This recipe comes from the very first recipe book I ever bought, the Homepride Book of Home Baking, published in 1970. I had to send off for it using a postal order for the princely sum of £13/6d, including postage. That's 13 shillings and 6 old pence in £sd, "old money" or pre-decimal coinage. Or 65p in today's money. There are still several cut-out coupons in the back of the book to order extra copies!
This was the cake I made for decades; for birthdays, weekends, visits from the mother-in-law or good friends. It's an all-in-one recipe, in other words all the ingredients are mixed together in one bowl. I made it using a wooden spoon and Pyrex mixing bowl long before I had any kind of food mixer.
It's an excellent chocolate cake, lovely and moist and made with storecupboard ingredients that don't cost a fortune. It's equal to the chocolate Guinness cake in terms of favourites and you can see the recipe here.
My aunt always used Homepride flour and collected all the "merch". She had a pair of bowler hatted salt&pepper shakers. A large bowler hatted man to hold her biscuits, a tea towel, and I think the cookbook. 'because graded grains make finer flour' as their advert said!
ReplyDeleteMy mum had a few Flour Grader bits and pieces but unfortunately Dad got rid of everything like that after she died, thinking he would never need them. Sadly it never occurred to him that his daughter might like to have them.
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