A Little Smackerel: Crustimony Proseedcake

If you’ve known me for long, then you will know that I am a great fan of Winne-the-Pooh. 

Although he claims to be “a bear of Very Little Brain,” he seems to me to be a very sensible sort of bear, and very much aware of the important things in life … things life Friendship, Seasons and Honey. 

And I really do empathise with Pooh Bear when he gets that rumbly sort of feeling in his tumbly that tells him it’s time for “a little something.” Bother if I don’t get just that very same feeling about 11 o’clock every day! 

Sometimes when Pooh gets to thinking about what there is to eat, he gets into a bit of a muddle about things (just like me when I’m trying to write a very important scene for a book, but my tummy won’t stop growling at me!). And on one such occasion, when asking Owl for advice on how to find Eeyore’s missing tail, Pooh, thinking about his tumbly, mistook Owl to say… Oh bother. Why don’t I just write it out for you so you can see for yourself?

“Hallo, Pooh,” he [that’s Owl] said. “How’s things?”

“Terrible and Sad,” said Pooh, “because Eeyore, who is a friend of mine, has lost his tail. And 

he’s Moping about it. So could you very kindly tell me how to find it for him?”

“Well,” said Owl, “the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.”

“What does Crustimony Proseedcake mean?” said Pooh. “For I am a bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.”

“It means the Thing to Do.”

“As long as it means that, I don’t mind,” said Pooh, humbly. 

And so you see, I thought perhaps the Thing to Do was to actually make a Crustimony Proseedcake, because, after all, it sounds delicious! All that was needed was a Special Occasion, and one came along last week. We were celebrating our dog Hugo’s 5th Homecoming (we adopted him on 6 February, 2014). And as we frequently call him by the nickname Pooh Bear (because he is, in many ways, similar to that Bear), it seemed appropriate to make the Pooh-inspired cake then.

Would you believe, there was actually a recipe online! If you’d like to try the original, you may find it here: ponderedinmyheart.typepad.com. I made a few Small Tweaks to the recipe to make it Gluten Free, and it turned out Positively Scrumptious! So if you’d like to try Hugo’s version of Crustimony Proseedcake, I shall share the recipe below:

Ingredients:

3 ½ cups of Gluten Free (I used Dove’s Farm) self-rising flour

1 cup of sugar (I used unrefined)

1 cup of mashed ripe banana (about 2 bananas)

½ teaspoon of salt

1/3 cup of chia seeds (or poppy, or whatever sort of seeds you have handy)

1 cup of softened butter (or coconut oil)

3 beaten eggs

1 ½ teaspoons of almond extract

1 tablespoon of vanilla

1 cup of milk (I used coconut milk)

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C

1. Cream together the butter and sugar
2. Beat in the eggs and extracts
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together
4. Combine dry ingredients with the buttery/sugary bit
5. Pop into a lined cake pan 
6. Cook for 1 hour until the crustimony bit turns nice and golden brown. You can test it with a toothpick. 

After it’s cooled, get your friends together and serve with tea, cream and perhaps a spot of Honey!

What about you? What’s your favourite food from a book? Have you ever tried making a “literary recipe”? If so, I’d love to hear about it! Share it below in the comments or send me an email at mez@riverotterbooks.com!

And speaking of book recipes, did you know you can make the very Cherokee Corn Pone that Katie Watson eats in Serpent Stone? Check out the video & recipe in the Serpent Stone bonus features: http://mezblume.com/serpent-stone/