I am really excited to be able to bring this latest recipe to you today of a truly traditional Vintage Cake. Traditional Genoa Cake is a cake that I always enjoyed when I was living in the UK.
You could buy small bars of it at the grocery store and it was one of my favorites. It is a brilliant testimony to the love that the British have for fruited types of cakes. This is a cake that is filled with an abundance of sweet sultanas, glace cherries, almonds and mixed peel, but which is not as rich as a Christmas Cake.
I adapted the recipe from one that I found in the book Vintage Cakes by Jane Brocket. I have several of Jane's books. This is one of my favorites. It is stuffed full of lovely Vintage cake recipes, many of which could be considered heirloom recipes.
Her book The Gentle Art of Domesticity is another favorite of mine. As is another one called Cherry Cakes and Gingerbeer. I actually knit myself a tea cosy, black and colorful striped from the first book. It was one of my favorite things that I had in the UK. I should knit myself another one sometime.
I hold a great love and affection for British Cakes. They are much sturdier than North American Cakes. Most are meant to be enjoyed with a hot cup of tea. In fact dessert cakes there are usually called Gateaux.
Genoa cake is the country cousin to the sophisticated traditional fruit cake, which is what you will see in most homes for Christmas. A Genoa Cake is more of an every day cake. The kind of cake that is at home on any tea table. Sturdy, buttery, crumbly, and stuffed with an abundance of dried fruit.
One thing that I loved most about British Cakes, aside from their sturdiness, is that they are not usually as sweet as North American cakes. And this is not a really sweet cake for sure. It doesn't need to be as the abundance of fruit in it more than makes up for any lack of sweetness.
The recipe hails from Victorian times. It was then, and is now, light, soft, crumbly and has an abundant crunchy topping of sweet Demerara sugar. (I believe it is called Turbinado sugar in North America.) I can promise you it is totally delightfully moreish!!!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE TRADITIONAL GENOA CAKE
Most of the ingredients are pretty simple and ordinary. If you cannot get glace cherries, you can use maraschino cherries. Just make sure you dry them really well.
- 1 2/3 cup (250g) sultana raisins
- 3/4 cup (150g) glace cherries, washed and halved
- 1/2 cup (75g) mixed candied peel
- 1/3 cup (50g) flaked almonds
- the finely grated zest of one lemon
- 2 TBS rum or brandy (I used orange juice and some rum extract)
- 1 cup (230g) butter, softened
- 1 cup +3 TBS (230g) caster sugar
- 4 large free range eggs
- 2 cups (230g) self raising flour
- demerara sugar to sprinkle on top
I just use salted butter and indeed the recipe does not make any suggestion of using unsalted butter. I only have salted in the house. There is no addition of salt to the recipe either.
Caster sugar is a type of granulated sugar commonly used for baking in the UK. It is much finer than their regular granulated sugar. I find that the granulated sugar here in Canada at least is quite comparable and not as coarse as the British granulated sugar, so it works fine.
I use organic unrefined golden granulated sugar.
If you can get the candied peel that you dice yourself, so much the better, but here where I live I have to make do with the already chopped candied citrus peel. Every year I say I am going to make my own and every year I forget!
You can easily make your own self raising flour. For every cup (140g) of flour whisk it together with 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 tsp of salt. I usually make my own flour up 4 cups worth at a time and store it in my cupboard, ready to use for cakes such as this.
HOW TO MAKE GENOA CAKE
This is a really simple cake to make. It does require rather a long time to bake, so make sure you plan on baking it when you are going to be home for at least a few hours!
Preheat the oven to 325*F/160*C/gas mark 3. Butter an 8-inch round deep cake tin and line the bottom and sides with baking parchment.
Measure the fruits and almonds into a bowl. Add the grated lemon zest and the brandy or rum. Set aside to macerate.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Fold in the flour and the macerated fruits gently and thoroughly with a large metal spoon. Spoon into the prepared baking tin and level the surface off with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle the top generously with demerara sugar.
Bake for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours until the surface of the cake is golden brown and is slightly cracked. A skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake will come out clean.
Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool in the tin completely before turning out.
This is a lovely cake and one of my favorites. If you are expecting a light, fluffy, spongy North American style cake. This is NOT your cake. You will be disappointed.
But if you are like me and you really enjoy a buttery crumbly cake that goes well with a hot cuppa, then, like me, you best prepare yourself to fall in love. This cake is for YOU! I find it is one of those cakes that (properly stored) gets better and better with each day that passes!
If you love traditional tea time bakes then you are sure to love these delicious bakes:
LEMON & PISTACHIO CAKE - This is a lovely moist, and buttery cake, filled with crunchy pistachios and lemon, and topped with luscious candied lemon and lime slices and of course, some more crunchily addictive pistachio nuts.
MIDNIGHT FEAST WORTHY CHERRY CAKE - This cherry cake is well worthy of sharing. Cut into thick slices . . . buttery and moist, studded with plenty of glace cherries . . . and topped with a sweet drizzle glaze icing and the crunch of toasted flaked almonds.
Yield: 10
Traditional Genoa Cake
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 1 H & 45 MTotal time: 2 Hour
This is a traditional every day kind of a fruit cake. Studded with plenty of sultana raisins, glace cherries, mixed peel and almonds, there is also plenty of lush buttery batter between the fruits. Perfect served with a hot cup of tea.
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cup (250g) sultana raisins
- 3/4 cup (150g) glace cherries, washed and halved
- 1/2 cup (75g) mixed candied peel
- 1/3 cup (50g) flaked almonds
- the finely grated zest of one lemon
- 2 TBS rum or brandy (I used orange juice and some rum extract)
- 1 cup (230g) butter, softened
- 1 cup +3 TBS (230g) caster sugar
- 4 large free range eggs
- 2 cups (230g) self raising flour
- demerara sugar to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325*F/160*C/gas mark 3. Butter an 8-inch round deep cake tin and line the bottom and sides with baking parchment.
- Measure the fruits and almonds into a bowl. Add the grated lemon zest and the brandy or rum. Set aside to macerate.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Fold in the flour and the macerated fruits gently and thoroughly with a large metal spoon. Spoon into the prepared baking tin and level the surface off with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle the top generously with demerara sugar.
- Bake for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours until the surface of the cake is golden brown and is slightly cracked. A skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake will come out clean.
- Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool in the tin completely before turning out.
Notes
Genoa Cake keeps well for 4 to 5 days if wrapped in grease-proof paper or foil and stored in an airtight container.
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Let me begin by apologizing for the photos today. They were taken in artificial light. It was early in the morning and I wanted to eat my breakfast while it was hot.
If you have come here looking for "Fry Bread" you will be disappointed. This is not Navaho Fry Bread. You can find that recipe here as a part of my Navaho Tacos recipe.
This fried bread is not the same thing at all.
Fried bread was not something I had ever heard of before I moved to the UK in the year 2000. There used to be a shop in downtown Chester called BHS (British Home Stores, now closed down). It had a café in it, which offered many things, but what people loved most about it was that it offered a full English Breakfast 7 days a week.
It was good and it was affordable. You paid according to how many items you wanted included in your breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, tomatoes, beans, mushrooms, toast or fried bread. Drinks were extra.
I always had bacon, scrambled eggs, baked beans, fried bread and hashbrowns. I fell in love with fried bread the first time I tasted it. It was lovely and as breakfast out was a rare treat, I always had that with my breakfast instead of toast.
And it was lovely. Crisp and golden brown, not soaked in grease as one would suppose. Perfectly lovely. I strongly suspect they deep-fried theirs. Not for the faint hearted for sure and an absolute treat.
I am not sure if it was a Northern thing or not, but I never saw it offered when we were living down South. Just up North.
Any bread can be used for frying. Standard thin, medium or thick sliced bread. You can use flavored and textured soft or crusty loaves.
Bread that is stale or at least 48 hours old will fry best. The fresher the bread the more fat you will need to cook it in. And, I don't know about you, but I am not looking to ingest more fat.
Because of its soft and absorbent texture fresh bread tends to soak up far too much fat and, when eaten, is far too greasy. You definitely do not want to have fried bread that is greasy.
Done properly, there will be just enough fat in your pan to cover the base, but only just. If your fat is the right temperature, the bread should not soak it up.
You should be able to pan fry it until it is golden brown, before turning it over and frying it on the other side. If you do happen to run out of fat, it is a simple matter of adding just a little bit more.
Ideally it should take only two to three minutes per side. If your fat is too hot, your bread will cook too fast and end up with burnt edges and patchy spots. What you want is slices of bread that are evenly golden brown and crisp on the outsides, not grease sodden, being soft and spongy inside.
If you are feeling really indulgent, a knob of butter can be added at the end, once you have turned your slice of bread, giving it a nutty and incredibly tasty finish.
Ultimately bacon drippings are the most delicious kind of fat to cook your fried bread in. Shallow-fry your bacon in a non-stick pan. Not too quickly. You want just enough heat to draw any excess fat from the bacon.
What you should end up with is very crisp bacon with a nice pool of fat to fry your bread in. The flavor is beautiful. But I really shouldn't nave to tell you that! 😋
Crisp bacon flavored fried bread. Pure pleasure on a plate. It can't be beaten. On this day I had crisp bacon, some scrambled egg, oven fried potatoes and of course the fried bread.
A cold glass of orange juice completed the picture. Because I had used the bacon fat, I had no need to add any seasoning and the bread I used was a slice of several days old homemade white milk bread.
This was a fantastic taste memory. I dare not think about the calories I ingested. 😳 Best to not think about that at all. This was meant to be a once in a blue moon treat.
Just look a how nice and crisp that bread is. Not soggy. Not grease laden. Simply delicious. It melted in the mouth. Yes my eggs were over done. lol They still tasted good.
The British really know how to do a great breakfast. You can find my recipe for a Traditional British Fry-Up (as it is lovingly called) here. This is the breakfast you will be offered at B&B's all over the country. Consisting of eggs, sausage and or bacon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans and often blood pudding. Myself, I don't go for blood pudding, but many people adore it.
For some reason toast is always considered to be an added extra and not a given.
Yield: 1
Fried Bread
Cook time: 1 MinTotal time: 1 Min
This is lovely and an indulgence. Usually offered as part of a British Fry up. It takes the place of toast. Multiply as per the servings you need.
Ingredients
- 1 slice of bread
- 1 TBS cooking oil, butter, lard, or bacon drippings
- salt and pepper to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Add the fat to a skillet and heat over medium high heat. You want the fat to be nice and hot or else the bread will soak it all up rather than fry in it. You should be able to feel the heat then you hold your hand an inch or so above it.
- Add the bread. Cook until golden brown on the bottom side, flip over and cook until golden brown on the other side.. (About two to three minutes per side.)
- Season to taste with salt and pepper if desired.
- Remove, cut in half diagonally and serve immediately.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
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Hello there! I could hardly wait to show you this delicious recipe I am sharing with you today! I get a newsletter every week from Barefeet in the Kitchen. In it the author Mary Younkin shares some of the goings on her life and links to several recipes. Some hers, and some from other pages.
In her latest newsletter she shared this recipe for Mushroom Broccoli Pasta which was from a site called Vegetable Recipes. As soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted to make it!
So much so that I immediately ran next door to the Farmer's market to pick up some fresh mushrooms. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever been inspired to make a recipe on the day you discover it?
I sure hope so and I hope that I have inspired you in that same way from time to time!!!
First of all I loved that there was no meat in this recipe. I don't always like to eat meat. I am often perfectly happy with just vegetables and potatoes or rice or pasta. If the sauce is rich and delicious enough you don't need any protein.
This sauce sounded just rich and tasty enough that I knew it wouldn't need any protein and it contained some of my favorite things such as broccoli, mushrooms and pasta!
I also felt that I could easily adapt it to feed few people than six, and so I cut the recipe in half to serve only three.
I liked that I could use any type of pasta that I wanted to use, so long as it was shortish. I had a box of Garofalo Cappellitti pasta that I thought would be perfect for this recipe.
It is round and has a cup shaped center which is perfect for holding sauces. I love pasta and when I see any kind of pasta that has a different shape to it I will scoop it up!
This worked perfectly but any short type of pasta would work.
I loved also that it used broccoli. Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables and so good for you! It is not a vegetable that we had at all when I was growing up. My father would only eat certain vegetables. Green Beans, carrots, corn and peas.
He now eats all kinds of vegetables because he eats at my sister's house every night and she makes him eat whatever she cooks, which means healthy and often a vegetable he is not overly fond of! lol He eats it anyways, and will just say, that's not my favorite!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE MUSHROOM BROCCOLI PASTA
There is nothing complicated about this. I am sure you probably have everything in your larder/refrigerator to use right now!
- 4 ounces (1 cup/114g) mini penne pasta or other bite sized pasta
- 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets (1 small crown)
- 2 TBS butter, divided
- 4 ounces (1/4 pound/114g) white mushrooms, sliced
- 1 TBS plain all purpose flour
- 1 cup (240ml) chicken stock
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic or garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper or to taste
- 1/4 cup (45g) grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 TBS chopped fresh parsley
To serve:
- Additional grated Parmesan cheese to serve
I am sure you could use frozen broccoli if you wanted to, but you wouldn't have to add it to the cooking pasta until about a minute before it is done. Basically just to thaw it out and cook it a tiny bit. You want the broccoli to stay crispy tender.
Use any shortish pasta. I think one that will grab the sauce and hug it is best of all. I chose to add the Parmesan to the sauce. The original recipe didn't specify this, so I went with my gut instincts and then just sprinkled a bit of Parmesan on the top when it was done.
HOW TO MAKE MUSHROOM BROCCOLI PASTA
I streamlined the instructions and made it so that you could have the pasta cooking in a saucepan while you made the sauce, adding the broccoli to the pasta at the end so that when drained you could just toss them both together and serve.
Put a saucepan of lightly salted water on to boil.
Melt 1 TBS of the butter in a skillet. Add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, over medium high heat, until golden brown. Remove to a bowl lined with several paper towels. Set aside to drain.
Melt the remaining TBS of butter in the skillet. Add the flour, whisking it in until smooth. Slowly whisk in the chicken stock. Increase to medium high and bring to a simmer. Cook for 2 minutes.
In the meantime add your pasta to the boiling water and cook to al dente as per the package instructions. Add the broccoli florets about a minute before the pasta is cooked. Drain well, but do not rinse.
While the pasta is cooking, add the cream, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to the chicken stock sauce. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low, stirring constantly for 3 minutes. The sauce will start to thicken slightly. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.
Remove from the heat. Toss in the drained pasta and broccoli and the mushrooms, tossing everything together to coat. Serve hot, topped with additional parmesan cheese. (See notes)
Notes
You can add diced cooked chicken, flaked salmon, tuna, or ham to this if you wish.
This was very delicious. I think I ate half of the whole lot!! One and a half servings! I loved that it was so simple and quick to make and yet tasted like I had spent hours on it.
If you are looking for a quick and easy main vegetarian dish, this fits the bill perfectly. I think it would also be a great way to use up some leftover proteins if you are so inclined such as salmon, or chicken, even ham!
Some other simple, quick and easy pasta dishes here in The English Kitchen that you might enjoy are:
PASTA E PISELLI - Fabulously tasty, quick and easy. Simple too. This recipe only calls for frozen peas, chopped onion, pasta, water and some cheese. You could call this Pasta and Peas.
MARTHA STEWART'S ONE PAN PASTA FOR TWO - Everything cooks all together in one pan. Linguini, basil, red pepper flakes, cherry tomatoes, onion and seasoning. Simply delicious.
Yield: 3
Mushroom Broccoli Pasta
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 25 Min
Tender pasta with a rich and garlicky cream sauce, crispy tender pieces of broccoli and meaty mushrooms. What's not to love! Quick, easy, delicious!
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (1 cup/114g) mini penne pasta or other bite sized pasta
- 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets (1 small crown)
- 2 TBS butter, divided
- 4 ounces (1/4 pound/114g) white mushrooms, sliced
- 1 TBS plain all purpose flour
- 1 cup (240ml) chicken stock
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic or garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper or to taste
- 1/4 cup (45g) grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 TBS chopped fresh parsley
To serve:
- Additional grated Parmesan cheese to serve
Instructions
- Put a saucepan of lightly salted water on to boil.
- Melt 1 TBS of the butter in a skillet. Add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, over medium high heat, until golden brown. Remove to a bowl lined with several paper towels. Set aside to drain.
- Melt the remaining TBS of butter in the skillet. Add the flour, whisking it in until smooth. Slowly whisk in the chicken stock. Increase to medium high and bring to a simmer. Cook for 2 minutes.
- In the meantime add your pasta to the boiling water and cook to al dente as per the package instructions. Add the broccoli florets about a minute before the pasta is cooked. Drain well, but do not rinse.
- While the pasta is cooking, add the cream, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to the chicken stock sauce. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low, stirring constantly for 3 minutes. The sauce will start to thicken slightly. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.
- Remove from the heat. Toss in the drained pasta and broccoli and the mushrooms, tossing everything together to coat.
- Serve hot, topped with additional parmesan cheese. (See notes)
Notes
You can add diced cooked chicken, flaked salmon, tuna, or ham to this if you wish.
Thank you so much for visiting! Do come again!
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