One way I know to help comfort Laura at a time like this is with the help of a sweet treat: baked apple pudding. Baked apple pudding is something I always bake when I am in need of comfort from something other than human contact. Our mother used to bake this for us as a child and one memory relating to the pudding will always be on my mind. One day I was walking home from school when a group of older girls came up behind me and started calling me horrible names. They knocked my books out of my hands and pushed me to the ground, where I fell into a puddle of mud. I felt so defeated and weak that day and when I got home and told my mother, she made baked apple pudding for me. As soon as I took a bite, the pudding seemed to magically make my defeated mindset disappear and filled me with happiness and determination to not let other people get me down. This is something Laura is so familiar with and something I know will take some of her suffering away from her. To make baked apple pudding, I start by stewing the apples in a little water and mashing them into a paste. I then add nutmeg, rose water, lemon peel, and sugar and pour the mashed apples into puff paste to bake in the oven. After about half an hour, out comes a delicious, warm comfort dessert that is known to relieve any stress I have. This pudding will help Laura while she suffers through the goblins curse and while I find a way to save her from it.
Editorial Commentary: Choosing to bake baked apple pudding reveals that Lizzie enjoys to cook, a hobby stereotypical to women during the Victorian era. Cooking was also one of the “jobs” acceptable for lower class women to have, since being a wife and looking after your house also meant you may have to cook as well. Lizzie has the characteristics of a modern woman who is likely to stray away from being a housewife. She is witty and plans to outsmart the goblins in order to get the fruit to save her sister, Laura, from the goblins curse. A classic Victorian woman is expected to listen to men, even goblin men, and do exactly what they say, but Lizzie does not fill this stereotype. Lizzie was able to defy the stereotype of women by saving her sister by herself without the help of men, but also followed the stereotype by baking this pudding to comfort her sister after she ate the goblin’s cursed fruit. Lizzie using baking to comfort her sister also relates to a quote by Queen Elizabeth about appearing to be like a queen but having the heart of a king. Lizzie still enjoys baking because men and women alike love baking, but baking happens to be a stereotypical hobby for women to have. Even though she loves to bake like women do, she also is able to be heroic, like a king, and save her sister from the curse of the goblin’s fruit.
Citation: Leslie, Eliza. Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats. 1836. Google Books, 2020.