Birthdays and Family Traditions...

It is The Sweetheart's birthday and I made him a Crunchy Amber Cake.
Mum used to make this for our birthdays. It was always the Cake Of Choice even though it was 'so fiddly'. Mum had 6 of us in 8½ years* therefore 'so fiddly' meant a LOT in our house!!!!


I made a heart shaped cake (actually TWO) even tho the step boys thought it was pretty sucky...they gave me a bit of stick about it...

http://melbournelarder.blogspot.com/2007/09/friday-morning-tea-crunchy-amber-cake.html

CRUNCHY AMBER CAKE
As supplied by Mrs B. D. Calvert of Tasmania - the winner of the Butter/White Wings 1965 bake-off competition.

Cake mixture
125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 whole egg, plus one egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat lightly. Fold in flour alternately with milk, mix well. Divide mixture into two 7-inch layer tins (I used hearts shaped tins. How sloppy and sooky). Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees) for 20 minutes [if you bake in one tin, the cake will take 30-40 minutes to cook]. Remove from tins and cool.

Filling
90g butter
4 level tablespoons brown sugar
2 level tablespoons cornflour
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Remove from heat. Add cornflour and salt and stir until smooth. Return to heat and cook gently, stirring all the time. Beat together the egg yolk, milk and vanilla. Add slowly to mixture and stir well. Bring to the boil and cook for two minutes. Cool. (The mixture should thicken as it cools, so you may need to put it in the fridge to thicken it up. You want it to be spreadable but not runny).

Topping
2 egg whites
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon coconut
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon slivered almonds

Beat egg whites stiffly; add sugar slowly. Beat until smooth. Combine coconut, sugar, cinnamon and almonds in a separate bowl. Spread the filling between the cakes. Spread the egg-white mixture over cakes, then sprinkle the sugar and spice mix over this. Heat the oven to 200 degrees and turn off. Place the completed cake in the oven for five minutes to set the topping.

The Sweetheart wanted a CHOCOLATE cake for his birthday so I added 250 gms of melted chocolate to the recipe for the cake part of it.
As a family we ALWAYS make a double mix of the custard part - it is so yummy that not only can you not help licking the spoon but we cut the cakes into two so there are four layers. Just add the extra yolks to the cake and custard, and the extra whites for the meringue.

I got this recipe from the Melbourne Larder clever cook at this addie. She has some very good recipes. But especially this memory from my childhood that became a Family Tradition...

* And not even Catholic... Dad wanted "A Son and Heir" and Mum (!) made the mistake of having four girls first. And then there was An Heir and A Spare...