Literary Pearls: "The Hobbit" & Lemon Cake Recipe

An Unexpected Party

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Bilbo Baggins House

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with
panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs,
and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit was fond of visitors.

The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill - The Hill, as all the people for many miles round call it - and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything
unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained- well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.

The mother of our particular hobbit ... what is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards.

Bilbo Baggins in his elder years

There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be at in the stomach; they dress in
bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). Now you know enough to go on with.

A Young Belladonna Took Baggins

As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit - of Bilbo Baggins, that is - was the fabulous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbit-like about them, -
and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures.
They discreetly disappeared, and the family hushed it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses, though they were undoubtedly richer. Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins.

Belladonna Baggins Very Elegant Lemon Cake

1 box of lemon cake mix... follow the directions but add 2 Tablespoons of poppy seeds to it.

Prepare a bundt cake form and pour the mixture into it after oiling and flouring.

Bake at the time and temperature on the package.

Serve with lemon frosting or sprinkle on confectioner's sugar.

Lemon Frosting

1 cup of butter
5 cups of powdered (Confectioner's ) sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon of lemon zest ( grated lemon peel)
yellow food coloring ...but you don't need it.
 Mix the sugar with the butter until completely mixed.
Add the lemon juice and zest and mix it in.
If you need to stiffen up the frosting you can add more sugar as you need it stirring in until you get the right consistency.

Frost the cake when it is cool.

Or do as I do.. frost it then sprinkle more sugar on top!