It's not patented at all or precious. I experimented one day when I had some brown scones left over and I think it's yummy. I haven't made it in ages. In fact, I haven't baked at all in ages - apart from the usual bread/scones.

It's getting to that time of the year again though, isn't it, when one wants to be in a fug of baking in an overheated kitchen?

I'll root out the recipe in the morning, if I kept it and post it - no problem at all. My mother's cousin makes marvellous old-fashioned coffee cake but I'd love your recipe Aragon. Please and thanks.

Kate, do you always put your cakes up on a pedastal like that, only to gobble them down again ?

My question is about the history of the cake stand. Is it a family heir loom, something with a great story behind it, perhaps bought from an interesting person at a sale of work... or did you pick it up in Ikea?

No. It's not an heirloom. I think I bought it in Avoca in desperation. It's not the right one though. I haven't quite come upon the perfect cakestand yet but I know it's out there for me somewhere.

I've another bigger, lower one with raised strawberries on it and it's nice in the summer for sponge cakes etc.

Do I always put cakes on a pedestal (of course!) only to gobble them down again...? Sometimes. The advantage is that the base of the stand is completely flat - I hate it when cakes go hollow in the middle because the plate isn't flat enough. If I was baking for a book club gathering or some other event at home, I'd always put the cake on a stand, always. A good cake deserves a pair of high heels to give it that extra bit of stature that it is entitled to.

The secret of my gran's coffee cake is...wait for it...Irel Coffee. Older folk will know all about it. It's a coffee and chicory liquid - almost like a syrup - a sort of stone age instant coffee. I wouldnt drink it for toffee. But for some reason it makes a great tasting coffee cake - the baking seems to bring out a really strong coffee flavour.

You need to make up a butter sponge and when it is fully mixed add between 1-2 capfuls of Irel. Also add in a tbsp of fairly finely chopped walnuts. The walnuts are essential to counter the sweetness of the cake- the coffee/chicory makes it extra sweet. It won't be the same without them. Also use a little Irel in both the butter filling and the sugar icing on the cake. (Your diet is stuffed if your eating this btw.) Decorate around the edge of the top of the cake with halved walnuts at intervals corresponding to one walnut piece per slice.

Irel is great stuff - but hard to get sometimes.

When you say butter sponge, what do you mean? My sponge is butter free - beating the egg whites and egg yolks separately... and adding in flour. Gives a great light sponge when you fold the whites into the yolks, sugar and flour. And it always works.

Kate P wrote:

Irel is great stuff - but hard to get sometimes.

When you say butter sponge, what do you mean? My sponge is butter free - beating the egg whites and egg yolks separately... and adding in flour. Gives a great light sponge when you fold the whites into the yolks, sugar and flour. And it always works.

I knew I was right! When I lived in the UK I was assailed one evening by a group of women friends for referring to a standard cake made with butter* as a Victoria Sandwich. They insisted, all five of them that what I was talking about was a 'butter sponge'. Completely outnumbered, I decided I must have been labouring all my life under a false illusion implanted in me by both my mum and my gran - who had laboured all theirs under the same illusion. It's not come up again until now.

*4 eggs, 8oz each of flour butter and sugar - beat sugar and butter together until soft and creamy, add eggs gradually so as to avoid curdling. Add a small qty of the flour as you go along to help stop further curdling if needed and then fold in the rest of the flour gently and slowly so as to keep as light a mixture as possible.

Very strange.

This is mine.

4 eggs separated
4oz castor sugar
2oz flour
2 oz cornflour

Beat the egg yolks well.
In a big bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar until stiff and glossy.
Add the yolks to the whites and beat again and fold in the flours very gently to keep the air in.

I make a chocolate version of this by doubling the whole lot and replacing 2oz of cornflour with 2 oz cocoa. 25ish mins in the oven at 180 and you've a killer sponge.

If you make it chocolatey some sour cream in the whipped cream centre is good for a little sharpness.

Don't anyone go making this tonight because I'm not 100% sure of the ingredients - though I'm 99% sure...

Saw a Christmas cake stand in TK Maxx today. Nothing overly special but someone might be looking for one when you combine our discussions of cake and Christmas.

You're talking about a proper sponge Kate - and I'm glad to see we agree on something butter has no business in a genuine sponge cake. It's the whole point of a sponge that there is no fat of any sort in it?

I've never separated the eggs to make a sponge but your method sounds like it would be superbly light- must give it a whirl asap.

What do you call a cake with butter in it btw?

I would always separate the eggs when making a sponge. Haven't baked a cake in yonks.

I prefer Christmas pudding to Christmas cake a hundred times over. I make Darina Allen's rich fruit cake a couple of times a year but I never ice it. It's a tasty cake - and I'm not really a fruit cake fan.

Is the cake with butter in it a Madeira 'sponge' Aragon? I never make it because I don't like it, but it's the basis of a lot of nicer cakes - like a lemon cake or seed cake which I do like.

johnfás wrote:

I would always separate the eggs when making a sponge. Haven't baked a cake in yonks.

I learned from y ma who had nine kids so it might very well be that she was taking a short cut...

Lemon cake is delicious - my girlfriend bakes them for me - yummy.

I could live on Christmas cake icing...

There's a great lemon cake in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess. More or less a lemon madeira with hot lemon syrup poured over the top while it's still hot (and full of holes you've prodded with a cocktail stick) and then it soaks in. Yum. And unbelievably easy.

johnfás wrote:

Lemon cake is delicious - my girlfriend bakes them for me - yummy.

I could live on Christmas cake icing...

I've got a superlative christmas cake icing recipe for you then...I'll let you have it for a fee

The girlfriend squeezes real lemons for my one .

MMMMmmmmm, thanks Aragon!

johnfás wrote:

The girlfriend squeezes real lemons for my one .

How do you think you make the lemon syrup... loads of freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar over a low heat...

Ah sure I haven't a notion... I just know they come to me on a nice plate and then I gobble them up

johnfás wrote:

MMMMmmmmm, thanks Aragon!

Here you go:

1lb ground almonds
1lb castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond essence (the real stuff)
1/4 teaspoon rattafia essence (dittto)
1 tablespoons whiskey
1 tablespoon sherry
2 eggs
1 desertspoon orange flower water.

Using hands:

1. mix almonds and sugar
2. beat eggs, flavourings and whiskey with whisk

(rserve a little white of egg to brush the top of the cake with)

3. knead the mixture on a sugared board
4. roll out on top of cke - use jam jar to roll around the sides
5. leave to dry for five days - dredge castor sugar over the top


White Icing to go on top of this:

1lb icing sugar
juice of one lemon
2 whites of eggs
1 tsp of glycerine (or a light oil as an alternative)

Mehtod:
Mix egg white until stiff and peaky
Add other ingredients, each a little at a time - very slowly, beating thoroughly between additions
Beat until as stiff/peaky as possible - I prefer to leave it a little soft. this does not make a tooth-breaking hard white icing.

So how do you make orange sorbet then. I saw a thing in a restaurant (soon to be extinct) where they chopped the top of a big orange, gouged out the innards and filled it with orange sorbet.

I could do the chopping and gouging ok. Sorbet is a problem though.

Did you see Michael Healy Rae on the Restaurant this week? What a mad yoke, does he purposely try to make people not take him seriously?

johnfás wrote:

Ah sure I haven't a notion... I just know they come to me on a nice plate and then I gobble them up

You'll have to persuade your girlfriend to sign up here and tell us - we reallly need to know about this. I love lemon cakes too.

sorbet is juice and sugar syrup frozen and bashed up and refrozen.

Nigel Slater has a strawberry one in The Kitchen Diaries but I think it uses too much sugar. Gordon Ramsay has a few recipes in his desserts book. And granitas - chunkier rather than smooth.