Let them eat cake

Possibly the second serious step towards Christmas was taken a bit less than a couple of weeks ago, with the baking of a Christmas cake. Following on from the boiling of the Christmas pudding some weeks previously. Not the full-on Christmas cake of my childhood as we now find that a bit strong, rather a Dundee cake. Or at least something close to a Dundee cake as we omit the almonds on top.

A cake we sometimes bake to take on holiday with us, that is to say, either to the Isle of Wight or to Dartmoor.

The first thing to do was to decide on which recipe to use, with at least three having been used in the past. Radiation Cook Book left, Creda Cook Book centre and Whitworth's Cookery book right. This last having been with us for maybe forty or more years. The Radiation Cook Book was another feature of my childhood, a time when we actually had one of their New World gas cookers, although this particular copy was bought much more recently. The Creda Cook Book probably came with our first Creda cooker, so maybe twenty five years old.

We eventually came down in favour of the smaller Dundee cake offered by Whitworth's, a recipe which BH had used before but which I had not.

More or less the end of the mix.

As it came out of the oven. Note the absence of paper lining to the tin, a performance I went through with the larger, Radiation version. Just grease with butter and dust with flour, which seemed to work fine.

As it came out of the tin, more than three hours later, by which time it had firmed up a bit: cakes are quite fragile when they are still hot. Not a big cake, but it looked well enough.

Packed in the Tupperware cake box, more or less sealed by the close fitting, soft plastic lid. Tupperware being in its hey-day when we were young, and we even knew one lady who ran Tupperware parties to keep her brain ticking over in the intervals between attending to her two small children.

Put away under the stairs to mature for Christmas, probably the coolest place inside the house, apart from the attic which would have been a bit of a performance. We have found that this sort of cake is much improved for storing for a week or more before cutting it.

Opened on Christmas Eve, when I was very pleased with it. Moist and not too rich, very much reminding me of the cut-and-come-again cake which BH's mother used to have on the go for quite a lot of the time. Furthermore, the neither the glacé cherries not anything else sunk, so I must have got the milk just right. Without going to the bother of washing the cherries either, as suggested, not very forcefully, by BH.

Left it alone Christmas Day, being rather full of Christmas pudding, but down to the last third or so by close Boxing Day.

References

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/10/sugar-fix.html. Creda Cook Book.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/sugar-fix.html. Radiation Cook Book. For the Isle of Wight.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/07/cake-time.html. Whitworth's Cookery Book. Cut and come again cake, taken in our Isle of Wight holiday cottage. The northern one near the church rather than the eastern one near the railway station by the looks of things.