Sometime around 1950, someone by the name of Wynwode Reid edited, compiled, and tested 100 recipes in a book called Cakes, Scones and Biscuits. The aforementioned recipes were approved by Sarah Dunne, then the Cookery Expert to the Melbourne Herald. Their first recipe was for a Delicate Lemon Cake, and sometime in 2014, Stacey Roberts (expert in nothing cookery-related) decided she could improve upon the cake by removing the lemon element and adding apple and cinnamon.
This might be quite an unfair description of the event, it’s possible she just had apples she needed to use up. And the other apple cakes in the book required faffing about, and she was entirely too lazy to faff. Or get a new book.
To one cup of sugar, she added 115-ish grams of softened butter. She ignored the part where it said to do half butter, half margarine. She also ignored the bit where it said “Codfat (a special kind of soft beef suet) or clarified dripping treated with milk to take away the meaty flavour can also be used successfully“. She creamed the butter and sugar, and added two eggs. She skipped over the bit where you add the finely grated rind of one lemon, and instead added two peeled and diced apples, and a half teaspoon of cinnamon. She then mixed in 1.5 cups of self-raising flour and 1/2 cup milk.
She didn’t realise until later that the recipe had advised beating the cake mixture for 5 minutes (lazy) but did turn it into a prepared tin and bake for about 30 minutes in a moderate oven. She did not ice with lemon icing and sprinkle with chopped angelica mostly because she does not know what angelica is.
She ate the cake and it was good. The end.
This is my favourite type of cake and I’m so impressed you managed to deviate with a cake recipe. Maybe I’ve been cursed by a CWA lady in the past. I’m not sure about decorating with Angelica but my mum used to give it to us when we had colds x
Haha I’ve been tinkering with these recipes since I was 10 years old so I kind of know what works and what’s going to be an abysmal failure these days!
You are too funny Miss Stacey lol. I *think* angelica is a herb? Probably wrong but it sounds right at the moment!
Yeah not something I’ve got on hand regularly…
Good to know those old cake recipes work well as master recipes that you can adapt to what ever takes your fancy. Perfect cake baking weather at the moment too!!
Pretty much how I’ve ever baked any cake since the dawn of time!
Gee Stacey, not sure why one would deviate from the original recipe – what a winner! And can we take a moment to appreciate the name Wynwode?
But seriously, a slice of your cake would go down a treat this minute, being morning tea time an all. Thanks for sharing!
I actually don’t know if it’s a man or a woman, or how to pronounce it. But, cake.
Yum!
Also look at your site all changed, wow!
Time for a changeup!
Mmm , sounds delicious..
Had a dear elderly friend for years, Lorna who could tinker a recipe with the best of them. Reminds me of her kitchen in the afternoon. Yum.
Oh that sounds lovely!
I can smell that through the screen.
Just don’t smell too hard, you might inhale the icing sugar. it could just be me who does that.
Codfat and Angelica eh? Now there are two things you are probably not going to hear of much on Master Chef.
(And non faffing cakes are the best kind…who needs extra faffing in life?)
I bet they bring back both next year like the bloody hipsters they are.
This was the wrong post for me to read whilst hungry…pregnancy cravings overload
Haha go bake a cake
Non-faffing cakes are winners here too. And now I know what we’re having for morning tea tomorrow. Thank you very much!
I hope you liked it!
Ummm…Yum Yum! They look so yummy! You know what? I LOVE food and things like that VERY much! The cakes makes me goes hungry every time when went through this blog XP
Ha I love food too.
-high fife- XDD
I do this all the time, changing a recipe to suit what’s drooping in the fridge. With my tea cake I add extra apple to the top and a crumble which makes it delicious for a dessert with a dash of cream or custard or both!
FAFFING.