After I made the chocolate cake with kefir, which I posted recently, my Polish friend in Leeds said she had heard of plain versions with fruit on top.
I found many recipes all with varying amounts of the ingredients.
I tried out a few versions and decided on what were the best proportions to make a lovely soft sponge cake.
As well as the base for a fruit topped cake, which will be posted soon, this is a good cake which can be used as a base for torcik or desserts such as English trifle or Italian Tiramisu.
You can portion it up and freeze it for later.
Ingredients
350g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
175g of sugar
2 eggs
400ml of kefir
125ml of sunflower oil
Grated rind of 1 large orange
or 2 small lemons
or ¼ teaspoon of vanilla essence
*
Icing sugar to dust
Method
Grease and line with one piece of greaseproof a 32x22cm baking tray.
Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
In another bowl mix the eggs, oil, kefir and rind or essence together.
Pour the kefir mixture into the dry mixture.
With a wooden spoon mix well together until you have an even thick batter.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin on a wire cake rack.
Dust with icing sugar to serve.
What if you cannot get kefir?
Should you not be able to get any kefir you can use 3 parts yoghurt to 1 part milk instead.
So in this recipe use 300ml of yoghurt mixed with 100ml of milk.
My Polish friend who lives in Leeds sent me a copy of a recipe from an old Polish cookbook for kefirowe – this is a cake made with kefir.
I tried it out and it is super – a soft moist cake made with sunflower oil and cocoa as well as kefir.
I made it twice, once with a darker chocolate icing and the second time with a milkier chocolate icing.
It would be good with a wide range of different flavoured icings.
Ingredients
350g plain flour
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
200g granulated sugar
5 tablespoons of cocoa
*
2 eggs – beaten
500ml of kefir
250ml sunflower oil
Method
Grease and line with one piece of greaseproof a 32x22cm baking tray.
Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
In another bowl mix the eggs, oil and kefir together.
Pour the kefir mixture into the dry mixture.
With a wooden spoon mix well together until you have an even thick batter.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin on a wire cake rack.
*
Ice with the icing of your choice.
Cut into squares, rectangles or lozenges to serve.
Coffee set and tea plates – Greenway by John Russell 1960s
Chocolate Icing Ingredients
100g butter
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 tablespoon of water
200g icing sugar
Method
Melt the butter gently in a small saucepan.
Stir in the cocoa powder and the water.
Mix and cook gently for a couple of minutes.
Remove from the heat.
Mix in the icing sugar, bit by bit until you have a thick icing.
Ice the top of the cake.
Milk Chocolate Icing Ingredients
60g butter
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
3 tablespoons of hot milk
250g icing sugar
1-2 drops of vanilla essence
Method
Heat up some milk in a small pan (I use a bit more than is needed and measure it out after heating).
Melt the butter in a pan.
Blend in the cocoa powder.
Stir in the icing sugar, milk and essence (I add the sugar in stages -aiming for aslightly runny icing) and beat until it is thick and smooth – adjusting with icing sugar and extra milk as necessary.
Ice the top of the cake.
Tea plates are Las Palmas – Aynsley from the 1960s
Jug by Buchan Pottery, Portobello near Edinburgh from the early 1960s.
What if you cannot get kefir?
Should you not be able to get any kefir you can use 3 parts yoghurt to 1 part milk instead.
I tried this out in the recipe and used 375ml of yoghurt mixed with 125ml of milk.
It worked very well.
I used a white chocolate icing on this cake.
White Chocolate Icing
100g of white chocolate (I like Green & Black best)
3-4 tablespoons of hot milk
200g icing sugar (you might not need it all)
Method
Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of hot water.
Heat up some milk in a small pan (I use a bit more than is needed and measure it out after heating).
Mix 3 tablespoons of the hot milk into the heated chocolate.
Stir in the icing sugar (I add the sugar in stages – aiming for aslightly runny icing) and beat until it is thick and smooth – adjusting with icing sugar and extra milk as necessary.
My mother used to buy little cakes called Japs from the English bakers where we lived in Lancashire.
We both loved them.
I now know that the name is shortened from Japonais – which is French for Japanese style. How they came by this name seems to be a mystery.
Traditionally they were two circles of almond meringue sandwiched together with a butter cream (often coffee flavour), covered with more butter cream and nibbled nuts.
When I came across this recipe for an almond meringue cake, lots of memories came flooding back.
The proportions for the meringue are:
50g of caster sugar & 25g of ground almonds per egg white.
I used 4 egg whites in this version.
Ingredients
4 egg whites
200g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
Method
Use the loose bases of two baking tin – 20cm in diameter.
Lightly grease the circles.
Cut a 2 x 20cm circles of grease-proof paper and stick them onto the metal circles.
Place each circle on a large baking tray.
Pre-heat the oven to GM1 – 140°C.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
Add the sugar and whisk again till stiff.
Fold in the ground almonds.
Spoon and smooth half the mixture onto each circle.
Bake for 50 minutes (swap shelves half way through).
Turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside for 20 minutes.
Take out and leave to cool completely before using.
*
Place one circle onto your cake stand.
Cover this with coffee or rum butter cream**.
Place the second circle on top.
Optional – add a few blobs of butter cream on top to decorate.
*
** You can use a lighter cream filling of your choice.
Coffee set by Royal Doulton – Pastorale – 1970 – 1990
Jug by Buchan Pottery, Portobello near Edinburgh – from the early 1960s.
I decided to make a chocolate cake I had not made for a while. Raspberry jam is used in the cake and in the butter cream. The best results are with a jam that is not too sweet – a slight tartness is best.
I used raspberry jam that was made by my friend in Leeds from raspberries that were grown on her allotment.
Ingredients
150g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
30g cocoa
90g caster sugar
120g butter
4 level tablespoons of raspberry jam
2 eggs beaten
2 tablespoons of milk
Method
Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5 – 190°C.
Grease and line the bottoms of 2 – 18cm diameter baking tins.
Mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa together.
Cream the butter, sugar and jam together.
Add the eggs bit by bit .
Fold in the flour mixture with the milk to make a soft dropping consistency.
Divide the mixture between the two tins.
Bake for 25 minutes.
When cold, sandwich together with the raspberry butter icing.
Dust the top with icing sugar to serve.
Raspberry Butter Icing
Ingredients
60g butter
2 tablespoons of raspberry jam.
120g icing sugar.
Method
Cream together the butter, jam and around ¾of of the icing sugar.
Add more icing sugar until the required consistency is achieved.
Coffee set – Greenway – by Hostess Tableware – 1960 – 1979
I have been doing some research into cooking in Victorian England and came across this recipe, which is based loosely on an apple pudding in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management published in 1861.
Eating apples are used in this recipes rather than tart cooking apples.
Ribes uva cripa – agrest in Polish – gooseberries are related to black and red currants.
Gooseberries are the first soft fruits of the summer. They grow well in cooler climates. These gooseberries were picked the evening before this placek was made.
This placek – flat-cake has the lovely contrast of the sweet cake against the tart fruit.
Ingredients
400-450g of gooseberries
250g butter
200g icing sugar
3 eggs
360g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-2 tablespoons of yoghurt
*
Icing sugar to dust
Method
Pre-heat oven to GM4 – 180°C.
Grease and use one sheet of greaseproof to line two sides and base of a 32 x 22cm baking tin.
I wrote a post on Caraway Seed Cake in March 2018 and in doing so found that although caraway is such a popular herb/spice in Poland and used in breads, meat & vegetable dishes, it is quite surprising that it is not used in cakes.
I looked in all my recipe books and did not find any use of caraway in Polish cakes.
Caraway – Image from Wikapedia
Caraway Seeds
Caraway seed cake seem to be a quintessential British cake and recently whilst doing some research into Victorian cooking in the north of England I came across this delicious version.
As I live a short walk away from a house that Charlotte Brontë used to visit, I was very interested to find that seed cake is mentioned in her novel Jane Eyre (1847)
“And then Miss Temple invited Jane and her new friend Helen into her parlour for tea and I began to warm up. The kindly teacher unwrapped before their eager eyes a parcel containing ‘a good-sized seed-cake’.
‘I meant to give each of you some of this to take with you,’ said she, ‘but as there is so little toast, you must have it now,’ and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.
We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.”
This recipe has been adapted from –
Mrs Somerville’s Cookery and Domestic Economy, published in 1862 and found in – The Victorian Kitchen by Jennifer Davies BBC 1989 TV Series.
The original recipe used 10 eggs! – here the ingredients have been adjusted to 5 eggs.
How large the bowl must have been & how hard the whisking of the whites without an electric whisk.
Ingredients
225g butter
225g caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of cornflour
2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
50g ground almonds
5 eggs separated
Method
Pre-heat the oven to GM4 180°C.
Use a loose bottomed cake tin – 24cm in diameter.
Grease the tin and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, cornflour, ground almonds & caraway seeds.
Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the yolks, one at a time creaming the mixture on each addition.
Fold the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.
Whisk the egg whites till firm and stiff.
Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth over the top.
Bake for 60 minutes, check after 50 minutes and cover with grease-proof paper if necessary – to prevent burning.
Leave to cool in the tin.
Caraway Seeds are thought to aid digestion – so this is a good cake to have at the end of a meal.
Royal Albert – Primulette tea set from the 1950s.
Lead Crystal cake stand – Tortenplatte – Venus by Nachtmann(Germany).
