As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...This week's Thursday baking is brought to us by our guest blogger Jane:
I’ve been enjoying baking date loaves and taking them to work for morning tea with my Milo (I’m not yet a coffee drinker - Miriam is working on this). This week Miriam suggested I try something different from the Treasury book, and this Sultana Cake looked a suitable substitute. We often have sweet treats at work so I enjoy more filling cakes and loaves if I’m going to have a daily snack. I also appreciate the simplicity and quick preparation of a basic cake/loaf.
I felt a bit of guilt as I watched the sultanas absorbing the melted butter… however I took heart in the fact that I didn’t cover the cake in butter, as I normally do when I have date loaf! In saying that, I found the cake very sweet with all the sugar and sultanas in it. I think you could reduce the amount of sugar and still be satisfied. The cake was plentiful so we won’t go without morning tea for quite some time.
Sultana Cake – David Burton (week 21)
225g butter
450g sultanas (I used slightly less sultanas and put a few dates in)
3 eggs
145g raw sugar
145g white sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp lemon essence (I used lemon juice)
1 tsp baking powder
170g wholemeal flour
170g standard flour
Preheat the oven to 160 deg C. Remove the paper wrapping from a block of butter and place, greased side up, in the bottom of an expandable baking tin. Expand or contract the tin to fit the size of the butter paper (we don’t have the recommended 20cm square tin so use a spring form round tin lined with baking paper).
I felt a bit of guilt as I watched the sultanas absorbing the melted butter… however I took heart in the fact that I didn’t cover the cake in butter, as I normally do when I have date loaf! In saying that, I found the cake very sweet with all the sugar and sultanas in it. I think you could reduce the amount of sugar and still be satisfied. The cake was plentiful so we won’t go without morning tea for quite some time.
Sultana Cake – David Burton (week 21)
225g butter
450g sultanas (I used slightly less sultanas and put a few dates in)
3 eggs
145g raw sugar
145g white sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp lemon essence (I used lemon juice)
1 tsp baking powder
170g wholemeal flour
170g standard flour
Preheat the oven to 160 deg C. Remove the paper wrapping from a block of butter and place, greased side up, in the bottom of an expandable baking tin. Expand or contract the tin to fit the size of the butter paper (we don’t have the recommended 20cm square tin so use a spring form round tin lined with baking paper).
In a saucepan, cover the sultanas with cold water and bring to the boil. Drain off the water. While the sultanas are still hot, cut the butter over them in little pieces and leave to melt.
Whisk the eggs and both sugars until creamy. Add the essences. Sift the baking powder with the standard flour, mix with the wholemeal flour, then combine these with the sultana batter. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake for 1-1 ¼ hours, until the cake shrinks a little from the sides of the tin. Remove when still warm and leave to cool on a wire rack. This cake will keep in an airtight container for several weeks.
i love a slice of date loaf with butter, would probably be able to convince myself its ok to put butter on this one too !!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMe again. Don't suppose I could talk you guys into adding the cup equivalents, or ounces would do, for us ex-pats? This recipe makes my brain hurt, just thinking about adapting it!
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, I thought exactly the same thing as I was baking this cake. Luckily we have some wonderful electronic scales which are so handy when recipes are all in this format. Jane
ReplyDeleteI've made this cake! Sooo good. Except I stupidly added the butter while the water was still in there. I sort of drained most of it off and added more butter and it somehow still worked...should try it again properly sometime :)
ReplyDelete