Wartime Cookery

NbaSports Mayıs 19, 2022

In my kitchen today I have something old and wrinkly and definately past its best, no not me!.... 2 of last weeks apples! I could have cut them up for the birds but I thought about what the wartime housewife would have done with them, she certainly wouldn't have thrown them out. So out came another of my old cookery books and I found a recipe for Apple Fruit Cake, I have made this before but in a loaf tin so this time just to be different I made a tray bake.

Made with just a few basic ingredients, in my bowl I have
350gm Plain flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
100gm Margarine
100gm Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon. I used mixed spice
225gm Apple, cooking or eating, peeled and chopped fairly small
75gm Rasins or sultanas
2 medium Eggs, it says dried egg or 1 large fresh but I only had medium
Milk to make a dropping consistency.
Bake for 1 hour in a medium oven 170*c

Mix well and add enough milk to make a dropping consistency. Spoon into your lined tin and sprinkle the top with sugar.

Once I had mixed the cake it made me think about the half jar of mincemeat I had in the cupboard from Christmas, so I made the same mixture again but instead of the Apple and Sultanas I added the Mincemeat, this time I split the mixture into 2 loaf tins. I know the wartime housewife would have made use of everything she had regardless of what the recipe said, it would be more important to get food on the table to feed a hungry family than worry about having the correct ingredients.

Bake both lots of cake for about an hour in a 170*c oven or until they golden brown and cooked in the middle, use the skewer test to make sure.

This is the inside of the Mincemeat loaf cake, it smells delicious.

Here is the Apple Fruit Cake, cut into squares it has a lovely crunchy top with nice soft apple in the middle. Would also make a great pudding for those cold winters nights topped with some lovely custard.