My friend rojak came over for a day of baking. We spent a most enjoyable afternoon trying out some recipes which she has kept for many years, even revisiting the home economics textbook from our (long time ago) school days.
Cake 1: Creamed corn cake.
Creamed corn is not very popular nowadays, but when I was young we could not get enough of this sweet treat, eating it straight from the tin or finding it included in local desserts like ice kacang and kuehs. I remember my dad opening a tin, and we siblings lined up to eat it- a spoonful for daddy, one for me, one for second sis.... and so on until it was my turn again, since there were four of us (fifth brother was still a baby) the tin finished pretty quickly.
So I was excited to try making this cake when rojak suggested making this from a recipe which was originally her friend's, obviously old because they use ounce measurements so it must have come from a pre-metric age, but one of those things good enough to keep and share.
Two points about the method. One, we tried the convection fan setting of my oven, a first for me, I've never bothered to try settings other than the ones for the grill and oven. Two, we split the batter between a loaf tin and a muffin tray lined with paper cups.
The cupcakes turned out great- fluffy inside with chewy kernels of corn within, the tops sweet and slightly crackly; it cooked very quickly too, needing only about 15 minutes in the oven. The loaf version on the other hand, took a long time to cook which may or may not be due to the convection fan setting of the oven or the inappropriateness of the loaf tin. The finished product rose well but was unevenly cooked.
8 oz plain flour-sift with baking powder
1 tsp baking powder
6 oz butter
1 can creamed corn: water drained off
8 oz sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
2. Agg eggs a little at a time.
3. Fold flour and corn alternatively, finally the vanilla essence
4. Bake 25 minutes, 170 degree C
Cake 2: Butter apricot-sultana cake
rojak wanted to know how a cake made with cake flour differed from one made with plain flour. The result was much like the prune cake I made last weekend, only this time I overfolded the batter which meant that the cake did not rise very high.
Cake 3: Cheddar Rock cakes
We were done for the day when I happened to flip through rojak's Home Economics textbooks which she has kept with her all these years. I had the same copy too, but being the eldest of four daughters my copy was passed to my younger sister as soon as I finished the syllabus so I have lost track of it. It was fun looking through the topics within (Cooking, Sewing & Housekeeping), recalling the recipes we tried and marvelling that the book contained such a lot of wonderful, and quite motherly, information.
On impulse, and since I have so much butter at home (NTUC was selling SCS at 2 blocks for $4.45), we decided to make rock cakes. The recipe is fail-safe, took all of 10 minutes to put together and did not involve the use of much appliances or gadgets. We substituted red cheddar for sultanas and made little mounds instead of fist-sized cakes. After 15-20 minutes in the oven, the little biscuity-cakes came out smelling wonderfully sweet, cheesy and buttery and was very good to eat too. Indeed it was my favourite cake of the day. Since the book is now out of print and not available in the shops I will reproduce the recipe. Variations include pineapple (2 tbsp), grated white coconut (1 tbsp) and raisins (50g).
100g flour-sift with baking powder
1 level tsp baking powder
50g butter
50g sugar
1/2 egg, beaten
Grated cheddar, as much as you like
1. Put butter into sifted flour/baking powder. Cut fat into small pieces and rub in till mixture becomes crumbly.
2. Add sugar, then beaten egg, and finally the cheese. Mix until even and stiff, then spoon dollops over a baking tin.
3. Bake 190 degree C top shelf for 15 minutes.
That should be the last of the rich butter cakes, next time we are making chiffon cakes which doesn't contain any butter at all.
