Great Grandma Murphy's Chocolate Button Cake

When I read jibberjabber UK's brief of a vintage cake, I scrolled through webpages and recipe books. Didn't all cakes scream vintage? Without sounding like a cake xenophobe, apart from your panetone, French patisseries and fingle fangled American cupcakes, don't all British cakes come from a time when tea dances were the norm, cars were prettier and chilvalry (and institutionalised misogyny) was alive and well. Then I realised I was sitting on a recipe, a recipe that must date at around 1940, or even before that if my Great Gran got it from her mother. It's a proper vintage recipe, passed through the generations through word and aging yellow pieces of paper and it comes from my great grandma Nelly.

My great grandma Nelly was a culinary force to be reckoned with, she taught my grandad to cook, she taught my dad to cook and through a sort of osmosis, I suppose she taught me to cook.
I only met her once or twice as she died when I was quite young, and even then the memories are mainly of permed hair, hospital beds and cheap sandwiches. She was an English woman married to a stout ship builder from Port Glasgow and responsible for one of the hardest cakes I have ever tried to master - the chocolate button cake.

Now I hear you ask, what's so hard about chocolate button cake? Well it turn out a surprising amount. When I was young my dad and I spent weekend after weekend pouring over this small scrawled recipe that sounded so simple, after all it was essentially throw everything in a bowl, mix and bake. But time and time again there would be a beautiful sponge on top and a thick gooey layer of melted chocolate at the bottom, completely unlike the original where little pockets of chocolate heaven could be found evenly throughout.

But one magical weekend, we cracked it and now I present to you lovely readers, a Murphy family secret recipe.

You will need:
120g self raising flour (plus an extra couple of tea spoons)
150g caster sugar
3 small eggs or two large
60g chocolate buttons
150g butter/margarine
Decorations

1)Begin by creaming together the butter and the sugar with a fork until it's smooth.
2) Add 2 of the eggs one by one until you've made a runny eggy paste
3) Now add the flour and beat until its all incorporated. You can use a mixer if you have one, but I don't so I use a wooden spoon (true to the vintage theme).
4) now toss your buttons in flour until they're coated and stir them into the mix
5) if your mixture looks too stiff add the final egg and give a good beat.
6) I place in a large cake tin and bake for 30mins, slicing in half to sandwich. But you could divide into two tins and bake for 20minutes, either way it's at gas mark 6, until golden brown. To check the cake's done insert a knife in the middle if it comes out clean (bar a bit of chocolate), it's done.
7) Leave to cool in the cake tin and then turn out to cool a little longer.
8) Decorate as you see fit.

I've halved mine and then sandwiched back together with strawberry jam, then topped with a lime icing (just a little lime juice and icing sugar), it gives it a little touch of a modern edge but without losing that all important vintage feel.

Cooking with Kids: Terry and his Train (£1.73)

it has to be said, Terry is more baker than train driver.

Kids’ birthday cakes can be very expensive, this one however comes to about £2 excluding decoration, you don’t have to make the sponge and it’s great to make with other kids. You will need a swill roll that won’t break up when you cover it – you could also cover it in melted apricot jam before applying the ganache, but it’s not necessary*. You should bear in mind, however that this is a messy cake, so cover anything surfaces which are going to come into contact with chocolate**with cling film, otherwise you’ll find you’ll spend your life savings in washing up liquid.

You Will Need

2 bars of dark chocolate – about 200g worth

A chocolate Swiss roll

Double cream

Sweets for decorating

1 bar of white chocolate

1.      Start by making your basic train shape. Cut a third off your Swiss roll, this will be the front of your train. Then take a small slice or two to create wheels however you choose. You might have to cut a 45degree angle off your front part in order for it to fit properly. When your happy set it aside.

2.      To make chocolate ganache, place a bowl over a pan of hot water – add one and half bars of the chocolate and melt over a low heat. When the chocolate is melted, take the bowl off the heat (careful now, it’s hot) and add the cream slowly. Work quickly and gently and what looks like a mess will turn into a silky ganache that gently coats the finger. When it’s come together leave to chill on the side. Don’t place it in the fridge or it will become too hard to work with.

3.      While the ganache is thickening up you can cover your train in warmed apricot jam, or prepare your decorations. I used the time to put together a little fondant icing - white and pink for my train driver, or Terry as he was christened.

4.      When the ganache is slightly thicker, but still of spreading consistency use a small bit to secure your engine to your cabin. Then spread the rest on by spooning it over and evening it out with a knife. When it’s all covered set aside again to cool.

5.      Melt the rest of the dark chocolate and prepare the rest of your decorations. I like to dip my wheels in the remaining dark chocolate and use white chocolate for my wheel spokes, but I couldn’t find any white chocolate. So I covered the wheels in ganache and planned to use dark chocolate for the spokes, but it was stolen by the chocolate fairy.

When your wheels are dry attach them to the side, that way the chocolate won’t drip. To make Terry cut a small round fondant circle and give him a face, cut pink hands and a white jumper shape, then stick him to the ganache. With regard to decoration, your imagination is your oyster.

Who needs Colin the Caterpillar?

*But it is what Mary Berry does

**Not children