ready diced; use it sparingly.
- Yield and keepingSix to eight buns, best the day they are baked.
Beeton's book is full of small cakes named for the Queen -- Victoria buns, Victoria sandwiches -- a habit of mid-century British cookery writing that attached the royal name to any neat, respectable, unshowy dish. What these buns really record is the Victorian middle-class kitchen's fondness for ground rice, used to lighten and shorten cakes and puddings. The "average cost, 6d." line is part of the same project: Beeton priced the dishes she printed, so that a young housekeeper could see at a glance what a plate of buns for tea would take out of the week's money.