Peach Blossom Cake

Aunty Molly’s Peach Blossom Cake Recipe FROM ''Dying for Cake''

''My Great Aunty Molly had one daughter, Valerie. My mother, being one of three girls, was always rather envious of Valerie, who she considered “spoilt”. She was especially envious of Valerie’s birthday parties, the highlight being Aunty Molly’s Peach Blossom Cake, a light, lemony flavoured butter cake, coloured pink and iced with white lemon frosting and dusted with pink sugar. Sometimes, when my three sisters and I were little, my mother would bake this cake for us as a special treat. Joanna bakes this cake in Dying for Cake for Sophie’s birthday party. Sophie’s party is a disaster but, as Clare later muses, “At least the cake had been good. Better than good…the cake had been perfect.” (p109)   by Louise Limerick(nee Peile)

Ingredients:

(150g) 5ozs butter

(225g) 8ozs castor sugar

Finely grated rind of one lemon (or one teaspoon of lemon essence)

(225g) 8ozs self-raising flour sifted with 1tbspn of corn flour (Aunty Molly’s secret ingredient)

120ml milk (about 4 ½ fl oz) – colored with a few drops of cochineal

3 egg whites, beaten up until stiff and snowy

Method:

Grease a round cake tin and line with baking paper.

Preset the oven to 150*C (300*F)

Cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind (or essence) until light and fluffy.

Fold in the sifted flour alternately with the milk.

Quickly fold in the beaten egg whites until just combined.

Cook at 300*F for 40 minutes or until cake springs back to touch.

Allow cake to cool for 5 minutes in tin before turning out onto a wire rack.

When cake is cold ice with lemon frosting and dust with pick sugar*.

(*To make pink sugar, add a drop of cochineal to ¼ cup of granulated sugar and stir with a metal spoon.)

Peach Blossom Cake by Merle Parrish

 It’s from the fabulous new The Great Australian Cookbook that features the best cooks and chefs from all over Australia.

Servings: 8 | Prep Time: 30 mins | Cook Time: 1 hour 10 mins | Skill Level: 2 (Moderat

INGREDIENTS

190 g butter at room temperature, chopped

1¼ cups white sugar

¾ cup milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1½ cups plain flour

¾ cup cornflour

1½ tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

6 egg whites

1–2 drops rose-pink

food colouring

Icing

1½ cups icing sugar

10 g butter

2 tbsp boiling water

few drops of rose-pink food colouring

METHOD

Pre-heat the oven to low (150°C). Grease a 20 cm round, deep cake tin. Line the base of the tin with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar in the small bowl of an electric mixer until white and fluffy. Gradually add half the milk to help dissolve the sugar, and beat well. Beat in the vanilla. Transfer to a larger bowl.

Sift the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt together three times. Fold into the butter mixture, then add the remaining milk (don’t worry if it appears curdled at this stage).

In another bowl, use clean beaters to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold half the egg whites into the cake batter, then fold in the remaining egg whites.

Transfer 1 cup of the mixture to a smaller bowl, and stir in the drops of food colouring. Take about ¾ cup of the white mixture, and spread over the base of the tin. Take half the pink batter, and spoon it in a ring about 1 cm in from the edge of the tin – it should be about 1–1½ cm wide.

Very carefully spread half the remaining white batter over, taking care not to disturb the pink ring. Spoon the remaining pink batter into the centre of the tin, making a round of about 8 cm. Spoon the rest of the white batter over the whole top, again taking care not to disturb the pink round.

Bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes, until the cake is springy to a gentle touch in the centre and comes away from the sides of the tin. It may appear slightly cracked in the centre, but should settle flat on cooling. (If not, gently press the top flat with your fingertips.) Turn out onto a clean tea towel lined with a sheet of baking paper. Leave to cool.

To make the icing, combine the ingredients until smooth. Spread over the top of the cooled cake, and leave to set.