Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Two simple recipes from the 1930s to celebrate National Cake Day 2020

Have you ever made a marble or caramel cake? Well now is your chance as we have recipes from a kitchen in the 1930s that will get your tastebuds tingling.

According to the foodies of the nation, today is National Cake Day. Despite us being of the belief that every day is cake day, we’ve found some recipes from Aunt Kate’s Baking Book from 1933 that will whet the appetite for all the cake-loving bakers out there.

As these recipes were created in the early 1900s, some of the quantities may be slightly off, but we have made them as close an estimate as we think they will be.

We publish a new recipe from Aunt Kate every week, so keep an eye out for your favourite sweet treat or take a look at our previous recipes in the series here for more inspiration.

Marble cake

Ingredients

• ½ cup (approx 100g) butter
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup (approx 235ml) milk
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 cup (approx 200g) sugar
• 1¾ cups (approx 275g) flour
• 2½ tsp baking powder
• Melted chocolate

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the well-beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together.
3. Mix the vanilla and milk, and add alternately with the sifted dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar.
4. Divide the mixture in two, and colour and flavour one with some melted chocolate mixed in.
5. Put the two mixtures into greased, floured tins in alternate spoonfuls to obtain a mottled effect, then bake in a moderate oven (approx 180-190C) for 20 minutes.
6. Put the layers together with stiffly-whipped cream, flavoured with vanilla.

Walnut fruit cake

Ingredients

• 4 teacupfuls flour
• ¾ cups (approx 96g) currants
• 1 oz (approx 28g) butter
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp salt
• A few half walnuts
• 1 teacupful walnuts, chopped
• ½ cup (approx 100g) sugar
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder
• A few preserved cherries
• Milk

Method

1. Rub the butter into the flour, then add the sugar, salt, baking powder, currants and nuts, and mix well.
2. Beat up the eggs and add with enough milk to make a stiff dough.
3. Mix and beat the mixture well, then pour it into a prepared cake tin and bake in a moderate oven (approx 180-190C).
4. When the cake is cold, trim it neatly and cover it with a coat of icing.
5. Decorate the top with walnuts and preserved cherries, pressing these into the icing while it is still soft.
6. Set the cake aside until the icing hardens before cutting it.

More from this series…