The Marchpane Knot Garden

Marchpane is an early form of marzipan which along with jellies would have dominated the 17th Century dessert table. Marchpane was a status feature and as such would be made into elaborate designs and even decorated with gold leaf in the wealthiest of houses.

Find out more at www.darcytodionysus.com,  www.theoldfoodie.com and www.livinghistorytoday.com

A classic banquet table would have centred around a marchpane in the form of a knot garden similar to the one above, made by historicfoods.com. Check out their beautiful gallery here. 

 

We drew our own inspiration from Zaphora's back garden in North London which is laid out exactly like this one but is currently in need of a winter tidy. Read about the history of knot gardens and find out how to plant one yourself (perhaps on a smaller scale). These designs will inspire you whether you plan to bake a knot garden or plant one.

Our design was of course made with salt dough, air-dryed overnight, painted and then sealed with a pva glue mixture (exact details to follow).

Remember to add some wholemeal flour for an authentic look.

Our finished result (below) looked like a beautiful tile.

A real marchpane would be made with marzipan (traditional recipe here) then glazed with fruit jellies and pastes for colour.

If you're the sort of person who peels marzipan out of their Christmas cake rather than eating it then the principal could perhaps be applied to a pastry dish with a little trial and error. A quick and easy snack for a school packed lunch.

Coming next...

Divvying up the chores.

One of us got to craft these intricate biscuits.....





 

while the other just had to knock up an early Stuart Knot Garden Centerpiece.


We flipped a coin.

The Holly and the Ivy

A holy or kissing bough was placed at the entrance of every house and blessed by the local priest. Bad feeling that may have built up over the year would be hugged out beneath it.

Oakwell Hall near Birstall

We took our inspiration from Oakwell Hall near Birstall but we went for a more spherical design from a contemporary description.

First we took willow from a tree in the park (jumping up and down around a tree in the early morning waving scissors attracted a little attention but that's a matter for our alternative blog).

Our stairwell bough

We twisted the willow into a hoop. A second hoop (making an 'x' at the top) made the frame for the sphere.

Our smaller version

 It was then simple to twist and drape holly and ivy around the frame and add sprigs of mistletoe to the middle.






A couple of red bows top and bottom tied the whole thing together. We made one to hang from the staircase at the side entrance and one to hang from the light fitting just inside the visitors' entrance (just for fun try walking round a heritage house with a hammer saying "Just need to knock a couple of nails in.")

We were lucky enough to have an abundant supply of mistletoe but the same effect can be achieved easily with much more accessible materials. Or you could grow your own mistletoe if you're very patient.

Try:

www.gardenorganic.org.uk

www.buy.mistletoe.org.uk

Using the willow was historically accurate but a little droopy in the long term. If you don't mind compromising authenticity you could stick a bit of wire in so your sphere doesn't sag to an ovoid. 

A 17th Century Christmas - prickles and salt dough

We’re getting a historic house ready for a Stuart Christmas. Our period is the early part of the 17th Century (before Oliver Cromwell and his parliamentary party put the dampers on most kinds of fun for a few years).

Decorations

 

Greenery was free and so houses would have been decorated with holly, ivy, bay, rosemary and mistletoe regardless of income. A holy or kissing bough would have been hung at the entrance; it would be blessed by a priest and guests would be hugged under it as they entered as a gesture to get rid of any hard feelings that may have built up over the year. We've done some (authorized!) foraging to recreate the 17th Century look.

 

Food and Drink

http://www.historicfood.com/galleries.htm
 

The Stuarts were big on sweet foods – a banquet at the time would have been a table full of desserts (straight to the good stuff - no wasting effort on nutrition). We took our ideas from historicfoods.com who cooked the food in this picture for real. Ours will be made from salt dough.

We’ll put in links to the images and recipes we're following - you might be able to make edible versions. If you do, please let us know how they tasted!

We’ve learned lots along the way, including that it’s best not to mess about with salt dough the day after wrestling with holly. In the next few posts we'll show you how we're getting on and hopefully have the finished result next week!