Cake time

For what appears to be the first time in two years, baked a cake again last week, this time what our elderly Whitworths cook book calls a 'cut and come again' cake, a variety of cake that both BH and her mother used to be rather good at.

An even bigger calorie fest than the Dundee cake. 8oz flour, 4oz of a lard-butter mix, 4 oz sugar, 6oz of mixed dried fruit, couple of eggs plus odds and ends.

The last cake turning out a little dry, I fussed a bit with the milk, settling for 4 tablespoons of milk rather than the suggested 2 - but BH explained afterwards that that was mainly down to the eggs being of the economy variety. Maybe I should have used three rather than two.

Started to look a bit cooked after just one hour of the one and a half hours suggested at 170C, so turned it down to 150C and the skewer decided that it was cooked ten minutes short of the one and a half hours. On BH advice, left it to stand in the (loose bottomed) tin for about 10 minutes, after which it came out with no trouble at all, with no damage to the bottom edge.

Tasted OK on day 1 - that is to say around 24 hours after cooking - but we thought that a slightly lower temperature would have been better. We also made a mistake with the serving plate and should have used the next size up.

Tasted better on day 2, I think because it has had time to take a bit of water back from the surroundings. There is also the allegation about the development of flavour taking time. The first recorded use of the middle table of a nest of three for many years.

For a biennial venture not bad at all. References 1 and 2 record the last venture.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/news-from-dundee.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/dundee-cake.html.