1940s Lemon Blossom Cake is the perfect garden party fare

✯ Day 145 of Vintage 365 ✯

Few colours call to mind spring's glorious beauty like cheerfully pretty sunshine yellow. It's a hue found on everything from baby chicks to daffodils, freshly churned butter to rows of cupped, gorgeous tulips at this fine time of year.
Just as few colours are as redolent of spring as chipper yellow, so too are few flavours better suited to this season as lemon. This immortally timeless fruit has a crisp tanginess that lends itself splendidly to everything from hollandaise sauce to seafood risottos, and which works especially well in desserts.
Think fruit tarts, meringue pies, bar cookies, ice cream and sorbets, even candy (lemon drops, for example) - all can be jazzed up by the inclusion for a little lemon juice, peel, fruit slices, or extract. All of these sweet treats certainly shine when lemon is involved, but we couldn't possible chat about citrus desserts without mentioning lemon cake.
Light, airy-as-a-puffy-cloud layers of white cake paired with lemon frosting is a dish worth of special occasions and everyday meals alike. The recipe below is a vintage gem that sounds positively delicious and well suited to festive spring tables of all sorts.



{This classic and utterly delicious sounding Swans Down Flour Lemon Blossom cake comes by way of Look Homeward, Harlot on Flickr. Click here for a larger version of this appealing citrus cake recipe.}

The moment I first read this lovely Lemon Blossom Cake recipe, I was struck by what a perfect dessert it would make for a garden party table. You could serve it on a plate surrounded by sugared (edible) flowers (such as food grade violets or rose petals) or slices of preserved or candied lemon, generous wedges cut for each of your guests to savour.
If lemon is one of those tastes that you instantly associate with spring or summer too, why not bake up this scrumptious 1950s double layer cake for your next party, bridal/baby shower, or Sunday night dessert?

This 1940s Lemon Chiffon Pie recipe is the perfect springtime dessert

✯ Day 96 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Let me begin today's post by thanking those lovely folks of who shared their comments with me last week when I announced that I was going to revamp the Wonderful Wednesday Recipe post (a longstanding repeat post here on Chronically Vintage) and merge (for the remaining duration of 2011) with the Vintage 365 series. I sincerely appreciate your feedback!

Suggestions such as recipes for frugal comfort foods (thank you for that one, Rocky Mountain Homemaker!) and doing themed months - such as a month of recipes from the 1930s (care of a commenter using the very food post appropriate name of Blackberry), are both ideas that I will keep firmly planted in mind as I search for entertaining vintage recipes to share with you all.

With spring now underway (said the Canadian gal, quickly darting her gaze out the window to make it hadn't suddenly started snowing again, like it did last Thursday!), one's mind tends to turn to lighter fare that incorporates the jubilant colours and sublime flavours of the year's second season into its composition.

Few tastes call to mind the return of spring more than the tart, invigorating, immensely lovely flavour of lemon, and when paired that workhorse darling of the vintage dessert world, chiffon pie, you've got a real winner of a dish on your hands.

{Click here for a larger version of this yummy vintage lemon chiffon pie recipe.}

 

While I highly doubt many companies would likely be so bold as to promote the "healthy properties" (such as being high in Vitamin C and easy to digest) of a dessert like like Knox did back in the 1940s (when this recipe appeared in one of their gelatine ads) today, there's something extra wonderful about the fact that not all yesteryear recipes were as obsessed with being diet-fare worthy as many you see in print are nowadays are.

I rather like the idea that at one point a group of Knox marketing folks were sitting around putting together the next line up of advertisement recipes and trying to come up with seemingly healthy point for what is, there's no denying, clearly a sweet treat. Though in this marvelous sounding Lemon Chiffon Pie's defence, it's not nearly as sugary or caloric as some desserts - both past and present.

Calling to mind the colour of baby chicks, gardens of tulips or soft yellow crocuses, and the soothing return of sunshine, this delightful vintage lemon chiffon pie recipe (which comes via vintage.kitten's great Flickr stream) requires a minimal amount or ingredients, can be whipped up in a jiffy, and has the added appeal of being the kind of delicious classic that works every bit as well today as it did sixty five years ago.

Bon appétit!