Care home residents and children urged to recite 'Poetry Together' and eat cake from a Royal recipe

This year, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall has provided her personal recipe of Victoria Sponge for the Poetry Together tea parties where care home residents and school children will be able to share the love of poetry, tea and cake.

The Duchess of Cornwall has supported Poetry Together since the initiative was launched by Gyles Brandreth in 2019 in partnership with Dukes Education and National Poetry Day.

Last year’s event was forced online due to the pandemic but more than 150 schools have already signed up this year and the Duchess is hoping to join a tea party for a performance and a slice of her very own sponge.

Gyles Brandreth who stars in Celebrity Gogglebox and is a veteran of QI and Countdown said: “This is amazing, we now have the freedom for old people and young people to meet up at school or in care homes, perform poetry together that they have all learnt by heart, and enjoy tea and cake. And not just any cake, a royal cake! What more could you want?”

'We’ve seen the powerful impact that bringing young people and care home residents together can have'

National Poetry Day is celebrated on the first Thursday of October that encourages all to enjoy, discover and share poetry. This year, National Poetry Day takes place on 7 October 2021.

Monica Parle, executive director of the Forward Arts Foundation, organisers of National Poetry Day, said: “We’re incredibly proud to champion Poetry Together. We’ve seen the powerful impact that bringing young people and care home residents together can have, and then just how much poetry can connect the generations.

"Each year we come together to celebrate National Poetry Day because voices, words and stories help to bridge understanding in our community. We hope schools and care homes across the country get involved with this project.”

In October 2019, carehome.co.uk took a group of care home residents and primary school children to London where they joined The Duchess of Cornwall and Mr Brandreth in a celebration of reciting ‘Poetry Together’.

The performances took place at a school in Piccadilly where The Duchess performed one of her favourite poems Matilda by Hilaire Belloc with pupils from a local school.

This year, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is hoping to join the children and care home residents again for one of the Poetry Together tea parties when old and young will perform poems together before sitting down to tea and HRH’s very own Victoria Sponge.

Aatif Hassan, founder and chairman of Dukes Education, said: “We are really pleased to be able to support Poetry Together again this year and bring communities together in person following a challenging time for both schools and care homes.

“Poetry has the power to educate us, enrich us and lift us and I look forward to seeing the smiles on the faces of both young and old at all the wonderful Poetry Together tea parties that will take place this year.”

Below is the recipe of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall’s Poetry Together cake

Ingredients

4 oz self-raising flour (110g), sifted 1 teaspoon baking powder 4 oz soft margarine or butter (110g), at room temperature 4 oz caster sugar (110g) 2 large eggs 2-3 drops of pure vanilla essence

To finish

Lemon curd or jam (with fresh cream, optional) or Nutella or your filling of choice, and sifted icing sugar.

Method

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3, 325F, 170C

Two 7-inch (18 cm) sponge tins, no less than 1 inch (2.5cm) deep, lightly greased and lined with greaseproof paper (also greased) or silicone paper.

Take a large roomy mixing bowl, and sift flour and baking powder into it, holding the sieve high to give the flour a good airing. Then simply add all the other ingredients to the bowl and whisk them – preferably with an electric hand whisk – till thoroughly combined. If the mixture doesn’t drop off a wooden spoon easily when tapped on the side of the bowl, then add 1 or 2 teaspoons of tap-warm water, and whisk again.

Now divide the mixture between the two prepared tins, level off and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes. When cooked leave them in the tins for only about 30 seconds, then loosen the edges by sliding a palette knife all around and turn them onto a wire cooling rack.

Peel off the base papers carefully and, when cool, sandwich the cakes together with lemon curd or jam (or jam and fresh cream) or Nutella or your filling of choice, and dust with icing sugar.

You can make a chocolate version of the Poetry Together cake too. Simply omit the vanilla essence and add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder to the basic ingredients.

To register your care home to take part in the Poetry Together project, click here