A ninety-year old recpie for Apple Cake.

[reynardo]

Bit of a back story first. When my mum and dad married in 1963, about six months after my paternal grandmother Marge went to my Mum and said "You know, George is looking a bit thin. You might need this." And she gave my mum a copy of the 1962 Commonsense Cookery Book. From it, my mother learned the basics of plain cakes, Irish Stew and Puff Pastry. She taught me from the book, and it still has the best profiterole recipe I've ever used.

When my grandmother moved from her home to a retirement village, we discovered among her belongings a copy of the 1926 Commonsense Cookery Book, and I can just imagine young Marge, about 6 months into her marriage, being approached by Granny Richards and handed a copy of the book and told "You know, Chas is looking a bit thin, dear. Perhaps you might need this..."

One of the recipes in the 1926 edition is for vegetable soup, and starts off "3d worth Beef Bones". The 1962 book has many of the same recipes, including this one, and it still starts off with "3d worth Beef Bones". You'd think in 36 years the value of beef bones might have changed a little. (For those not sure, 3d is "threepence", which translates as 2½ cents. It would buy 2 eggs out of a dozen in 1926, and less than 1 egg in 1962.)

Anyway, without further waffling, here's the recipe I first made from the 1962 cookbook. I shall translate the whole thing to modern-day terms, unless of course you're comfortable with "moderate ovens".


Apple Cake
Cake mixture
125g (4 oz) butter.
125g (4 oz) sugar
2 eggs
125g (4 oz) self-raising flour (or 125g plain flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder)
125g (4 oz) cornflour (cornstarch)

Apple mix - prepare this one before you start the cake mixture)
3 apples, peeled and grated
Grated rind 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar

Icing
250g (8 oz) pure icing sugar. (powdered sugar)
Juice 1 lemon
1 small teaspoon gound cinnamon.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
2. Grease a swiss roll tin or line with cooking paper (I recommend use the paper. The apple will slightly toffee-ise at the edges and stick like hell)
3. Cream butter and sugar
4. Add well-beaten eggs
5. Sift together flour and cornflour, and add to mix
6. Spread half the mixture in the prepared tin.
7. Cover with the apple mixture
8. Add the remainder of the cake mixture, spreading it with a knife or the back of a spoon dipped in hot water. (I find it works better if you drop it in small spoonfuls over the apple mix, then spread it around. Don't expect it to be 100% smooth and perfect.)
9. Bake from 20 to 30 minutes (slightly brown on top, knife or skewer comes out clean)
10. When cool, cover with warm lemon icing.
11. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
12. Slice into pieces, stand back and watch as it evaporates before your eyes.