Chocolate Cake
(As baked by Major Carter Forbes for the Realm Hospital fundraiser)
1 ¾ cups self-raising flour
½ teaspoon baking soda (bicarb soda)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup cocoa powder
1 ¼ cups sugar
4 1/2 ounces (125g) butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and add sugar. Stir. Add melted butter gradually, mix well. Add milk and vanilla, beat well. Add lightly beaten eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Pour mixture into a buttered and baking paper-lined deep 8 inch (20cm) round cake tin. Bake in moderate oven 390f (190-200C) for 65 minutes.
*Author’s note: this is a recipe so old and reliable that my mum doesn’t remember where she copied it from, but I’ve baked it in a wood oven with no temperature gauge and it turned out fine, just a little cracked on top from a too high heat.
Devonshire Scones
4 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 ½ oz (125g) butter
2 tablespoons superfine (caster) sugar
¾ cups powdered milk
1 ¼ cups water
Sift flour and salt, rub in butter. Stir in sugar and milk powder, and mix with water to form soft dough. Knead dough on lightly-floured board until elastic. Press to ½ inch thickness and cut into shapes. Place on buttered oven tray. Bake in hot oven 430f (220C) 10-13 minutes until golden top & bottom (they sound hollow when tapped).
*Author’s note: I copied the original recipe from a Sunshine powdered milk tin years and years ago, and I’ve adapted it a bit. Hopefully, I got the conversion from Australian to American terms and measures correct!