A perfect Mother’s Day morning. Eating pink cake for breakfast and drinking tea from a vintage pink china cup. AND I got to spend an hour or two faffing around taking photos of this authentic wartime recipe and updating my blog to share it… I hope you’ll share it around too and bring a smile to a mother’s face, after-all what is there NOT to like about pink cake and pretty china.
So this recipe was followed 100% to the book. First I’m going to moan. The sponge was kinda firm and chalky (as it contained strawberry blancmange powder) and the icing (which was also made out of blancmange powder) slithered off the cake and all over the plate leaving my sponge with a soggy bottom. This wasn’t the best wartime cake recipe I’ve tried, not even near it.
But there was one redeeming factor….it was PINK. (after I’d added some extra drops of red food colouring)
The recipe actually ONLY made one sandwich tin’s worth of cake. In the end I cut in it half, and sandwiched both halves together with LOTS of strawberry jam to make HALF A CAKE (which is probably a good thing…)
And I did thoroughly enjoy two slices for my breakfast and as I drank my tea and ate my cake and pondered on the moving sentiment written inside my eldest daughter’s card to me this morning (she’s 27 BTW), a solitary tear slipped into my tea-cup. Being a parent takes you on a journey one can never truly describe, it’s a selfless road that never ends, until it does. And then I contemplated how lucky I am as a woman, how strong and amazing ALL women can be…and then I ate more pink cake and smiled.
Here’s the recipe.
Pink Layer Party Cake
1 cupful of self-raising flour
1/2 cup full pink blancmange
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 dried or fresh eggs
2 oz margarine
Method
Beat sugar and margarine together.
Mix flour and blancmange powder together.
Add beaten eggs and flour mix, bit by bit to margarine and sugar mixture. Beat well.
Add to two small sandwich tins (or one larger one to make 1/2 a sandwich cake) and bake for 20-30 minutes at 180 C.
When cold sandwich together with a generous quantity of strawberry or raspberry jam.
To ice the cake boil together 2 tablespoons of caster sugar with 2 tablespoons water and a teaspoon of margarine until dissolved well. Allow to cool until lukewarm then add blancmange powder (you’ll need most of the packet) to create the icing to top the cake with. Leave to cool and thicken more before adding to cake top.
I added some drops of red food colouring to sponge mix and icing.
HAPPY MOTHER’s DAY!
Great post Carolyn 🙂 Enjoy your day. Love the pink cake – my next one will be pink lol x
Thank you!!! I love cooking at weekends and taking photos and blogging! xxx
I LOVE your pictures. Pretty as a tea party! I just made a pink cake (well the frosting anyway) for my daughter’s birthday which is around Valentines Day. Even if your cake was “not the best recipe” the photos are spectacular. What kind of camera do you use?
I took pics of my daughter’s cake and decorations (which doubled for my Hemingway Book Club meeting), but they’re not as good.
You’re a wonderful photographer.
~ Tam Francis ~
http://www.girlinthejitterbugdress.com
That’s very kind of you to say that…I’m really just teaching myself through trial and error and I do try really hard. My camera is a http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Excellent-Canon-EOS-M-18MP-Digital-Camera-Red-EF-M-STM-18-55mm-Lens-/322027754815?hash=item4afa59953f:g:efsAAOSw4HVWFN80 so it’s not a full digital SLR but its a lovely little camera although I am wearing them out fast with all the photos I take for work too. I am now using my chest of drawers in my bedroom for food photography as the light is good through the window and I don’t get disturbed there and can just take my time … very basic set up but just love doing it- could happily do this every day as it gives me a lot of satisfaction! Have you photos of yours on your blog? I’ll pop over again for a browse xxx
Just read your blog post http://www.girlinthejitterbugdress.com/hemingway-book-club-cocktails-with-vintage-flair/ and the amount of effort you went to is incredible! Looks absolutely wonderful!!! How many of you ladies in your book club?
Hee hee. (blush) thank you. There are ten love ladies, but we had an extra guess my father-in-law’s wife (which is technically my MIL, but sounds weird to stay step-mother-in-law–lovely lady though).
Anyway, I get kind of fixated or obsessed with “realizing a vision.” The other pictures of the decorations didn’t turn out very good, though, I had all sorts of banners and draping with pink fabric and tool.
We used my daughter’s iphone, but looking at the difference with a REAL camera, at your beautiful pictures, I’m going to have to invest. 🙂 Thanks again for the inspiration. I LOVE your blog. You’re the bees knees!
Great photos – even if the cake didn’t taste so good it looks lovely. Happy mothering (isn’t that what you say) Day.
Great pics Happy Mother`s Day my late mother coloured her icing with Ribena yummy
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