"... You'd better go in disguise; For ev'ry Bear that ever there was will gather there for certain, because today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic."
Picnics involve a type of out door party food with cakes, sandwiches, sausage rolls, scotch eggs and lots of tasty treats filling a picnic hamper. A picnic is a great chance for kids to enjoy playing outside whilst also enjoying food. However, in England the sun never shines very long for any 'al-fresco' party food to be appreciated very often!
Despite this picnics are a common theme found in children's literature such as The Teddy Bear's Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. These books show picnic food in a delicious way making it seem like food tastes better outside. Really we all know, the sandwiches often go soggy and that the weather or wasps always get in the way!
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Jimmy Kennedy's picture book, The Teddy Bear's Picnic (1987) also presents picnic food as a form of independence. The story was originally a song which I'm sure anyone can hum along to the words:
"If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise..." (1)
and for this reason is a story of a picnic that particularly sticks in my head. Kennedy makes the bears anthropomorphic by humanising them as they appear to have a picnic by themselves. The images in the book show the teddies carrying all their food down with them to the woods, enjoying their feast of "marvellous things to eat," (7) and then playing child-like games such as hide and seek. After the teddies have had their picnic all by themselves and are exhausted the story ends with "their Mummies and Daddies," (24) taking them home to bed. The last page shows the children carrying the teddy bears home which gives away the secret of the story that the teddy bears aren't really real and it was just the children playing make-believe. I think the story suggests a picnic to be a form of independence for a child as being allowed to go on a picnic with your teddy bears and friends by yourself for the first time would be liberating. Nowadays a child would not be allowed further then their own garden but still The Teddy Bears Picnic promotes the idea of being an adult and having the responsibility of providing a picnic for others (even if it's your teddies!) Interestingly the book does not actually say who has made the food, was it the children, their parents... or the teddies?
"If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise..." (1)
and for this reason is a story of a picnic that particularly sticks in my head. Kennedy makes the bears anthropomorphic by humanising them as they appear to have a picnic by themselves. The images in the book show the teddies carrying all their food down with them to the woods, enjoying their feast of "marvellous things to eat," (7) and then playing child-like games such as hide and seek. After the teddies have had their picnic all by themselves and are exhausted the story ends with "their Mummies and Daddies," (24) taking them home to bed. The last page shows the children carrying the teddy bears home which gives away the secret of the story that the teddy bears aren't really real and it was just the children playing make-believe. I think the story suggests a picnic to be a form of independence for a child as being allowed to go on a picnic with your teddy bears and friends by yourself for the first time would be liberating. Nowadays a child would not be allowed further then their own garden but still The Teddy Bears Picnic promotes the idea of being an adult and having the responsibility of providing a picnic for others (even if it's your teddies!) Interestingly the book does not actually say who has made the food, was it the children, their parents... or the teddies?
This mysteriously made food that is shown in the pictures is the traditional picnic food of sandwiches, sweets, sausage rolls, buns, jelly, biscuits, a pie, scones and a seed cake.
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A Very Good Seed-Cake (Page 342)
Ingredients - 1 lb. of butter, 6 eggs, 3/4 lb. sifted sugar, pounded mace and grated nutmeg to taste, 1 lb. of flour, 3/4 oz. of caraway seeds, 1 wineglassful of brandy (Not sure if the brandy is completely necessary for a child friendly version of this recipe!)
Mode - Beat the butter to a cream; dredge in the flour; add the sugar, mace, nutmeg, and caraway seeds, a mix these ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs, stir to them the brandy, and beat the cake again for 10 minutes. Put it into a tin lined with buttered paper, and bake it for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This cake would be equally nice made with currants, and omitting the caraway seeds.
I'm not sure how appetising this cake sounds compared to some of the deliciously sweet party food I have shown you already but seeds can be nourishing for kids and if it's good enough for the teddy bears then why not try the challenge of attempting to follow Beeton's recipe!
Mrs Beeton. Mrs Beeton’s Household Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2008.
Kennedy, Jimmy. The Teddy Bear's Picnic. London: Peter Bedrick Books, 1992.
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