I can't tell you how long I've been without an oven - because it's, frankly, far too embarrassing. Let's just put it this way: I am now a bloody EXPERT at making stews. If you can fry it, boil it, simmer it, sautee it or bung it in a Breville, I'm your girl. But the doors to the delights of bakery and roastery have been firmly shut.
No longer!
Irregular shape due to snacking on the cake while cooking supper …
I only make one kind of cake - and it's the simplest. The proportions are 4-4-4-2, or 8-8-8-4. That's 4oz sugar, 4oz margarine (beat well together), 4oz self-raising flour, 2 eggs (add the eggs and beat in with enough of the flour to make a sensible texture - then add the rest of the flour). The 8 recipe is needed for a 2-tier cake (i.e. with icing in the middle).
This basic recipe can be adapted easily. Put what you like in - it can take it.
I fancied something spiced. I really love the taste of all those brown, woody nuts and husks and buds and bark - they're not just for Christmas, you know. The dear old medievals appreciated a well-placed spice, and the Germans and Austrians make excellent use of them in gingerbread, but here we've largely lost the knack.
This spice cake could handle pretty much anything aromatic, but I added freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon and mace. You could also use cardamom, cloves and ginger. I also put in a good slosh of almond essence. Because it's nicer, and goes far better if you're going all gingerbready, I also used dark sugar, and swapped some of the flour for ground almonds, with flaked almonds on top to look pretty. As long as the wet/dry proportions are kept the same, you'll be ok.
So:
4oz dark sugar
3oz self-raising flour, 1oz ground almonds
4oz margarine
hefty dash of almond essence
grated nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground mace, etc etc
flaked almonds for decoration
Bake in loaf-type tin at Gas mark 4 for 30mins? Until it looks cooked and a knife in its heart comes out clean. Less time for buns, of course.
This was deliciously moist but if you have an extreme aversion to dryness, you might try knocking up a rum syrup to drizzle over it (put a knife into it several times first so the liquid can penetrate), or simply spoon some amaretto over it to serve - or eat hot from the oven with vanilla ice cream.
Comments