When my nan died a few years ago I asked if I could have her cookery books to be able to remember her by. I love reading through them, some of them are old be-ro cookery books and others are note books that she had written her favourite recipes in.
My nan was an amazing cook and baker, she lived in Dent in Cumbria. Dent is a tiny village amongst the rolling hills with a village church where the church bells still dong every 15 mins and a coal man still drives around delivering coal. You wake up up the sound of the animals (cows, chickens, sheep) and birds every morning and life is simple. My nan used to work on a farm and then later in life she would sew jumpers for the local village shop. Every church event or summer fair my nan would bake cakes and more cakes and anytime you went round there was always an array of desserts, tins and tins of homemade biscuits and buns and all things nice to eat.
I loved going to see her. We would drive up every month and go for walks in the countryside, try and catch fish with our little nets in the river, walk round the village and chat to all the village people. I think my love of baking comes from my nan and my mum and everytime I bake I think of her. I made this madeira cake following an old recipe from her be-ro cookbook.
You need:
5oz butter or margarine
5oz caster sugar
3 eggs
8oz self raising flour
I used plum jam for the filling.
This makes enough for a deep 6inch cake tin.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 3-4, 325-350 F and line the bottom and sides of your tin with greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and sugar and gradually add the lightly whisked eggs with a little flour as you go.
Fold in the rest of the flour and I always add a tablespoon of hot water as it makes a lighter sponge. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 and a quarter hours. Once removed from the oven leave it to stand in the tin for about 5 miutes before transferring to a wire rack. Once completly cooled you can cut it in half and add a filling. I used homemade plum jam!
This is the second cake I made to celebrate the welcome of Spring. I wanted to create a very girly cake that would be perfect for picnics in the countryside! I used very pale pink sugar paste to cover it and then cut out butterflies in different colours and gave them a brush of shimmer to add some sparkle. I 'm learning lots about covering cakes at the moment!
Here's a close up of the butterflies - I love the way you can the wings lift up to give the effect that it's about to fly away!
I tried a pretty pink ribbon around to finish it off!
Once we'd cut into it, it dodn't last long at all! It was great fun to make and I really enjoyed my afternoon of creativity!
