PORTER CAKE

This recipe, requested by Julie, is from my 1920s Cornish Recipes book [I am lucky enough to own a signed copy by Edith Martin], inherited from an aunt. It is a very Cornish recipe, using only currants, which is quite different. I do hope this is the cake you remember your Grandmother baking, Julie!

As usual there are few, rambling instructions, no oven temperature and even one of the basic ingredients has been omitted! So I am using my common sense to piece the jigsaw together.

The ingredients as stated are:

2 eggs, well beaten 

½ lb butter [melted]

½ lb soft dark brown sugar. The sugar has been omitted, so I guessed soft dark.

¾ lb flour [this will be plain flour] - more on this later

1½ lbs currants

½ teaspoon mixed spice

heaped teaspoon carbonate of soda [bicarb, I presume] 

½ pint warmed stout or porter [see photo on my Blog]

[read recipe for extra 4oz SR]

The method given in the book, duplicates and contradicts itself unfortunately, so I will try to decipher as best I can.

To the melted butter [but do not boil] add the sugar, eggs and porter. I decided to whisk the butter and sugar for a minute or so, before adding the eggs and porter. By now it was a very sloppy mess and I was quite concerned! Add the flour, then the remaining ingredients.

It was still very wet and I decided that it needed another 4 oz of flour, so added some SR, rather than more plain and bicarb. That improved it and looked just about normal. The recipe added that it must be mixed for ten minutes! [it looked good after 4 or 5]. 

The recipe suggests dividing it into two or three tins and bake in a moderate oven for 

2 - 2½ hours. I do not want to fiddle with 3 small tins, plus a moderate oven is fan 165C. No way, it would burn within an hour.

I tipped the lot into a oiled 9” cake tin and crossed my fingers as I placed it in my fan oven, preheated to 140C. I reduced the temperature to 130C as soon as it appeared set, about an hour. I checked after 2 hours, but reduced it again to 120C for another half an hour or so. But all ovens are different. I also loosely covered the cake with a piece of foil after an hour to stop it browning too much.

This recipe is from Tresillian, near Truro and it says that this cake will keep for a very long time.