Retro bakes - which is your favourite?

Rock cakes, gingerbread, bread and butter pudding! GD at 9 used to make a Victoria Sponge almost every weekend for years, then she gradually stopped! Bringing a boyfriend round recently the made one together, she has not lost her touch. She's in Y10 and managed to arrange her first work experience in a cake shop where she learnt some professional decorating tips.

Well who knew? Thank you Tanith! Don't remember having any when growing up.

How funny, I made a batch of rock buns last week, the first time in years too!
One of my old favourites are Manchester tarts, remind me of school dinners.

Rock cakes remind me of my granny. Hers really lived up to their name . Girdle scones, made by my other granny. Delicious with her home made raspberry jam. My mum's sultana cake which she used to send to me when I was a student - must have cost a fortune to post.

DM used to send DB back with a very large fruit cake.
He probably found he had lots of friends!

I never have the leftover bread for bread pudding DH loves it.
We have a small family bakery near us that does delicious bread pud we had some today and I think they've got a new baker it was fantastic as good as DM used to make, and that's saying something !
They make amazing custard tarts too.

A particular favourite is a Fuller's cake, for which I have a stained and dog eared recipe from The Times in about 1975.
I believe it gets a reference in something like "Hons and Rebels" or "Love in a Cold Climate" so presumably goes back to the 1930's.

As teenagers, my friend and I used to buy a Fuller's cake each for our families every Saturday morning, from their shop in Oxford. I also have a recipe, but can't remember ever baking it. (Going to check recipe scrapbook).
It is funny how bought cake was such a treat when we grew up on home made. The position is reversed for many these days.

Rock cakes were the first thing I made at school in Domestic Science. We used to make a hole in the centre, add a blob of jam, and cover over.

Bread pudding, bread and butter pudding, rock cakes, scones, Eccles cakes, to name just a few of my favourites!
One of my friends' mum used to make what she called 'Date Dumpies' which we kids all used to love. They were lock a rock cake mixture, rolled into balls and then a date was pushed inside, with the mixture joined back over. Oh I'm going to have to make some of these for Christmas!!

lock a rock cake? Should have been like a rock cake!

Jam tarts,bread pudding,rock cakes,coconut buns,London cheesecake and kunzel cakes

DH is a huge fan of bread pudding but I only made it for him once - the thought of soaking bread in any kind of liquid turns my stomach. I can't even dip bread in my soup! Fortunately, he has become a dab hand at making it himself - and of course, he gets to eat it all!

I like baked custard - my Mum made it in a large dish. Once my cousin and I finished off a whole pie dish full after we'd been to the swimming baths. What an appetite we had and what a lovely baked custard!
We both got a clout round the ears when my mother got home but it was worth it.

That's one of DH's favourites, MargaretX - he makes them in our house, and I must say he has got them down to a fine art!

Love old fashioned Seedy cake, with caraway seeds, but haven't made it for several years. The last packet of Lemon Meringue Pie mix that I bought was horrible, no little lemon capsule, so won't buy it again.

Victoria sponge is my favourite ever cake. I like bread and butter pudding and Manchester tart was my favourite school pudding .

What is Manchester tart?

www.mytaste.co.uk/s/mary-berry-manchester-tart.html

This the one you mean?
(As opposed to a Fallowfield Floozie?)

I lived in Finchley Road in Fallowfield and floozie is the last thing I could be called.

Maybe more of a Rusholme Raver?

Much too down market?

Live and learn. I've never heard of manchester tart or London cheesecake until today.

Or Tottenham cake

We should not look back too much when comparing older cakes with modern cakes. We need to Adapt-Imitate-and-Improve. In our house I do the baking and my wife does the frilly bits. Hence my rant about "The curse of the Cup Cake". These days we do have excellent basic ingredients available and all we need to do is to use them sensibly.

Keep it simple, apply commonsense and consider what is good and bad for you. There is no need to use other than basic ingredients as ready made mixes rarely save you time and trouble; besides you most likely don't know what's in them.. I collect recipes from all sorts of places and archives. Over time you do become skilled at using what suits both your lifestyle and taste.

Modern baking aids such as mixers, silicon paper and non-stick baking pan make life so much easier. Study the recipe and do a work study exercise on it to make it easier and simpler for you; learn from your mistakes. As a retired computer programmer who started in the era small machines I know that a little time looking at how things are done and for better easier ways is well spent.

For example Devil's Food Cake from the original recipe seem very complicated but after a work study exercise it really is ever so easy

Mix LotOf What
Lot a)
60 ml Cocoa (4 tablespoons) or 32gm
40 ml Sugar (2 ½ tablespoons) or 35gm
30 ml Water(2 tablespoons) or 30gm

Lot b)
5 fluid ounces(140ml) Milk or 140gm

Lot c)
4 ounces (115gm)Sunflower Margarine
4 ounces(115gm) Caster Sugar

Lot d)
2 eggs separated
5 ml Vanilla Essence(1 teaspoon)

Lot e)
2 ½ ounces (70gm) of Icing Sugar
4 ounces (115gm) of Self Raising Flour
5 ml Baking Powder(1 teaspoon)

First separate eggs and beat whites(part of lot d) until light and fluffy, doing it in this order means that you don't need to wash the mixer until you have finished.

Cream sugar and margarine (lot c) until fluffy.

Warm Cocoa, sugar and water (lot a), the microwave makes this easier. Mix until smooth and it just begins to thicken. Stir in milk (b).

Beat processed lot c) into cocoa mixture. Then beat in egg yolks and vanilla essence (lot d).

Sift in powdered ingredients (lot e) and beat well.

Finally using a wooden spoon fold in the beaten egg whites, stirring gently until the mixture becomes uniform in texture.

Pour into a greased lined 9 inch round deep tin.

Bake at gas mark 4 (180c or 360f), for fan oven bake at 170c, for 45 to 60 minutes or until the cake passes the skewer test.

This cake has an almost silken texture and a richness that belies its modest ingredients. It is best covered with a chocolate or vanilla butter icing, nuts optional depending on taste.

You buy a Devil's Food Cake Mix but it won't taste as good and will likely be just as involved.

I love old fashioned cakes and was delighted when my dear OH's oldest friend gave me his mum's recipe for her special fruit cake. It was delicious and very easy to make as I added the modern twist of not measuring out a greaseproof lining but using a cake tin liner instead.

I also make scones (which I serve with home made raspberry or strawberry jam), lemon cake and coffee and walnut cake.