Tunis cake anyone?

foreign_correspondent

HI, Mc Vities have emailed me back, they wrote:

We believe that M&S and Tesco make a Tunis cake, however, here is a recipe to enable you to make one yourself
Regards
Jane Woodward

Tunis Cake

3 oz Ground Almond
6 oz Butter
6 oz Castor Sugar
3 standard eggs (size ¾)
Grated rind of a lemon
8 oz Plain Flour
1½ level teaspoon Baking Powder
2 tablespoons Milk


Top
10 oz Plain Chocolate and Marzipan Fruits (Banana/Orange or Pear)
2-3oz Milk Chocolate (optional – see note below)


8” Cake Tin


Cook in the centre of the oven on: Gas mark 3/Electric 325F/160C until golden brown.


Cool before adding top.


Method:


Brush the tin with melted fat and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper cut to fit. Grease the paper lining.


Beat the butter until soft, add the caster sugar and lemon rind and cream them together until light and fluffy in colour and texture. Beat the eggs together, then add them gradually to the creamed mixture, beating well between each addition.


Using a metal spoon, fold in the ground almonds with the sifted flour and baking powder, as well as enough milk to make a soft dropping consistency. Turn the mixture into the tin and spread it to the sides, leaving the centre slightly hollow so the cake rises evenly during cooking.


Bake the cake on the centre shelf of a moderately cool oven. Gas Mark 3 or 325 degrees F/160 degrees C for about one and half hours or until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn on to a wire tray to cool.


The Topping:


Break the plain chocolate into pieces and put into a bowl with 1 tablespoon of water; suspend bowl over a pan of hot water and melt the chocolate.


Wrap a bank of foil around the side of the cake so it extends above the edge of the cake by about half an inch. When the chocolate is ready, carefully pour it on to the top of the cake and ease it to the sides, tap the cake gently to smooth the surface then leave the chocolate to set.


Break the milk chocolate into pieces and put into a bowl suspended over a pan of hot water to melt. Meanwhile, cover a wooden board with foil or greaseproof paper. Pour the chocolate over, smooth out and leave to set. Using a large knife drag the blade over the chocolate to form curls. Arrange the curls around the edge of the cake. Tie a ribbon around the side.


Note: The top may be decorated with butter icing instead of milk chocolate curls. Beat 2oz butter until soft then gradually beat in 4 oz sifted icing sugar. Place in a piping bag with a No. 8 star nozzle attached and pipe a shell edge around the top.

Menolly_2

This is the recipe that my mum got out of McVities a few years back - she wrote to them (snail mail) and got a nice reply with the recipe. I remember us having Tunis Cake as a child - it sat on the Christmas Tea Table next to my mum's snowscene-iced fruit cake and I loved the thick chocolate, the pink and yellow shell-piped icing and the marzipan orange, banana and apple (or was it a pear?).
Mum only made a cake to this recipe once. I remember it being praised by my Tunis Cake loving husband, who, with his ex-wife and daughters, used to have a Tunis cake every Christmas - they have fond memories of eating it while opening their presents! As a result, my younger step-daughter was triumphant when she found the Tesco one. She bought one for us and one to "recreate" her Christmas memories with her husband and little boys. We were all sadly disappointed.
Perhaps I'd better try my hand at one this year, I've made Buche de Noel every Christmas (gotta love the chocolate fudge icing - Yum!) but a change might be nice since no-one but me likes fruit cake much!

essexgal

Menolly wrote: »

I remember us having Tunis Cake as a child - it sat on the Christmas Tea Table next to my mum's snowscene-iced fruit cake and I loved the thick chocolate, the pink and yellow shell-piped icing and the marzipan orange, banana and apple (or was it a pear?).

Oh this takes me back, I remember a Christmas Tea Table like that - except we probably had the chocolate yule log (and possibly Nan's sherry trifle) as well:o . I always preferred the Tunis Cake to the Christmas cake - although as I have the original cake decorations we used in the 60s/70s I might have to do a snowscene cake - at least the icing doesn't have to be perfect.

Thanks for the recipe foreign correspondent - I shall have to make one for Christmas (and probably one sooner - just to check that it's as good as I remember :rotfl: )

essexgal

Butterfly_Brain

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

HI, Mc Vities have emailed me back, they wrote:

We believe that M&S and Tesco make a Tunis cake, however, here is a recipe to enable you to make one yourself
Regards
Jane Woodward

Tunis Cake

3 oz Ground Almond
6 oz Butter
6 oz Castor Sugar
3 standard eggs (size ¾)
Grated rind of a lemon
8 oz Plain Flour
1½ level teaspoon Baking Powder
2 tablespoons Milk


Top
10 oz Plain Chocolate and Marzipan Fruits (Banana/Orange or Pear)
2-3oz Milk Chocolate (optional – see note below)


8” Cake Tin


Cook in the centre of the oven on: Gas mark 3/Electric 325F/160C until golden brown.


Cool before adding top.


Method:


Brush the tin with melted fat and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper cut to fit. Grease the paper lining.


Beat the butter until soft, add the caster sugar and lemon rind and cream them together until light and fluffy in colour and texture. Beat the eggs together, then add them gradually to the creamed mixture, beating well between each addition.


Using a metal spoon, fold in the ground almonds with the sifted flour and baking powder, as well as enough milk to make a soft dropping consistency. Turn the mixture into the tin and spread it to the sides, leaving the centre slightly hollow so the cake rises evenly during cooking.


Bake the cake on the centre shelf of a moderately cool oven. Gas Mark 3 or 325 degrees F/160 degrees C for about one and half hours or until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn on to a wire tray to cool.


The Topping:


Break the plain chocolate into pieces and put into a bowl with 1 tablespoon of water; suspend bowl over a pan of hot water and melt the chocolate.


Wrap a bank of foil around the side of the cake so it extends above the edge of the cake by about half an inch. When the chocolate is ready, carefully pour it on to the top of the cake and ease it to the sides, tap the cake gently to smooth the surface then leave the chocolate to set.


Break the milk chocolate into pieces and put into a bowl suspended over a pan of hot water to melt. Meanwhile, cover a wooden board with foil or greaseproof paper. Pour the chocolate over, smooth out and leave to set. Using a large knife drag the blade over the chocolate to form curls. Arrange the curls around the edge of the cake. Tie a ribbon around the side.


Note: The top may be decorated with butter icing instead of milk chocolate curls. Beat 2oz butter until soft then gradually beat in 4 oz sifted icing sugar. Place in a piping bag with a No. 8 star nozzle attached and pipe a shell edge around the top.

I got the same email today:rotfl:

George_Bray

As mentioned above, I bought a Sainsburys Tunis Cake in 2007. It was £4.99 like the Tesco one and, for my taste, the sponge tasted significantly better. The chococate still cracks/fractures all over when you try to cut a slice and it's still a long way short of the McVities one, but it's better than Tesco's and the Waitrose Tunis Cake which I tried a few years back.

Here's a photo of the Sainsburys Tunis Cake:

essexgal

George_Bray wrote: »

As mentioned above, I bought a Sainsburys Tunis Cake in 2007. It was £4.99 like the Tesco one and, for my taste, the sponge tasted significantly better. The chococate still cracks/fractures all over when you try to cut a slice and it's still a long way short of the McVities one, but it's better than Tesco's and the Waitrose Tunis Cake which I tried a few years back.

Thanks George. :A

Interesting to see what the Sainsbury's version looks like. The cake looks too 'spongelike' and crumbly though....the cake I remember was more a dense madeira like cake - anything too light and it was liable to fall to bits as you tried to cut the chocolate covering...:rotfl:- and the chocolate covering was thick but a bit softer than that looks - that one looks like concrete:eek:

I seem to recall the proper tunis cake had individual marzipan fruits (smaller and not flat-bottomed:D ) and there was definitely buttercream piped icing.... .

I think I'm still going to have a go at making my own this year....might post a piccie if it turns out okay:o

essexgal

George_Bray

essexgal wrote: »

Interesting to see what the Sainsbury's version looks like. The cake looks too 'spongelike' and crumbly though....the cake I remember was more a dense madeira like cake - anything too light and it was liable to fall to bits as you tried to cut the chocolate covering...:rotfl:- and the chocolate covering was thick but a bit softer than that looks - that one looks like concrete

Yes, you're quite right. That Sainsburys Tunis Cake was like the best of a bad bunch, out of the various brands I've tried in recent years, but that doesn't say much! Only McVities made the real thing.

Yes, the McVities sponge was denser and just plain superior.

And the McVities chocolate and decorations were a lot better as well.

George_Bray

You searched for “tunis cake” (486 items)

Did you mean to search for “ buns cake”?

I just checked availability at Tesco.com but it seems they're not even listed yet, let alone in stock.

bellsbells

Yum yum yum..... almonds, chocolate and marzipan. My idea of heaven. Where has this cake been all my life?:rotfl:

I am going to make one for Christmas as I don't like the traditional fruit cake. I think I will change the topping and make a chocolate butter icing instead of the solid chocolate one. It sounds very yummy.

Is there a story/history behind the cake that anyone knows of??

bells

Shush51

...I am told will be available in some Budgens stores this Christmas...