One Of Our Own

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 37, 8 March 1940, Page 44

One Of Our Own

Dear Aunt Daisy, While visiting Greymouth at Christmas time we tasted a most wonderfully flavoured dark fruit cake. Making inquiries we found that some of the ingredients were 6 tablespoons of black currant jam, 1 tablespoon of treacle, 6 eggs, %lb. of sugar, and %lb. of butter, I think (I am not sure about the quantity of butter). We also learned that the recipe is to be found in a little book compiled by church members of some society in Greymouth. These are all the particulars that we could procure. Would it be asking too much of you to complete the recipe?- " Dorothy" (Dunedin). Oh, yes, Dorothy, I recognised the recipe as soon as I read your letter, ana smiled to myself, for the recipe is actually one which was given to me by a Link in the Daisy Chain some fom or five years ago and which I. broadcast. The lady lived at Howick -a lovely little seaside resort just out of Auckland. She had come trom Sydney some years before and has since returned there. She was a wonderful cook, specialising in

cakes and pastries, and sent me several recipes, This one we called ‘ Howick Christmas Cake,’ and_I included it in two of my Cookery Books. It is best for the jam used to be home-made, she told me; and several of our Chain said that the tablespoonfuls must be only moderate ones. This is the recipe: Threequarters of a pound of butter, %4lb. of sugar, IIb. of flour, 39/41b. of raisins, 3%41b. of sultanas, 3/41b. of currants, Y2lb. of peel, Y2Ib. of preserved ginger, 6 eggs, %41b. each of walnuts and almonds, ¥2 teaspoon of salt, 1 small teaspoon of baking soda — NO cream of fartar, I tablespoon of treacle, and 6 tablespoons of black currant jam. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the eggs well and add separately. Add the soda to the flour then. sift'into the creamed mixture, then add the fruit and treacle, and lastly the jam. Sift some of the measured~ flour over the fruit before adding to the mixture. Cook in‘a slow oven 320 er for about 5 hours, She also sent me this Almond Cakes, which is really extra special, and cantains ho baking powder. Half a pound of butter, 2° dessertspoon . golden syrup, a small° cup -of sugar, 4 eggs, 1lb. of mixed fruit, "lb. of flour, Y2Ib. of ground almonds, essence of vanilla, and also lemon:" Cream the butter and sugar, add ‘the e6gs one by one, then the syrup, ground almonds, and lastly flour and ontence, ‘Cook in: the ordinary way.