Summary

Recipe book used by Elizabeth Lawrey from January 1927 to July 1935. The recipes are written by hand on the pages of a 1927 foolscap size diary and many loose recipes inserted throughout the volume.

Each recipe is written in the space allotted to one day and the directions are fairly brief. They are mostly cake, biscuit and dessert recipes and if oven temperatures are given they are expressed as hot, brisk, quick, moderate or slow. Some recipes have the source in brackets after the recipe name; many are quite large in quantity. Recipes include Rich Fruit Cake for Xmas, Birthdays, etc. and to be kept 3 months if possible before using; Somerset Bride Cake including sherry and brandy, Devonshire Xmas Cake and 'Cheap Fruit Cake'. Shortbread biscuits to be put through a forcer (different shapes with discs or nozzles) in a, recipe from The Argus newspaper. There are recipes for Sponge Fingers, Sponge Cake, Sponge. Sandwich, Swiss Roll, Sponge Roll (all variations on a theme) and Featherweight Sponge. There is an index on the last page.

The diary includes a range of miscellaneous information: New Zealand Stamp Duties, NZ Probate Duties. Directions for Making a Will in Victoria. British Weights and Measures, including Apothecaries Weights, Troy Weights. Liquids, Grains & Produce, Length, etc. Calendar for 1927 and 1928, Phases of the Moon for 1927 and Eclipses of the Moon for 1927 and 1928. Postal, Money Order and Telegraphic Information. Uniform Commonwealth Rates of Postage for a very wide range of articles including letters, post cards, samples, books, newspapers, magazines and parcel post. Rates for Money Orders, Postal Notes and Telegraphic information. Postage rates for New Zealand, and Fiji in similar detail to that of Australia. Stamp & Probate Duties of Australia, then detailed information for Victoria, including Stamp Duties. Distribution of Estates of Intestates, Probate Duties, etc. Similar information for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania.

Elizabeth and John Lawrey were early settlers to the Kinglake area and built 'The Uplands' homestead in the late 1890s. 'The Uplands' was well known locally and was often used by the Kinglake community as a meeting place for special events, celebrations and sporting activities.The house was one of two on this site on the Whittlesea-Kinglake Road in Kinglake that were destroyed in the Black Saturday bushfires on 7 February 2009. The chimney was collected as part of the Victorian Bushfires Collection and installed in the Forest Gallery at Melbourne Museum, to commemorate the history of bushfires in Victoria.

Physical Description

Foolscap book.

Significance

This recipe book offers a detailed insight into the Lawrey household and the Kinglake community in the first decades of the 20th century. The book complements our interpretation of the chimney acquired from 'The Uplands' homestead that was destroyed in the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

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