About the Book
About the Four Heroines
About Regency England
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Fun Stuff
La Petite Four is set in the marvelous early nineteenth century, called the Regency period in England. Once upon a time, it was difficult and costly to find books or clothes or furniture from nearly 200 years ago! However, thanks to the Internet, we can all have a whole lot of fun with games, tricks, and recipes. Enjoy!
Let's Play Dress Up!
Here's something fun, and rather addictive! There's an animated nineteenth century paperdoll online. You can change her clothes, dress her up for day or night, even change her hair and expression. Check it out here. |
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Sweets for the Sweet!
Chocolate bars didn't exist in the Regency (oh the horror!), but La Petite Four have been known to indulge in a few sugar cookies. Here's a recipe dating from around 1812:
Sugar Cookies
- 2 cups butter
- 10 eggs
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Flour to suit
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baking sheet. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Divide each egg so that the 10 yolks go into one bowl and the 10 whites go into another. Beat the yolks until they are the consistency of custard. Whip the whites until they are stiff. Stir the yolks into the butter and sugar. Fold in the egg whites. Add milk, then baking soda, and finally the cinnamon, and blend well. Add in flour until the dough is the right consistency to roll out. Place dough on floured board and roll out into a thin sheet about 1/4 inches or less thick. Cut the cookies in any shape with a knife or cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the greased baking sheet. Sprinkle sugar over them before baking. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until done. Makes about 6 dozen to share with friends and family. Let's see, that's 72 cookies split among four good friends . . .
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Give the Girl a Hand
La Petite Four love to enliven a quiet afternoon with a great game of cards, like Commerce for three or more players. A dealer deals cards one at a time to each player, three face down and three face up. The face up cards are called the widow. |
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Everyone picks up the three face-down cards as their hand. The player to the dealer's right starts the game. She can trade or barter a card. To trade, she hands one of the cards from her hand to the dealer, who gives her another. To barter, she swaps one card from her hand with one card from the widow. Then it's the next person's turn, going toward the right. When a player has a hand she thinks can win, she knocks on the table and does not play again. Play continues until someone else knocks. Then everyone lays down their hands to see who won.
The best hands are as follows:
- Tricorn, or three of a kind. Ace is high; two is low.
- Sequence or three of the same suit in order. The ace can be used as either the top or the bottom (ace, king, queen are high; three, two, ace are low).
- Suits. Any set of cards in the same suit, with the player adding up the value of the cards in the hand. Ace counts as eleven.
The winner has the best hand or highest points if no one has a Tricorn or Sequence. The person to the dealer's right becomes the new dealer, and play continues.
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The Proper Silhouette
There's something elegant about a silhouette, as if the person's character shines through when details are kept simple. The very best silhouette makers can look at a person and cut the black paper to match. But you don't have to be an artist to create one. Tape a piece of white paper on the wall and sit between it and a light so that your shadow is cast on the paper. Have a friend trace your silhouette. Then cut it out. You can either put the while silhouette on black paper, or trace around it on black paper and put the transferred silhouette on white paper. Tres chic!
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The Wassail Cup
On New Year's Eve, Lady Emily and her friends would be drinking from the warm, savory depths of a Wassail cup. Want to try a sip? Here's a recipe, modified a bit to fit today's ingredients.
Combine in a large saucepan
- 1 gallon of apple cider
- 1 quart of orange juice
- 1 cup of lemon juice
- 1 large can of pineapple juice
- 24 whole cloves
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 cinnamon sticks
Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes, strain, and serve hot. Refrigerate any you don't drink. Yum! May the coming year be just as sweet!
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Regency Movie Day!
God bless YouTube! If you want to see some cool videos celebrating the Regency period, click here.
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Design Your Own Room!
Design your own room with this online activity using Thomas Hope's room designs from his 1807 book, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Click
here.
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