A Cake With Yeast - Scrumptious!!

moanymoany

I found this recipe in my Aunty Margaret's own cookery book. It is very old fashioned family tea-time cake, but I liked the sound of it - and my Aunty Margaret was the best cake baker. It would be good for school lunch boxes as it is sweet, but not unhealthy. In the book it has the title 'Dough Cake' and here is the recipe.

8 oz plain flour (value)
pinch of salt
2oz butter, margarine or lard
2 oz sugar
4 oz dried fruit (value)
grated nutmeg
1 egg
yeast – I used 1 teaspoon of dried yeast with 1 teasp sugar and 2 tablespoons warm water

• make the yeast mixture
• put the flour in a bowl
• rub the fat into the flour
• add the sugar, dried fruit and grate in nutmeg to taste.
• Add the beaten egg and the yeast mixture
• Mix very thoroughly into a not too soft but not too stiff dough add more liquid if needed, the recipe says a 'slack' dough
• Beat the mixture very thoroughly until it leaved the bowl cleanly – ish!
• half fill a greased and lined tin, either round or loaf shapes. It went into an 8" round tin for me but next time I will try a large loaf tin, and press down with your knuckles. I put a sprinkle of flour on top to do this.
• rise until double in size. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 mins and the underneath sound hollow when you tap it. I did it on 160c
• Lovely with butter
• I froze half mine as it is big and there are only two of us. However the half I left to eat is nearly all gone!!

Mine took a long time to rise. This may be that there was not enough yeast but I checked the yeast tin and it is the same amount for bread - the proportion. If you use the yeast that goes straight into the flour, it would go in after the rubbing in - I think.

This recipe must date back to the early 50's so cooking terms might be different. Also it says half an oz of fresh yeast creamed with a teaspoon of the sugar and added to the dry ingredients, mixing it in well before adding the dried fruits and after rubbing in the fat.

I calculated the amount of yeast from the can of yeast I use for bread.

Hope this helps. Sorry if it hasn't worked for you. Because it worked for me I assumed it was ok. Trouble is the translation of the old terms.

1sttimer_2

Thanks for this moanymoany. It does sound lovely. My OH has been told he's to diet due to high cholesterol, but this doesn't have too much butter, sugar or eggs in it so he could have some of this.

Is it more like a fruit bread than cake? Especially if you have eaten yours with butter.

moanymoany

I think you could reduce the amount of fat in the cake by half. In fact the original recipe did say 1 oz fat, but I made it a bit richer. I would also think that more fruit could be put in and the sugar reduced.

I had some with no butter but jam on it. It was still scrummy.

It is a sort of cross between bread and cake. It isn't kneaded so still has a 'cakey' consistency. I remember as a child that there were a lot of these kinds of cakes, the sort of half bread and half cake, eaten with something on them.

squeaky

Is this different to what I know as tea cakes?

Waxy_Bean

It sounds like a similar recipe to hot cross buns - does it taste like those?

moanymoany

Tea cakes and hot cross buns are more a bready consistency. This is a bit more 'cakey', also tea cakes and hot cross buns are not sweet while this has sugar in it.

Difficult really, as I haven't made tea cakes and hot cross buns. The recipes in my book knead the dough for these. The dough cake is only mixed.

I'll make it again, but next time in a loaf tin as I cut it into slices, though the recipe does say a round tin so maybe the intention was to cut as a cake, into wedges.

I think kids would like it, and it's healthy. You could sneak in some wholemeal flour.

1sttimer_2

Made the cake last night moany, with less fat and sugar but more fruit as you suggested. I mustn't have done the yeast right as it didn't rise, nor was there anything like enough liquid to mix to a sticky dough. I added about another 6 tblspoons water. Also the temp you gave was 160/375 which are 2 different gas temps. I did it on gas No. 5.

I'm going to give it another try using fresh yeast because even though it come out solid and dry, it's quite tasty and I liked it. I think it would be more like rock cakes/scones than hot cross buns, but because I cut down on the fat and sugar, perhaps not as sweet.

moanymoany

1sttimer wrote: »

Made the cake last night moany, with less fat and sugar but more fruit as you suggested. I mustn't have done the yeast right as it didn't rise, nor was there anything like enough liquid to mix to a sticky dough. I added about another 6 tblspoons water. Also the temp you gave was 160/375 which are 2 different gas temps. I did it on gas No. 5.

I'm going to give it another try using fresh yeast because even though it come out solid and dry, it's quite tasty and I liked it. I think it would be more like rock cakes/scones than hot cross buns, but because I cut down on the fat and sugar, perhaps not as sweet.

Aunty Margaret's recipe talks about a 'slack' mixture. Mine took a long time to rise, and rose more in the oven. Sorry about the temperatures. The 160 was mine. Mine certainly wasn't dry. The recipe talks about 'sufficient' liquid, I will go back to the recipe and make amendments.