I do not do a lot of cake baking. We do not eat a lot of cake. When there are just two of us it has to be the sort of cake that keeps more than a day or so which, I suppose, explains the popularity of Christmas fruit cake.
There is however one recipe that I do occasionally succumb to making. It is the oddly named "Armenian Nutmeg Cake". Whether it really comes from Armenia I do not know. I am not even sure where the original recipe came from but the ingredients and instructions are "in the yellow folder" along with the instructions for such things as the Christmas cake, marmalade, mushroom sauce and a couple of other family favourites.
This cake has a biscuit like bottom and a more cake like top. It is not difficult to make. (The Whirlwind could do it virtually unsupervised at age 9.) It does not require icing.
As I somehow needed to send it to Becky (an enthusiastic and competent baker of cakes) over at Fidra Books and have mentioned it elsewhere, here is the recipe for those of you who feel inclined to create cake.
Armenian Nutmeg Cake
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
125gms butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¾ cup of milk
1 egg lightly beaten
½ cup chopped walnuts
Grease 20cm x 30cm tin
Sift flours and nutmeg into large bowl, rub in butter, mix in sugar.
Press 1 ½ cups of this mixture across the bottom of the prepared tin
Stir combined soda and milk into remaining ingredients with egg and nuts. Mix well.
Pour into the tin.
Bake 180’C /375F for about 35mins
Stand for about 5 mins before turning out onto wire rack to cool. (Important or it will end up as a broken mess!)
It comes out with a sort of almost biscuit like base and cake top. No icing needed. Enjoy.
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6 comments:
Well I am going to give it a try this weekend. Will be back to let you know how it went. Thanks for the recipe.
Sounds yummy! I;ve just started baking again after a lengthy hiatus (and with four of us, including two teenagers, 'lasting' is the 'last' quality needed in my baking!).
Will be interested to know what you both think of it. It is a bit different.
Sheep Rustler - your teenagers have "hollow leg syndrome" I assume?
Mmmmmmm. I'm terrible at baking. But I will find someone to make this for me.
Definitely 'hollow leg' syndrome! But they ear a mostly healthy diet and get some exercise of the incidental type, so I am happy for them to eat! And I think I will have a go at this, I don't know how much it will appeal to them but it will certainly be enjoyed by DH and myself. Will report back when I do it!
Many many thanks! It has a lovely texture, and since I find nutmeg a little disappointing as a flavour, I think I am going to play with it - next one will be cinnamon and pecan nuts, because that's my favourite. It strikes me that it is a recipe that could be adapted very well in all sorts of ways.
Another good Australian recipe for my armoury! Some of my best ones are Aussie - I have a very old copy of the Country Womens Association of Western Australia cookery book, present from Aussie cousins, and the family favourite chocolate cake is hand written by them on one of the endpapers.
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