Elizabeth Raffald was an amazing woman, achieving a great many things in a short time. She was an author, innovator, benefactor and entrepreneur as well as a mother and a wife. From the age of 15 she was in service as a housekeeper to great families and at the age of 30 began her career in business. She began with catering, included a school and employment office before writing this cookbook which contains her own original, innovative recipes, giving us wedding cake, stock cubes, Eccles cakes and much more that we take for granted. She gained a huge reputation for her confectionery skills, while running shops and a coaching inn, giving financial aid to the only newspaper in Manchester at the time, producing the town's first ever directory in 1772, (only the second after London), supporting several poor widows of the area, collaborating on a book of midwifery, and having 9 children.

This extra special edition, created in 2019, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the first printed recipe for wedding cake, contains a reproduction of the first edition of the original cookbook from 1769; includes an Appendix with the additional recipes featured in the second edition issued in 1771; AND includes an introduction by Suze Appleton containing references to source material from her research. It was Elizabeth Raffald's innovation for rich fruit cake with double icing for wedding cake which began a long lasting tradition. Her book also contains many other innovative recipes in the original 800 recipe book. This edition also contains an extract of the fiction of Elizabeth's life, An Uncommon Woman, currently in progress, to be released in 2020.

This is a retyped edition of the original 18th century book by Elizabeth Raffald, the forgotten woman of Manchester. Her first edition of The Experienced English Housekeeper contained around 800 recipes and for the second edition another 100 were added including several for turtle It is a comprehensive work and covers most foods, often going from the live animal to the finished dish. It was reprinted many times up to the mid 19th century, with 13 genuine editions, together with another 26 pirate editions, including one for America. It was not until after Elizabeth's death that the books carried an engraving of her, the only image we have of her. Working in the 18th century Elizabeth Raffald produced an amazing cookbook, was a serial entrepreneur with multiple businesses and is also renowned as the compiler of Manchester's first ever town directory in 1772.

Elizabeth was an amazing woman, achieving a great many things in a short time. She was an author, innovator, benefactor and entrepreneur as well as a mother and a wife. From the age of 15 she was in domestic service as a housekeeper to great families including the Warburtons of Arley Hall, Cheshire, where she married the head gardener and at the age of 30 beginning her career in business. She began with catering, included a school and employment office before writing a cookbook which contained her own original, innovative recipes, giving us wedding cake, stock cubes, Eccles cakes and much more that we take for granted. She went on to gain a huge reputation for her confectionery skills, while running shops and a coaching inn, giving financial aid to the only newspaper in Manchester at the time, producing the town's first ever directory in 1772, supporting several poor widows of the area, collaborating on a book of midwifery, and having 9 children.