It was time for a cake….

The Boss forgot to tell the Carer it was my birthday on May 1st.  I was 10 years old! Double figures…..that’s something to celebrate and I should have cake.

The Carer decided that she would make cake today but she’s chosen one of the S..L..O..W..E..S..T cakes to make ‘cos you’ve got to cook this yellow stuff first and that takes forever!

She tells me these are quinces – they are hard and no fun to try and eat like this ‘cos they taste pretty terrible. She washed them, peeled, cored and sliced them and then put them in a big pot to cook.

The recipe says you should only use two cups of water and a cup of caster sugar and one cinnamon stick – but she’s always messing around with recipes and so she uses enough water to cover the amount of fruit and adds all sorts of other spices like cloves, whole nutmeg, star anise and allspice berries. You cook this until the fruit is starting to look a bit pink and soft – then you take out all the fruit and leave the water and spices behind.

The fruit should be a little firm as it will go into the cake for further cooking.  Anything you don’t use in the cake can be used for breakfast tomorrow morning!

This looks pretty horrible at this stage, but you put this back on the stove and keep simmering it until it has reduced and turned a lovely shade of PUCE!  It usually takes about 30 – 40 minutes depending on how much sugar you have added and how thick you like your reductions. When its cooked down far enough, strain out the spices and bottle in hot sterilized bottles – this is poured over the cake (or breakfast or anything else you want a nice spicy fruity sauce on – the Boss would put it on ice cream!)

Now – making the cake.  That Carer really should tell me if she’s going to get out an electric beater and make lots of noise.  I gave up and went outside to watch the steam train.

Step one – get the cake tin ready.  The recipe says use a round one.  What does she do? Uses a square one with a bottom that comes out.  Because this is a long cook – she puts two layers of baking paper in it.

 

Step two – 250 grams of softened butter, zest of lemon (yes, she used the Christmas present grater, Boss!) and 1 1/4 cups of caster sugar and beat until creamy….

 

Step three – beat in three eggs – one at a time, of course!  We were pretty excited to see that the last one was a double yolker – how many times do you see that these days? Helps if you buy free range eggs though 😉

 

Step four – Add 1/4 cup of flaked almonds and 1/2 cup of almond meal – well that’s when the recipe says! She’s up to her old tricks and changes things again. She puts in a cup of almond meal and just a few flakes (‘cos that’s all she had!)  Beat it up again!

 

Step five – (blimey, this is sooooo slow!) Next add 3/4 cup of milk and 2 1/4 cups of SR Flour. You remember she put an extra 1/4 cup of almond meal in? Well, ‘cos she did that, she left out 1/4cup of flour. So now you beat this all up and your cake batter is ready at long last.

Step six – time to put the fruit and the batter together and get it in the oven.  First you put a layer of fruit in the bottom of the tin, then you spread over half the batter, put in another layer of fruit, spread over the rest of the batter and a final layer of fruit on the top (give them a little press into the top surface).  Stick the filled tin in the oven at 180℃ and set the timer for an hour and 20 mins.

WHAT?! Surely I won’t have to wait that long?

 

Yes I will, it seems!  The Carer checks the cake every 30 mins and turns it (her oven tends to get hot on one side and burns stuff) then when the time is up, she tests it with a skewer.  Apparently they never cook in that time and always need another ten minutes or so. I think she needs a new oven, if you ask me.

 

So once the skewer comes out clean, let the cake cool in the tin for ten minutes or so and then put it on a wire rack to cool to serving temperature.  If you want to have this as a dessert, then serve it warm, with the reduction poured over it, some extra fruit on the side and a big dollop of pure cream!

Just yum! according to the Boss – let’s hope I’ll get a WHOLE slice for myself instead of just a sliver……

Hang on…. what about the reduction?  What does it look like when its finished?

Fantastic colour, isn’t it? You didn’t think it would turn out like this, did you?