Sydney Cake brings a welcome sparkle

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!