Childhood Memories of Cake ... | Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

As I devoured huge quantities of simnel cake this week, I found my mind wandering to that other marzipan covered delight ... Battenberg cake ...

... and from there to other childhood favourites ...

My mother and grandmother both loved to bake and every season, celebration and little routine was bound up with cake ...

They weren't fancy cakes with carefully twirled icing just honest to goodness old fashioned cakes that have been handed down through the generations.

Apart from Christmas and Easter, the cakes that came out time after time or at least those that I remember most fondly, were ...

Battenberg
Ginger parkin
Coffee cake
Orange cake
Swiss roll
Chocolate cake
"Cakey bread" - tea loaf
Victoria sandwich
Genoa cake
Eccles cake (OK I know it's not a cake but I loved it ...)

I have to confess I haven't made that many big cakes recently - small children seem to be happier making small ones - but I must. So I have been interrogating my mum and rummaging through her cookbooks and mine for recipes.

I would love to hear about your faves - do link up your recipes at the bottom of this post.

Battenberg Cake

I was surprised how few books - even the old ones - had a battenberg cake but, as it it so often does, that kitchen stalwart The Good Housekeeping Cookbook came up trumps.

It's basically just victoria sandwich mixture split in two with one half coloured pink - my mum used to use blancmange powder :-). You then divide a Swiss roll tray in two with some grease proof paper and put the plain mixture in one half and the pink in the other. Bake at ~190c/375f for 40 minutes.

Once cooled, cut each side in half length ways and stick together with jam before covering with a very thin scraping of jam and then, in 350g / 1.5 cups of thinly rolled marzipan.

Ginger Parkin

Ginger parkin is indelibly associated with bonfire night for me - gooey richness consumed in the cold November air. I love the recipe in Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course which includes oatmeal - as she says it's one of those cakes that is so much better after it's been in the tin for a week!

Coffee Cake

I didn't drink coffee until my late teens but I adored coffee cake as a child. The classic coffee and walnut cake in Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries - I so adore this book! - comes closest to my mum's but for childhood authenticity I would omit the walnuts.

Orange Cake

My daughter and my mum are busy making this as I write - hurrah!

There are so many fancy grown up orange cakes but this is just vicky sandwich with orange zest butter cream in the middle and glace icing made with orange juice all over.

Can't wait - although, my 3 year old isn't the speediest chef - grandma is very patient :-)

Swiss Roll

I have inherited my swiss roll recipe from my mum's old Be-Ro Home Recipes - a tiny book of baking recipes that has been going strong since the 1920s!

The recipe is 2 eggs, 3 oz caster sugar and 3 oz of self-raising flour.

Chocolate Cake

I did like chocolate cake as a child but there were lots of other cakes I liked better. Given the choice now, I would always plump for a slightly more grown up version than the one we had as children - the chocolate orange cake in Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess which is basically a vicky sandwich with dark chocolate and marmalade is scrumptious!

Victoria Sandwich

No one needs a recipe for this - but I just like mine super simple, butter cream and jam in the middle, icing sugar on the top and no additional flavourings, just as mum made it week in, week out for Sunday tea when she'd no time or mind to make anything else.

Genoa Cake

This completely dates me, but my fondest memories of cherry filled genoa cake are of that served on British railways back in the 1970s - it was the only food my mum would ever buy on a train and even she will admit it was delicious.

Our own genoa cake recipe comes from my grandma's truly ancient but still fabulous - and easily available second hand - The Radiation Cookbook

Cakey Bread - Tea Loaf

We went to my grandma's for tea every Friday and along with fish and chips, cream cakes and jam tarts there was always slices of "cakey bread".

The Radiation Cookbook again has this covered - you make a very milky bread dough and add currants and candied peel.

Is it a cake? Is it a bread? Not sure, but it's yummy anyway.

Eccles Cake

Oh I know, I know, this isn't remotely like a big cake ... but I have snuck them in because I love them so much and they remind me of early spring walks when we got out into the hills, even though like this year there might still be snow around.

Jane Grigson's English Food has a proper recipe with shortcrust pastry made with lard.

You fill small circles of short crust pastry with a mixture of currants, candied peel, all spice and nutmeg which has been mixed up with melted butter and sugar. Bring the pastry together, flatten gently, make a small hole in the middle, brush with egg white, sprinkle with sugar and bake at 220c/470f for 15 minutes.

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