Did you ever wonder what it would be like to go on a picnic with the Famous Five, or have tea up the Faraway Tree, or a midnight feast at Malory Towers? Allegra McEvedy, who co-founded a healthy fast-food chain, has cooked up a book of recipes, Jolly Good Food, inspired by the fare Enid Blyton wrote about.

Here are two of them:

JAM SPONGE CAKE

Serves eight

Ingredients

220g caster sugar + extra for the top
220g unsalted butter, softened + extra for greasing
4 large eggs
220g self-raising flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
½   tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

For the buttercream icing:

75g unsalted butter, softened
150g icing sugar, sifted
A couple of drops of vanilla extract
A splash of milk (about ½   cup)

For the filling:

4-6 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam
You will need two 20cm sandwich tins

Method

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

Grease and line the base of your sandwich tins with baking paper.

Cream together the sugar and softened butter in a large bowl (or use an electric mixer/beater) until pale, light and fluffy. Crack the eggs in one at a time, beating well after each one.

Carefully fold in the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract, then finish by stirring in the milk.

Divide the mixture evenly between the cake tins.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the cakes are lovely and light golden brown, well risen and springy to touch — but be careful, they’re HOT!

Leave to cool in the tin for about five minutes and then tip out on to a wire rack, peel off the paper and allow to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter and sifted icing sugar together using an electric mixer, so it’s super-light and pale and creamy, which will take a good few minutes. Then trickle in a drop or two of vanilla and a tiny splash of milk, and briefly beat again.

To assemble, take your least favourite of the two sponges and put it, top-side down, on to a cake stand or plate. Using a palette knife, spread the buttercream over the sponge, smearing it right to the edge. Dollop your jam on top and spread it over the butter icing.

Gently sit your favourite sponge on top to make the sandwich, then sprinkle with a little caster sugar for a crunchy top.

SALMON, BROCCOLI & CREAM CHEESE QUICHE

Serves  8

For the pastry case:

Ingredients:

300-320g ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
1 egg
You’ll need a fluted tart case with a push-up base (24cm across x 3cm deep)

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the pastry to about half a centimetre.

Lay it into the tart case, pushing it well into the corner around the base. Then using the top third of your fingers, press the pastry into the upright fluted edge all the way round so that it’s firmly held and not too thick.

Sit your rolling pin on top of the tart case and gently roll it along the top so that the excess pastry falls off. 

Prick the base all over with a fork then line with greaseproof paper, fill it with baking beans and put it on the bottom shelf of the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Carefully lift out the greaseproof paper and baking beans, setting aside the beans to cool before putting away to reuse. Then turn the pastry case around so it colours evenly.

Cook for just another five minutes, and during this time separate the egg. Whip the white with a fork until loose and frothy, and keep the yolk for the tart middle later.

Lift the pasty case out, give it a thorough brush all over with the beaten white and then put it back again for five minutes for this glaze to set hard and shiny.

Take the case out and turn the oven down to 180°C — the right temp to cook the quiche on.

Your tart case is now ready for its filling.

For the quiche:

Ingredients:

100g tenderstem broccoli, cut into 2cm pieces
220g (approx.) salmon, skinned and boned, cut into 2-3cm pieces
3 eggs + the yolk left over from glazing the tart case
200ml double cream
100g cream cheese
Salt
Pepper (optional)

Method:

Bring a pan of water to the boil with a pinch of salt, then drop the broccoli in it. As soon as it comes back to the boil (just a minute or two), drain the broccoli into a sieve and run cold water over it until it is completely cooled.

Pat the broccoli dry with kitchen roll, then scatter the raw salmon and broccoli bits all mixed up on the bottom of the cooked tart case.

In a jug or bowl, beat together the whole eggs, extra yolk, cream, cream cheese and a couple of good pinches of salt (and pepper too if you fancy it).

Pour this over the salmon and broccoli, so the case is filled right up to the top but not spilling over.

Sit it evenly on a baking tray and bake in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes, turning halfway through, until the outside is set but the inside has a little wobble.

FIVE HAVE A LOVELY PICNIC

While you wait for the spongecake and the quiche to bake, here are a few pages from Enid Blyton’s Five Get Into Trouble, extracted from Allegra McEvedy’s Jolly Good Food

They stopped at a tiny village called Manlington-Tovey. It had only one general store, but it sold practically everything — or seemed to! ‘Hope it sells ginger beer!’ said Julian. ‘My tongue’s hanging out like Timmy’s!’

The little shop sold lemonade, orangeade, lime juice, grapefruit juice and ginger beer. It was really difficult to choose which to have. It also sold ice creams, and soon the children were sitting drinking ginger beer and lime juice mixed, and eating delicious ices.

‘Timmy must have an ice,’ said George. ‘He does so love them. Don’t you, Timmy?’

‘Woof,’ said Timmy, and gulped his ice down in two big, gurgly licks.

‘It’s really a waste of ice creams to give them to Timmy,’ said Anne. ‘He hardly has time to taste them, he gobbles them so. No, Timmy, get down. I’m going to finish up every single bit of mine, and there won’t be even a lick for you!’

Timmy went off to drink from a bowl of water that the shopwoman had put down for him. He drank and he drank, then he flopped down, panting.

The children took a bottle of ginger beer each with them when they went off again. They meant to have it with their lunch. Already they were beginning to think with pleasure of eating the sandwiches put up into neat packets for them.

Anne saw some cows pulling at the grass in a meadow as they passed. ‘It must be awful to be a cow and eat nothing but tasteless grass,’ she called to George. ‘Think what a cow misses — never tastes an egg and lettuce sandwich, never eats a chocolate eclair, never has a boiled egg — and can’t even drink a glass of ginger beer! Poor cows!’
 

George laughed. ‘You do think of silly things, Anne,’ she said. ‘Now you’ve made me want my lunch all the more — talking about egg sandwiches and ginger beer! I know Mother made us egg sandwiches — and sardine ones too.’

‘It’s no good,’ chimed in Dick, leading the way into a little copse, his bicycle wobbling dangerously. It’s no good — we can’t go another inch if you girls are going to jabber about food all the time. Julian, what about lunch?’

It was a lovely picnic, that first one in the copse. There were clumps of primroses all round, and from somewhere nearby came the sweet scent of hidden violets. A thrush was singing madly on a hazel tree, with two chaffinches calling ‘pink-pink’ every time he stopped.

‘Band and decorations laid on,’ said Julian, waving his hand towards the singing birds and the primroses. ‘Very nice too. We just want a waiter to come and present us with a menu!’

A rabbit lolloped near, its big ears standing straight up inquiringly. ‘Ah — the waiter!’ said Julian, at once. ‘What have you to offer us today, Bunny? A nice rabbit-pie?’

The rabbit scampered off at top speed. It had caught the smell of Timmy nearby and was panic-stricken. The children laughed, because it seemed as if it was the mention of rabbit-pie that had sent it away. Timmy stared at the disappearing rabbit, but made no move to go after it.

‘Well, Timmy! That’s the first time you’ve ever let a rabbit go off on its own,’ said Dick. ‘You must be hot and tired. Got anything for him to eat, George?’

‘Of course,’ said George. ‘I made his sandwiches myself.’

And so she had! She had bought sausage meat at the butcher’s and had actually made Timmy twelve sandwiches with it, all neatly cut and packed.

The others laughed. George never minded taking trouble over Timmy. He wolfed his sandwiches eagerly, and thumped his tail hard on the mossy ground. They all sat and munched happily, perfectly contented to be together out in the open air, eating a wonderful lunch.

Anne gave a scream. ‘George! Look what you’re doing!

You’re eating one of Timmy’s sandwiches!’

‘Urhh!’ said George. ‘I thought it tasted a bit strong. I must have given Timmy one of mine and taken his instead. Sorry, Tim!’

‘Woof,’ said Tim politely, and accepted another of his sandwiches.

THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THE DISHES

 

(Jolly Good Food is published by Hodder Children’s Books and sold in India by Hachette India; Rs 799)