In the kitchen with Emily Dickinson

Writing poems, baking, gardening

Article

No. 11 • September 2018

When poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was not busy in her garden, she could be found in her kitchen. There she wrote lyrical poems and baked phenomenal pies.

text: Sarah Knigge

Fig 1. Black & white photograph of Emily Dickinson

On one side of the note sheet she wrote,

‘The Things that never can come back, are several –

Childhood – some forms of Hope – the Dead –

Though Joys – like Men – may sometimes make a Journey –

And still abide -‘

Perhaps inspired by the recipe, which she wrote on the back of that same leaf, for a coconut cake: the familiar mixture of butter, flour, egg and sugar with an exotic twist.

After Dickinson’s death in 1886, many more stanzas were discovered that she penned in the kitchen. For the kitchen was her domain: here she baked breads, cakes and pies. It was not her lyrical poems, but her phenomenal baking that made her famous in her day – her father would not eat bread not baked by her.

But even before she entered the kitchen, she could be found in the garden, growing exotic plants and wildflowers, then picking them, drying them and arranging them in her herbarium. Geen traditionele recepten en gewassen dus voor Dickinson. No traditional recipes and crops for Dickinson. Her life, most of which took place in and around her childhood home, speaks to our imagination, but did so much more to hers. A vast world we can read about in all of her (1,800!) poems – her “blossoms of the brain.

Emily Dickinson

‘I am going to learn to make bread to-morrow. So you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, salaratus, etc., with a great deal of grace.’

Fig 2. Emily Dickinson, Kokoscake

For 1 coconut cake
250 gr flour
200 gr sugar
120 gr butter
120 ml milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
50 gr grated coconut

Preheat the oven on 180˚C.
Put the flour into a bowl with the baking powder.
In another bowl, mix the butter (at room temperature) with the sugar and mix for a few minutes until fluffy.
Break the eggs one at a time over the bowl.
Then add the flour and baking powder mixture in batches, alternating with the milk. Mix on low speed until smooth.
Mix in the grated coconut with a spatula.
Pour the mixture into a greased (or parchment paper-lined) baking tin and bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes.
Optional: decorate the outside with buttercream and coarse (golden) coconut flakes.