It
is said that Sydney is the city of fireworks and the Sydney Harbour Bridge the
first place we see sparkling with fireworks on New Year’s Eve. So Sydney
Cake is today's cake of choice. It's an old recipe from Ada Kirk, a distant relative in our family. During WW2, the family was
fortunate to receive food parcels from relatives in Australia, New Zealand
and South Africa. These parcels sometimes contained
copious quantities of dried fruits which were highly prized as
dried fruit was rationed from 1942.
Sydney
Cake
½ lb/225g self raising flour
¼ lb/110g sugar
¾ lb/340g mixed fruit
2 eggs
¼ lb/110g butter melted
¼ tsp mixed spice
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 bare teacup milk
Pinch salt
Vanilla or lemon extract
Pre
heat the oven to 150C/300F/Mark 2. Put all ingredients in order given into a
basin. Beat for 4-5 minutes. Turn into a prepared tin. Bake in a slow oven for
2 hours on the lowest runner of the oven.
Meryl says : I used an 8 inch/21 cms
square cake tin which worked well. I did reduce the cooking time to one hour
and a half as it appeared baked and the cake tester came out clean.
Sometimes the family received a cake already made or they
were sent butter in a tin. The downside was that the butter had to be used
fairly quickly once the tin was opened. The upside was they could have a bake
off bonzana!
Meanwhile in London ...Happy New Year 2019!
