Select Page

Image: Funeral cakes. Photograph (c) James Horan, Sydney Living Museums.

Join Sydney Living Museums at Vaucluse House for a hands-on activity reviving the age-old custom of ‘funeral cake’.

By Victorian times a kind of shortbread biscuit, known more commonly as a ‘funeral cake’ was traditionally packaged up and gifted to mourners as a memento by the family of the deceased. From letters, we even know that Sarah Wentworth sent funeral cakes from Vaucluse House to some relations following the death of her father in 1831.

Drop in to make your funeral cake in our colonial kitchen, then explore the house as it bakes. Once cooled, package your cake in a traditional wrapping, sombrely sealed with black ribbon and wax to take away; the perfect memento of your brush with death at Vaucluse House.

Vaucluse House is one of Sydney’s few 19th-century mansions still surrounded by its original gardens and wooded grounds. In 1915 Vaucluse House became Australia’s first official house museum and continues to entice visitors to its lush and still secluded grounds. In 2015, Vaucluse House celebrated 100 years of being a museum.

When:     Sunday 2 September, 11.00am – 3.00pm
Where:    Vaucluse House, 69a Wentworth Rd, Vaucluse
Cost:        Free with museum entry:
Adult  | $12
Concession  | $8
Family  | $30
Members  | Free of charge
Children under 5 years  | Free of charge
Contact:     vauclusehouse@slm.com.au or 02 9388 7922
Hosted by: Sydney Living Museums