Welcome to Mrs Bird’s Victorian World – Victorian Recipes and Family Puzzles.

Come and meet Mary Ann Bird, our costumed interpreter based in the Stove Room most Saturdays or Steaming Sundays. She will tell you more about life in her modest Victorian kitchen. Mary Ann Bird is an able baker and you might be lucky to have a chance to taste her recipes taken from Eliza Acton’s (d. 1859) Modern Cookery for Private Families; Britain’s first cookery books aimed for the domestic reader. The book introduced the listing ingredients and suggested cooking times for each recipe. Later Eliza’s Modern Cookery was eclipsed by the success of Isabella Beeton’s bestselling Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861), which included several recipes plagiarised from Eliza’s work. In case you missed the opportunity, we have displayed the recipes, click on an image for full instructions!
Mrs Bird’s Victorian Bake-off
Mrs Bird’s Victorian Puzzle Place
Cattern Cakes
Jumbles
Tea Bread
Caraway Seed Cake
Balmoral Tartlets
Easter Cakes
Simnel Cake
Irish Plum Cake
Christmas Pudding
Mincepies
Grantham Gingerbreads
Victorian Shortbread
Candied Peel
Dorset Apple Cake
Anzac Biscuits
Chinese Tea
Imperials
Treacle Tart
Geneva Buns

Puzzles for October 2020
[Puzzles for October 2020 Answers]
Puzzles for September 2020
[Puzzles for September 2020 Answers]
Puzzles for August 2020
[Puzzles for August 2020 Answers]
Puzzles for July 2020
[Puzzles for July 2020 Answers]
Puzzles for June 2020
[Puzzles for June 2020 Answers]
Puzzles for May 2020
[Answers Puzzles for May 2020]
Puzzles for April 2020
[Answers Puzzles for April 2020]
Puzzles for March 2020
Meet Mrs. Bird in Victorian Washing Machines a World History Project video.