Apple and Cheese Cake

This is a traditional autumnal recipe from the county of Gloucestershire in England. It makes good use of locally produced food with the Bramley apples and the local double Gloucester cheese, although it was originally made with single Gloucester cheese.

Ingredients
120g butter
180g caster sugar
2 medium size beaten eggs
225 cored and grated cooking apples (save the juice and the peel)
120 grated double Gloucester cheese
60g flaked almonds
450g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder

Method
1 Grease a 2lb loaf tin with vegetable oil.
2 Line the tin with greaseproof paper.
3 Re-grease the loaf tin.
4 Place the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl.
5 Using a wooden spoon beat the ingredients together until they are light and fluffy.
6 Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition.
7 Stir in the apples, cheese and almonds thoroughly.
8 Place a sieve over the mixing bowl.
9 Spoon the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into the sieve.
10 Shake the flour into the mixing bowl.
11 Using a metal spoon fold the flour and raising agents into the cake mixture.
12 Using a spatula, scrape the mixture into the tin.
13 Smooth the top.
14 Bake the cake in the oven at 180 degrees centigrade/gas mark 4 for about 1 hour or until golden brown and a skewer comes out cleanly of the middle of the cake.
15 Transfer the cake in the tin and cool on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes.
16 Then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight tin.

Wakes Cakes

Wakes week was a festival celebrated in the autumn to cheer up people before the long dark winter nights drew in. At fairs there would be merry go rounds, hawkers and stalls selling ribbons, gingerbread and Wakes Cakes.

The recipe for wakes cakes (which are crisp and more like biscuits) differed from village to village, this is a general recipe from England from the 19th century.

Ingredients
12oz flour
8oz butter
6oz white sugar
1 beaten egg
½ teaspoon baking powder
3oz currants
1/2oz caraway seeds
grated rind of 1 lemon

Method
1 Grease baking trays well.
2 Beat together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon until pale and fluffy.
3 Add the beaten egg, a little at a time, beating well after each addition.
4 Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture.
5 Add the currants, caraway seeds and lemon rind.
6 Carefully bind together with the hands to make a stiff dough.
7 Roll the dough out on a floured board with a floured rolling pin.
8 Dip a 2½ cutter into flour.
9 Stamp out as many rounds as the dough will allow.
10 Sprinkle the rounds with sugar if required.
11 Transfer the dough onto the prepared baking trays.
12 Bake at 190 degrees centigrade/gas 5 for 10 – 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
13 Cool on the trays for a few minutes on a wire cooling rack.
14 Transfer onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Store in an air tight tin

Corsie Orkney Drop Scones

Another recipe from my Uncle Thomas Corsie and his wife Mary.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
buttermilk

Method
1 Mix the dry ingredients.
2 Add buttermilk until the mixture is the consistency of powder biscuits.
3 Bake on a griddle on top of the stove until light brown on both side.
4 Place on a dampened tea towel placed on a cooling rack.

Store in an airtight container or can be frozen for about a month.