In 2011, the British non-fiction hardback top ten bestseller list included no less than five cookbooks, with the number one spot being occupied by Jamie Oliver. Of the other four, three were all about baking, and the fourth was on home cooking, which led a reviewer to suggest that perhaps the financial crisis was driving us all back to baking to save money. But as the price of butter in England is nearly as eye-wateringly expensive as it is in Malta, maybe the baking craze is more about the feel-good factor than economy.
And now a new ‘baking’ magazine has popped up on the local scene. I have to buy it – simply because I’m a sucker for these part-works, not to mention the freebies they give away.
Over the years I have spent a fortune on publications like The Cordon Bleu Cookery Course and Supercook, not to mention Robert Carrier’s Kitchen which ran, if I remember correctly, for about 140 weeks. I could probably have bought all the books on the bestseller list for a fraction of what I spent on that one!
So I too have joined the baking bandwagon and have been reviving some of my old favourites, starting with a Victoria sandwich cake mixture, which doesn’t really need reviving, as it is the most adaptable of all cake mixes. You can make it either the traditional way or by the all-in-one method. You can flavour it, fill it, or frost it a dozen different ways, or turn it into fairy cakes, cupcakes, layer cakes and lots more.
Marzipan-wrapped Battenberg cake, using a basic Victoria mixture, is one that childhood memories are made of. This checker-board cake was always pink and white, although nowadays, if it’s made at all, it’s often flavoured with chocolate or coffee instead of the pink food colouring that my mother used. It’s a bit of a performance lining the baking tin to keep the colours separate, but it does make a pretty cake.
A sponge cake made without butter is a useful base for all sorts of cakes and desserts.
If you add an extra egg and swap cocoa for some of the flour, you come up with a chocolate roulade. Filled with chocolate-flavoured cream, and with a squiggle of cream on top, it’s an easily made light and luscious dessert.
A more homely dessert – and none the worse for that – is a Bakewell tart, a pastry case spread with raspberry jam and then filled with an almond sponge mixture. Dusted with icing sugar and served warm with whipped cream or custard, it’s delicious.
Years ago, I remember my mother had a terrible attack of ‘cherryitis’ when she adorned virtually anything sweet with glacé cherries. So in memory of a much loved Mum, my Bakewell, like hers, is iced and crowned with cherries to make a nice dessert or teatime treat.
And then there’s my coffee and walnut layer cake, which reminds me of my working days before I was married. When someone in the office had a birthday, they always bought a cake, and Fuller’s Walnut Layer Cake was the favourite.
It had an American-type mountain frosting made with sugar syrup and egg whites, like a Carnival prinjolata, which is easy enough to do and great if you have the time, but I think my soft and squidgy butter and mascarpone frosting is even better. Fuller’s cakes are regrettably no more – but the memory lingers on!