Category Archives: Cakes

TUTTI-FRUITI CAKE

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I’ve always liked this cake, although I don’t know where it got its odd name from. Mum always baked it in a loaf tin and cut it into slices for serving. It has a very light chocolate flavour and you can substitute sultanas for the nuts if you like want to, that makes it lovely and fruity.

Tutti Fruiti Cake

TUTTI-FRUITI CAKE

  • 125g butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 1 level tablespoon cocoa
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
  • ½ cup nuts
  • 1 cup mixed fruit
  • 1½ cups self raising flour

Beat butter and sugar, add beaten eggs, then milk with soda in it. Add other ingredients and mix well. Bake 1 hour in a greased loaf tin.

GINGER FLUFF

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Ginger Fluff Sponges were second only to a jam and cream filled sponge when I was growing up. Not everyone likes ginger, but for those who do a slice of cream filled Ginger Fluff is a real treat. This isn’t Mum’s original recipe, but one she cut out of the Herald Sun newspaper, the tip at the bottom of the recipe is might explain why my sponges never rise.

Ginger Fluff

PENNY’S LEMON CURD CAKE

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This recipe came into the collection from our niece Penny. She’s a great cook and has been making this cake as a ‘special occasion’ cake for her family for quite a few years. It’s simply delicious!!

Lemon Curd Cake

PENNY’S LEMON CURD CAKE

CAKE

  • 175g Self Raising flour – sifted
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 175g butter – room temperature
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • Grated rind of 1 lemon

Mix all cake ingredients together and divide evenly into two tins – cook 35 minutes in moderate oven. Cut in half when cold.

CURD

  • 75g caster sugar
  • Grated zest and juice of 1 large juicy lemon
  • 2 eggs
  • 50g unsalted butter

Place the sugar & lemon rind in a bowl, whisk the lemon juice together with the eggs then pour this over the sugar. Then add the butter cut into little pieces and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently till thick.

Sandwich cake together with curd then ice.

ICING

  • 50g sifted icing sugar
  • Zest of 1 large lemon
  • 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice.


APRICOT LOAF

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It looks like this recipe has been cut off the side of a packet, although I’m not sure which packet it came from. I do know that it makes a great slice, really good for afternoon teas or to take on a picnic.

Apricot Loaf crop

APRICOT LOAF

  • 155g dried apricots
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 level teaspoon bi-carb soda
  • 2¼ cups Self Raising flour
  • ½ level teaspoon salt
  • 60g margarine
  • 125g (½ cup) sugar
  • 1 egg
  • Topping:
  • 30g margarine
  • ½ cup oats
  • 1 level tablespoon brown sugar
  • 50g walnuts, finely chopped

Chop apricots, place into a basin with boiling water and soda, cover and stand ½ hour. Sift flour and salt into a basin, rub through margarine, add sugar, egg and apricot mixture, mix to combine. Grease loaf tin 22cm x 9cm x 6cm deep and sprinkle some oats over from the topping, then spoon in apricot batter. Melt margarine, add topping ingredients and mix well. Spoon topping over batter. Bake in a moderately hot oven 190ºC for 45-50 minutes. Cool slightly in the tin, remove and cool. Serve sliced and buttered if desired.

MRS WOOD’S XMAS CAKES – 2 SOLDIER’S CAKE TINS

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I’m sure Mum would have gotten this recipe from Mrs Wood to bake cakes to send over to Dad in England during WW2. Mrs Wood was Mum’s sister’s mother-in-law. She was a wonderful cook and I can remember visiting her house in East Malvern where there would always be plates of biscuits and freshly baked cake for afternoon tea. The Soldier’s Cake Tins referred to were used to bake a cake in to be sent overseas to the troops. The tins came with a lid so the cakes were baked then sealed to be sent off. Cake shops also sold fruit cakes that fitted into the special “Willow” cake tins. Fruit cakes with brandy were usually the cakes made this way as the brandy stopped the cake going mouldy during the time it took to reach the soldiers, wherever they were serving.

Mrs Wood's Xmas Cakes

MRS WOOD’S XMAS CAKES

  • 500g butter
  • 8 eggs
  • 500g castor sugar
  • 500g plain flour
  • 125g Self Raising Flour
  • 1kg sultanas
  • 500g raisins
  • 250g currants
  • 125g mixed peel
  • 60g almonds
  • 2 tablespoons brandy
  • 1 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon carb soda
  • 2 tablespoons boiling water

Combine the fruit and brandy, leave overnight to marinate. Beat the butter and sugar together, add eggs one at a time. Add sifted flours and spices. Add fruit and nuts. Combine boiling water and carb soda and mix in well. Bake in prepared tins – 3 hours, turn after 1½ hours. Soldier tins measured 7½ inches = approx 20cm. So the mixture makes 2 x 20cm cakes – the ingredients can be halved for 1 cake.

ZUCCHINI CAKE

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Around the 1970s it became popular to grown zucchinis in backyard vegetable patches, they were easy to grow and produced a good crop. As a result recipes for slices, soups, and cakes started to pop up everywhere. This cake is just one of the many. We tried it out without the nuts, mixed fruit or coconut. It came out very moist and we feel that it needs the either the nuts or fruit to give it more flavour. Lemon icing would be a good addition as well.

Zuccini Cake

ZUCCHINI CAKE

  • 1kg zucchini (small one are best)
  • 3 eggs
  • 2¼ cups sugar
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla essence
  • 1 cup oil
  • 2 cups Self Raising flour
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon carb soda
  • 3 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 cup of either walnuts, mixed fruit or ½ cup coconut – if desired

Wash and grate zucchinis (skin and all). Beat eggs well and gradually add sugar and beat till thick and creamy. Add vanilla, oil and zucchini and nuts/fruit/coconut, if using, mix well. Add dry ingredients that have been sifted together. Pour mixture into 2 loaf tins or a large cake tin. Bake at 180ºC for 1 hour or 1¼ if using larger tin. Mixture is not very thick. Ice, if desired.

RICH BOILED FRUITCAKE

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Fruitcakes are essentially easy to make once the fruit is prepared. You can tell this is an old recipe as it has an ingredient not heard of today – Parisienne Essence. Parisienne essence has nothing to do with Paris or even French cooking it was a flavouring used to darken dishes and was used in gravies, fruitcakes and puddings. Leaving it out of this recipe won’t affect the finished cake as there are plenty of other ingredients to give it a good flavour.

Rich Boiled Fruit Cake - Bernice

RICH BOILED FRUIT CAKE

  • 500g sultanas
  • 375g raisins
  • 125g mixed peel
  • 125g cherries
  • 60g dates
  • 60g apricots or prunes

Or use 1.25kg of mixed fruits of your choice

  • 2 level tablespoons golden syrup
  • 3 tablespoons rum or sherry
  • ¾ cup water
  • 250g butter
  • 250g brown sugar
  • 5 eggs
  • 315g plain flour
  • 60g self raising flour
  • ¼ level teaspoon salt
  • 2 level teaspoons mixed spice
  • ¼ level teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ level teaspoon nutmeg
  • 60g whole blanched almonds

Place all the fruit, golden syrup, rum or sherry and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil stirring occasionally and simmer for two minutes. Pour into a bowl, cover and allow to stand overnight. Cream butter and brown sugar well together. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift dry ingredients, then sift half over the fruit mixture. Mix lightly and then blend into the creamed mixture. Add remainder of flour and blend well. Turn into a 22cm cake tin which has been lined with brown paper and with baking paper (the original recipe says 2 layers of brown and 2 of white, while that might be a bit much you shouldn’t skimp on the paper as the cake cooks slowly and the paper stops it drying out). Top with blanched almonds. Bake at 140°C for 3½ hours or till done.

APPLE SPONGE

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I’m not sure of the age of this recipe, but the milk measurement of 1 gill dates it back a fair way. Mum would serve this with cream and made it often for afternoon teas along with sandwiches and other small cakes and biscuits. I can remember coming home from school, after the guests had left, and being allowed to eat some of the leftovers from the spread she had put on – a great treat.

Apple Sponge

APPLE SPONGE

  • 1 cup Self Raising flour
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 60g sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup milk
  • Apples, stewed

Rub butter into flour, beat egg with sugar add milk until combined. Make a well in centre of dry ingredients, add milk mixture. Put the stewed apples in a greased 18cm cake tin and pour mixture over. Bake 30-45 mins in moderate oven 180°C.

BUSY BOWLERS SPONGE

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I can’t resist putting this recipe in – just for the name alone. Wasn’t sure if it actually worked, so we tested it out and can report that it’s easy to make, tastes good, but does need jam and cream to give it some moisture, but all sponges need jam and cream don’t they?

Mum took up lawn bowls in the late 1970s and she had Dad had many happy and busy years bowling competitively and for fun. Mum sometimes bowled as much as three times a week and as well there were the many social functions where the ladies took along a casserole, cake or dessert to share. I think the ‘Norma Mills’ recipe was probably made by many of the bowlers before they rushed out the door in their lovely while bowls uniforms.

Bowlers Sponge PS

“NORMA MILLS” BUSY BOWLERS SPONGE

  • ½ cup castor sugar
  • 2 eggs – room temperature **see below
  • 2 teaspoons plain flour
  • ½ cup cornflour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • Jam & Cream

Place the sugar and whole eggs into a bowl and beat a high speed for 3 minutes. Sift plain flour, cornflour and baking powder together. Add sifted ingredients to bowl and beat at low speed for 1 minute. Line a cake tin with baking paper, pour mixture in and bake at 180°C in middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Do not open oven door under 20 minutes. When cool remove from tin, slice and fill with jam & cream. Ice or sprinkle with icing sugar, as desired.

**the original recipe says to leave the sugar and eggs in the bowl for 20 minutes before beating, this is because cold eggs, straight from the fridge, will stop is rising and make the sponge heavier