Family memories | Vegetarian

Coffee Cake

Baking sweet treats with my Granny

Feeding your growing family food that is healthy is important, but cooking is so much more than just preparation of edible fuel, don’t you agree?

My Mother was a brilliant cook so I grew up eating tasty meals which were exotic and varied because she loved to explore books for new recipes. As a little girl, I sometimes helped out in the kitchen.

The cookery memories I treasure most involve baking with my Granny — my Mother’s mother. Most Saturday mornings I’d be in her kitchen, hands washed and apron tied, ready to cook something sweet and frivolous. My family shared a ‘high tea’ on Saturday so whatever my Granny and I produced would take pride of place on the tea trolley.

Working alongside my Granny I learned to cook rock cakes, scones, gingerbread One of my favourite creations was fairy cakes with pastel coloured frosting. She’d let me decorate these with crystallised rose or violet petals and dragees, in the form of silver balls that nearly break your teeth. She’d also let me lick the bowl and the beaters!

Having mastered fairy cakes, we went a little more fancy with butterfly cakes. They’re made the same as a fairy cake, only fill the little paper case a little higher with sponge mix, which results in a more pronounced mound of sponge when it’s cooked. Cut their tops off horizontally and set aside. Place or pipe a spoonful of vanilla butter icing on the cut surfaces. Now cut the pieces of sponge you removed in half, and settle the pairs onto each dab of icing so they resemble butterfly wings.

I bought a book about making sweets, then my Granny and I experimented our way through its many recipes. The family were treated to vanilla fudge, peanut brittle and toffee apples, but the most popular sweet we made was peppermint creams.

My Father’s favourite cake was coffee and walnut, which is the recipe I’m sharing here. It’s old, so the measurements are imperial. If you’re not a fan of walnuts, or nuts in general, leave them off; it also works well with almonds toasted under the grill. The recipe is suitable for vegetarians but not vegans.

Coffee Walnut Cake

Ingredients

4 oz margarine 4 oz castor sugar 2 standard eggs 4 oz SR flour 1 tbs milk

Coffee Butter Icing

4 oz butter (softened) 8–10 oz icing sugar 2–3 tbs cold, strong black coffee Chopped or halved walnuts to decorate

1 Prepare a moderate oven (375 F 190 C/ Gas mark 5). Brush 2 x 7.5” sandwich tins with oil and line base with a circle of grease-proof paper

2 Place margarine, cut in pieces, and sugar in mixer to cream together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Lightly fold in flour and milk, cutting through with a metal spoon. Divide mixture between 2 baking tins and smooth tops

3 Bake in centre of oven for 20–25 mins until risen and golden brown. Test by pressing with fingers. If cooked, cakes should spring back, have stopped bubbling and have begun to shrink back from sides of tin. Turn out onto a wire rack, remove paper & leave to cool

4 Make up butter icing: place softened butter & icing sugar in mixer bowl. Run mixer at low speed gradually beating in the strong coffee flavouring.

5 When cool, sandwich together the 2 cakes with ⅓ of the butter icing. [Tip] It may be necessary to use a bread knife or leveller to trim top off your cakes if they have risen in such a way that they do not easily sit together

6 Spread the sides of the cake with some of the remaining coffee butter icing. Hold the bottom and top of cake in hands and dip sides in chopped nuts

7 Place cake on 8–9” flat plate or cake board. Spread buttercream icing over the top of the cake and decorate* with whole walnuts

*My Granny liked to drag a fork through the top icing to make horizontal spaced out stripes across the cake’s surface, then drag the fork vertically in evenly spaced stripes, thus creating a check pattern before adding the nuts

If you enjoy this recipe, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I also appreciate follows and claps.

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