Fake 136

This one being a fake dessert, in the serving room adjoining the dining room at Polesden Lacey. All dressed up for a 1930's Christmas.

Not altogether clear how far the fake goes. One supposes that the outside of the pink cake is more or less real but that the interior is empty, plastic beads or something. While the exterior is solid enough that it can be dusted off or wiped down for each year's display. Perhaps it really is the real thing, not particularly perishable, although once digestible. Just wrapped up and kept cool & dry from one year to the next. But then, perhaps it is entirely plastic and washable?

Walnuts real.

Lemon slices real, if shrivelled.

The bread like stuff on the board at the top, real but dried?

Perhaps I will be able to have a faking discussion with a trusty sometime. The difficulty being that the trusty on duty might be nothing to do with the kitchen faking department.

PS 1: I believe that the thing bottom left is an elaborate crumb tray. The dustpan part of the special dustpan and brush the butler used on the table between courses.

PS 2: Mrs Greville, owner of Polesden Lacey at the time in question, was a famous host. Powered by the profits from McEwan's beer, decently made somewhere far away, in the far north, as far away as Scotland. Did she host political parties, bringing together right-thinking men of the far right? People who could be relied on to keep the Bolshevik demons at bay? My understanding is that there certainly were such parties. While McEwan's has long been a brand owned and brewed in England. Private equity interests aside.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/fake-135.html.