January’s theme for Clandestine Cake Club matched perfectly
with the venue. We ate our selection of Vintage and Retro cakes from assorted
floral tea plates, drank real hot chocolate from retro glass cups and lusted
after the beautiful dresses and accessories at The Vintage Boudoir Tearoom in
Lancaster.
For my cake I delved into the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook
and this recipe stood out. I remember my
mum making this for us at home, and it turns out it was one of my Nannie’s
signature cakes too. Also, I love pineapple and cherries so it seemed like a
perfect choice.
Method
First I made a butter (I used real butter to add to the
retro feel), golden caster sugar and honey paste that was spread into the
bottom of the tin. It was pretty thick and sticky and difficult to move about,
but I got there in the end. Then I pressed in the pineapple rings and glace
cherries in a pretty pattern, taking care to leave a space at the edge. The
sponge was your standard flour, butter, eggs, caster sugar, baking powder,
vanilla essence mixture which was made the old fashioned way (i.e. not all in
one). This was poured over the pineapple etc. in the tin. Again it was difficult
to spread about and I was worried that I was going to dislodge the fruit if I
went to hard.
Then the tin went into the oven for about 25 minutes.
Results
I decided that as the book said this was best served warm I
would make the cake straight after work, just before going to Cake Club. This
meant that it was a bit of a panic when my oven did the usual and decided that
it wasn’t going to play ball and cook things in the time that they should. But
eventually the skewer came out clean and we (my guest and new college Sarah and
I) set off with the cake in my cake carrier (thanks Mum!). And we weren’t even late.
It was definitely the right decision to bring the cake warm.
When I turned out the cake (a nerve wracking experience with everyone watching)
the steam and the smell that came off it was amazing. The butter/sugar/honey on
the top had formed a sticky glaze and the sponge was moist. There were patches
where the glaze had collected in the corners and gone a bit solid but they still
tasted ok, if a bit sweet. The family tradition will continue and I will be
making this again when I have enough people to enjoy it warm.
Score: 9.5/10
Soundtrack: Chatting to Sarah about all things cake.
