Tuesday 20 November 2018

Cake.



I must say, my mother made a very good Chocolate Cake; but I suppose that all mothers do.

It was always a good day when the old-fashioned beige mixing bowl came out from the pantry. We would crowd around the big breakfast room table, desperate to put our fingers into the mix, as soon as her back was turned.

She made it look so easy. She put in a bit of this, and a bit of that, maybe some butter and Cocoa powder, then mixed it all together. 

Whilst it was in the oven (a dreadful old thing called 'Radiation New World') the icing would be prepared. It always seemed like hours before the cake was cool enough to accept its topping

I'm pretty sure that my mother only iced the top, which was always given a wavy pattern with the back of a fork. My sister and I fought over the right to do the art work.

But, of course, a cake is all about taste, and hers became the cake by which I judged all others. It seemed impossible that one of her cakes would win anything but FIRST PRIZE in the annual village WI produce show. I no longer remember if they did; possibly not.

I still like Chocolate Cake; Lady Magnon makes a very good one. I'm no longer too keen on the icing, but she always leaves part of the cake un-iced, specially for me. 

Chocolate Cake has been a life-long friend, as I'm sure it is for many!



41 comments:

  1. I make a very nice one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's - no icing.

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    1. No icing for me either. These days I hardly ever eat cake either.

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  2. Believe me. Not all mothers can bake or even cook, my own being one. My father always used to say she could burn water.......
    I have taken a dislike to icing this last year or two. I think it's an age thing.
    Hope you're feeling a bit better after losing Freddie.

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    1. Yes, I'm beginning to accept that Freddie is no longer here. Thank you.

      I'm sure that eating very sweet things is more for the young than the 'old'. I haven't put sugar in tea or coffee since I was first married; Lady Magnon didn't allow it.

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  3. I almost skipped past your blog this morning, thought it was a 'kitchen thing'. I went back for a second look at the cake of course. I have a couple of favourite chocolate cake recipes. Greeks hate icing. They do like a sprinkle of icing sugar but I don't even bother with that now. I made one the other day. We have one slice a day. I need a little bit of something sweet every day.
    My mother baked wonderful biscuits and slices, the latter a NZ and Aussie speciality.

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    1. Lady M likes cake or biscuits with her afternoon tea; I take my tea without.

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  4. I'm not a great cake eater but I do occasionally like a small piece of chocolate cake. Just a small piece. No icing.

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    1. Lady M usually makes flattish cake, that she cuts into small squares. No huge slices!

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  5. Cooking never was my mum's forte. She cooked well enough to produce a dinner for us every night but when I left home I found I had to unlearn things I'd seen my mum do. Our cakes were from a packet mix that needed an egg added.

    Cro, I believe that is the first time I've ever seen you mention your sister. I believed you to be an only child.

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    1. Clearly not a close reader here Andi! Cro's sister leaves a comment every day!

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    2. Just the two of us; named after characters in Swallows and Amazons. If we'd had another sister, she might have be called Titty; and that would never have done!

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    3. Obviously I am very unobservant. *Wave to Cro's sister*.

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    4. I believe it is the first time he was written about food too.

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    5. And Misty the horse got missed in the mist.

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    6. Andy, don't "worry" about it. Took me a while too to cotton on that Sue Heather (usually the first to comment) is Cro's sibling. And that was only because one of them (I think it was Sue) alluded to a shared childhood memory. Come to think of it, insert knowing smile, Sue and Cro's exchanges are so civilized you'd be forgiven for thinking they hadn't shared a nursery. Mind you, at least they do talk to each other which is more than I can claim about my siblings. A recent observation of mine that I should have drowned them at birth if I'd known how it'll all pan out decades down the line met with stony silence - not least from my parents. I had to remind my mother of an old saying of hers: "Humour is when you laugh despite of it". Slightly baffling, I know. But at least I appear to have taken it to heart - by osmosis as it were.

      U

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    7. Goodness; my sister will be blushing with all this new-found fame!

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    8. The fun, together with a little bit of mystery, ruined.

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  6. My mother made a mean chocolate cake. We used to hover to scrape out the bowl.

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    1. Getting your finger in that mixing bowl was a real pleasure!

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  7. Not my mother. She was a lousy cook. She did make packet mix cakes though, and what fun to lick the beaters and scrape out the bowl, a pleasure we used to give our own dogs many years ago.

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    1. Sounds like your, and Andi's, mother s went to the same cookery school.

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  8. As much as I love food, i’m not keen on cake ... never had been BUT ...... give me the bowl of cake mix and I could eat the lot !!!!
    How are you and Lady M doing ? Thinking of you both XXXX

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    1. We're both still feeling a little downhearted; the shock is still quite fresh. We'll manage, thank you.

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  9. My favourite cake has chocolate covering and is in the shape of a log, or maybe more like an upside down boat. It's called Zauner Stollen. Mrs G and myself only use the top of the oven. I don't think we've looked inside except when it was delivered.
    My brother, sisters and I used to fight over who would get to lick the wooden spoon. Mum was a regular cake maker and Jack of all trades as were her parents. Grandad made his own gin!

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    1. The inside of my (brand new) oven has hardly been used, however, now that winter is here there will be roasts and stews on the menu, and it should get good use.

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  10. I remember the wonderful cakes of my grandmother who brought with her an amazing baking tradition from Germany, I unfortunately did not learn anything.

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    1. I love cooking, but it has to contain salt rather than sugar. I've never made a cake.

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  11. My mother made cherry Madeira cake especially for me. One day she discovered that if you dust the glacé cherries with flour, they do not sink to the bottom but evenly distribute. I asked her to unlearn this trick. I liked them clustered together at the base. Then those rubber squeegee bowl cleaners which took every speck of mix from the sides of the bowl were invented. I had to get her to stop using those as well.

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    1. I have to ask Lady M to overcook everything, otherwise it comes out half cooked. I like crisp edges to my cakes.

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  12. There is a particular chocolate cake that I bake for birthdays. I have asked if anyone wants something different, but it has now become tradition. I still give the beaters full of icing to the "kids" if they are around. I think my mother eventually turned to boxed cake mixes. There is no fear that I will take a distaste to icing, much to my detriment. -Jenn

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    1. There are those who like icing, and those who don't. I'm in the latter camp.

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  13. I found a recipe for chocolate cake on the back of the Hershey's cocoa tin and it's wonderful. I love chocolate cake!

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    1. A well made Chocolate Cake is as good as it gets. Viva CC.

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  14. It was he love that she put in it that made you think that it was the best chocolate cake ever.

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    1. Of course, and the fact that my mother could do no wrong.

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  15. The Co-op do one for three pounds which I swear is as good as a home made one.

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    1. That doesn't surprise me. I once had a Moussaka from M & S that was by far the best I'd ever eaten!

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  16. Icing on a cake, Birthday or Christmas with fruit, is that white stuff that used to break your teeth or at least cause holes in them. Your chocolate cake in the photo is, to me, covered in topping which in very small quantities can be acceptable. I do love the glossy look.
    The M&S advert on now with the orange Xmas pud looks wonderful - once a year.

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    1. The icing on Chocolate Cake is usually soft and silky; no loss of teeth. I agree, that M & S pud' looks superb; but it's not for me!

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  17. This cake looks so wonderful. Now I want chocolate cake.
    You are so evil !

    cheers, parsnip and badger

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    1. I could do with a small piece now; with my morning coffee.

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