A Bit of a Blip

I have been trying for almost a week now to find a recipe that works in my Aunt Anne’s books and since the undisclosed fiasco of the Canadian Lemon Pie, I haven’t been successful.

I have come to a realisation that these books seem to be an aide-memoire for my aunt who must have known the recipes well. There is just not enough instruction written down and so much is left to chance.

Over the past few days I have tried Savoy Biscuits followed by the Biscuit Gateaux and neither of them worked even slightly and searching through the books show that most of the recipes assume a lot of knowledge. Now, although I like to think I know quite a lot, my knowledge of early 20^th century cooking techniques is a little sparse and sometimes I just need to know what temperature a semolina cake needs to be cooked at and what is a ‘mould’? A cake tin or a pudding bowl?

But brightness lurks on the horizon – my go to book whilst trying to decipher my Aunt’s recipes has been my ancient copy of Mrs Beeton’s Household Management printed in 1890 and after endless mistakes I decided to cheer myself up by cooking a couple of things from this weighty tome.

Some ‘nice breakfast cakes’ and ‘ginger biscuits’ under my belt and I feel ready to head back into the fight!

There are 2974 recipes in Mrs Beeton so plenty to keep me busy – as for today, I am going to try an Aunt Anne recipe in my new pudding steamer from Lakeland. Exciting!

A World of Mistakes with Semolina Cake

It really hasn't been going to plan. Yesterday I failed at an ancient recipe for Canadian Lemon Pie and then overcooked the poached eggs for our muffin, poached egg and salmon supper.

So, I picked myself up and dusted off the flour and headed back to the kitchen in the light of day. Today was a recipe I have wanted to make since translating it a earlier this week.

Gateau de Semoule

1 ltr boiled milk

150g semolina

75g sugar

Cook the semolina in the boiling milk with the sugar for 15 minutes and remove from the heat. Put in a spoonful of rum, 3 whole eggs, cherries, angelica, orange, etc. Mix well.

Make a caramel:

Dissolve 75g sugar in a little water in a pan. Boil to make a caramel and then pour into the cake mould and chill.

Once the caramel is chilled, pour in the semolina mix and bake for 20 minutes.

So apart from slightly vague instructions on type of mould and temperature of oven, I felt this was in the bag. No problem, no difficulties - a straightforward semolina cake.

I followed the recipe but left out the angelica as I couldn't find any at my local shops. I used a deep pudding bowl as a 'mould' and set the timer for twenty minutes.

The cake came out slightly browned on top, puffed up and exciting looking. Sliding a pallette knife down the sides showed the caramel had worked and I was beginning to get that feeling of unexpected success in my stomach. Unfortunately the excitement was short-lived.

I may have misunderstood the nature of the dish but as there was a caramel sauce hidden under the cake, I thought I needed to un-mould the cake. I probably shouldn't have done this as what ensued was the most almighty collapse of goo-ey proportions - barely contained by a full size dinner plate. Hum.

Thinking on my feet I grabbed a spring-form baking tin and spooned the mess of semolina and fruit into it, and popped it back into the oven before I had even turned it even began to cool down. This time I started no timer and watched no clock - in fact I made myself some lunch and waited.

Once it was brown all over and skewer came out clean, I took it out of the oven.

I am not totally disappointed, I think I saved it in the end. The edges are still covered in a really yum caramel that sticks in your teeth in a very satisfying way - the overwhelming flavour is of the peel and cherries so quite old-fashioned (as you would expect).

Would I make it again? Probably, as I now know how to do it and I want to get it right and I think it would be different again starting from the beginning again.

It is unexpectedly more-ish too! x