Another cake adaptation

[john_amend_all]

I tried making another cake from the 1907 edition of Mrs Beeton's recipe book. All went smoothly until I tried to turn it out of the tin; I think this one may require the tin to be lined rather than just greased. Still tasty, though.

3349. — AUNT BETSEY'S CAKE.

Ingredients. — 5 teacupfuls of flour, 2 teacupfuls of sugar, ½ a cup of butter, 1 cup of golden syrup, 1 cup of water, 2 eggs, ½ of a lb. of chopped raisins, 1 teaspoonful (each) of soda, cloves, cinnamon, and mace.

Method. — Beat the butter and sugar together; add the eggs, dissolve the soda in the water, then add the molasses, flour, spices and fruit, and well work the mixture into the bowl. Turn it into a flat square tin baking-dish and bake in a moderate oven, or if preferred it can be cooked in small crinkled patty-pans.

Time. — 1 to 1½ hours. Average Cost, 1s.

As usual, I halved the quantities, used margarine instead of butter, and self-raising flour so the soda was unnecessary. I also omitted the cloves (personal taste).

The original recipe specified the quantities in cups. Not being too clear how one is supposed to measure fractions of a cup of margarine, I converted everything bar the water to ounces.

Revised ingredients. — 11oz self-raising flour, 8oz caster sugar, 2oz margarine, 6oz golden syrup, ½ a cup (118g) water, 1 egg, 4oz raisins, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon mace.

Method as originally given. Cooking time at 140°C in my fan oven was 1 hour.

Comments

[liadt]

Cups that's a tad American. Was Mrs Beeton going for the mid-Atlantic market?

[john_amend_all]

Or maybe it's from before the UK settled on measuring ingredients (mostly) by weight. I've got one other family recipe that uses cups, but all the quantities are just 'one cup', so much easier to cope with.

[thisbluespirit]

I don't understand people who measure dry goods in cups, anyway. Whyyy? *gives Mrs Beeton a stern look for that*

I always find lining the tin to be a wise precaution with cakes, generally. Greasing is often inadequate! But, as you say, at least it doesn't affect the flavour. :-)

[john_amend_all]

I can cope with whole cups, but halves and quarters? My teacups aren't designed for that :-)

I think either I was stingy with the greasing this time, or the syrup in the recipe made the cake that much stickier.