What Mother's Day means to me...

To me, there's nothing that evokes memories of childhood more, than the wonderful cake my mum used to bake when I was growing up.

Just the smell of it baking in the oven is enough now to fill my thoughts and heart with the same warm, cosy and loving feelings of mum baking on a Sunday, and us licking the bowl (and spoon if you were lucky and quick enough..) totally clean!

Off course every time I bake this cake now, those memories come flooding back! And they did when I baked this cake yesterday with my son for his school's spring fete.

I hope to be able to pass not only this recipe to my children, but also to re-create new memories based around this family tradition of ours....

And so today I'd like to share with you my friends, my Mama's Cake recipe:

The recipe for the cake is a simple take on a Madeira Cake, but it's the fun of baking it together that makes it all the more special for us!

You can also jazz it up and flavour it with vanilla and coconut milk (as I have..) or orange juice, coffee, liquor? :)

I don't know where mum got the recipe from, but she always makes this cake whenever she comes to visit, and I love her for that. It's such a yummy, fluffy cake that even my hubs who does NOT like sweet things (shock horror!!) scoffs it up, no problem!! 

Ingredients:

100g of plain flour + 11g of baking powder)

100g of corn flour

175g butter or margarine softened

175g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod or 1 tspoon vanilla extract

3 beaten eggs

1-2 tbspoons of coconut milk

For the frosting: My twist on My Mama's Cake :)

150g of icing sugar ( the powdery stuff)

2 tbspoons of coconut milk

How to:

1. Grease a pretty, deep cake tin (approx 18 cm or 7"). I used one that was just like my Mama's! :)

2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and pale

3. Add the eggs a little at a time

4. Fold in the sifted flours with a metal spoon

5. Add the vanilla. I used a pod, 'cause that's all I had. If you are using a pod, don't throw it away afterwards, but keep it in a jar of sugar to flavour it! You can then use this yummy vanilla sugar in your recipes or coffee! YUM!

6. Now, place the baking powder in a little coconut milk and watch it froth up and rise! My mum used to do this to "test" the raising agent was working properly. You don't need to nowadays,  but the kids will love it! :)

7. Place this mixture into the cake and mix well

8. Spoon into your greased baking tin and level the surface by gently tapping the tin.

 9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C (gas mark 4) for about 40-50 minutes.

Can you smell it? :)

And off course, now is the perfect time to clean up you mess lick the bowl!!!

Thank goodness for dish-washers! That's all I'm saying...

10. Add the frosting once the cake has cooled down. I've added my own twist by making a coconut frosting, but it's just as yummy like my Mama used to make - au naturel!

And  ENJOY! ENJOY!

Because that's what Mother's Day is all about for me - A celebration of the love, the generosity and  the sense of fun, family traditions passed down from mother to daughter...and shared around a yummy cake off course! :)

 

Because my measurements are metric here's a great online conversion, very simple to use and I use it all the time: http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_common.htm

What does Mother's Day mean to you?

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