Mrs Beeton's Coffee Cake

[john_amend_all]

I think this is becoming a continuing series.

3362. — COFFEE CAKE.

Ingredients. — ½ a lb. of butter, ½ a lb. of brown sugar, ¼ of a lb. of golden syrup, ½ a lb. of currants, ½ a lb. of sultanas, 1½ lbs. of flour, ½ an oz. of baking-powder, 2 eggs, ½ an oz. of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon mixed, coffee.

Method. — Sieve the baking-powder with the flour into a pan; add the spices, sugar and butter, rub well together, make a well in the centre, pour in the syrup, add about ¼ of a pint of strong cold coffee, break in the eggs, and beat well together; then mix in the other ingredients with a strong wooden spoon, using a little milk if not moist enough, mix in the fruit last, and then bake in a long square cake pan nicely prepared.

Time. — 1 to 2 hours. Average Cost, 2s.

So, as usual, halve the quantities, substitute modern equivalents where applicable...

Revised ingredients. — 4oz margarine, 4oz brown sugar, 2oz golden syrup, 4oz currants, 4oz sultanas, 12oz self-raising flour, 1 egg, 2 teaspoons each nutmeg and cinnamon, 100ml strong cold coffee. (In case you wonder why my recipes suffer from imperial / metric dissonance, my measuring jug has both scales but the metric one came closest to the quantity I wanted).

Method as originally given. Except I don't see how a cake tin can be both long and square — squares are, by definition, as long as they are wide. Anyway, I used a loaf tin. And I did line it, but I don't know whether it was done 'nicely' or not. Cooking time at 140°C in my fan oven was 1 hour.

Comments: I think Mrs B went overboard on the spices this time. Even at half quantities, that's a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg going in there; it completely drowns out any taste of coffee. I've cut the amounts further down from the ones I used.

One other piece of advice: If you're making this cake in the evening and there's any coffee left over, drinking it is not a good idea. Unless you want to end up awake till 5am writing an Adam Adamant crossover.

Comments

[liadt]

I hate coffee and love cinnamon so I'll stick with pure Mrs B. It sounds like she makes the same strength coffee as me;p

Moar AAL = \o/

[john_amend_all]

Depends if I can write the rest of the fic, of course.

[liadt]

*chucks half a jar of coffee into a mug and adds water*

[john_amend_all]

Glug glug glug...

[liadt]

'Rah! Although I'll need a refresher course on 'Crime Traveller'!

[john_amend_all]

Fortunately Georgie isn't familiar with the bits of 'Crime Traveller' I've used, so it'll all have to be explained to her at some point.

[thisbluespirit]

If you're making this cake in the evening and there's any coffee left over, drinking it is not a good idea. Unless you want to end up awake till 5am writing an Adam Adamant crossover.

:lol: Um, that should really have gone without saying? Although if the outcome was AAL fic, hurrah for Mrs Beeton! ;-)

[john_amend_all]

The problem now is, am I now going to have to drink MOAR COFFEE to get the fic finished? :-)

[clocketpatch]

Maybe long square is old-timey speak for rectangle?

[john_amend_all]

I suppose it's conceivable that whichever 19th-century cook Mrs Beeton learned that recipe from wasn't as much of a pedant as I am.