As a result, I took a slow, steady approach to rekindling our relationship (I used to make lovely cakes) and followed a recipe, but it's not an orthodox recipe, a low-key British classic that's not as obvious as a Victoria Sponge. The answer was found in a book I usually wholeheartedly distrust, The Great British Bake Off Book; I like the pair of Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, you can always trust Mary Berry's cakes, which was proven right here, but Hollywood's revolutionary bread baking strategies probably only work for him.
Now, my opinions of the cake- appearance wise, it's not perfect, having a crumbed edge and speckled top, which is obviously not the fault of the recipe, but I feel this is one of those wonderful cakes that looks more beautiful imperfectly, with a natural homemade look than a garish towering cake, loaded with make up. It sounds like a tiresome feminist point of view, but it's what I think. Something like a red velvet cake requires the pure white frosting for colour contrast against the deep red, but for this cake, I saw no reason to obstruct the golden sponginess. Taste wise, the clotted cream didn't add anything to the taste- vanilla was the main flavour here, I think it's the texture it adds to. The crumb was tender and moist because of the cream, not dry as I feared. It was also very easy to make, even I had no trouble. For an everyday but still special, good English cake, this scored highly.
1)Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees, but this may need adjusting as ovens cook things on very different wavelengths. Grease a large deep, regular cake tin with butter or margarine, then cut out a cincle of greaseproof paper the same size as the basement of the tin, press it smoothly into the tin and grease that too. It's not only hard to but greasing up the sides increases the difficulty of turning it out cleanly.
2)Whisk up two large eggs with 225g of caster sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste- you could use extract but I love the black flecks. It's very important to have the eggs at room temperature, having them cold is a big no for baking. Whisk them for a good while on high speed until thick, pale and moussey. An obvious trail should come out of the batter that leaves a few seconds before melting into the mix when you lift the whisks off.
3)Put the mixer on the lowest speed so you don't knock out the air, and whisk in 225g clotted cream. There's no pulling the wool over anyone's eyes here, just like a glass of wine in a stew, the quality of the cream shows in the cake. Fortunately, here in England, our scones are so important we would be embarrassed to sell poor quality stuff. Lumps of the butter will be in the batter, but that's not a problem. Sieve in 200g plain flour, 2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. The recipe called for self-raising flour, but I cannot tell you how much better it is to stock just plain flour and add your own raising agent. You can't make a sauce with rising flour, s/r flour loses its power easily, and for many recipes, you don't want that amount of rising power, for say brownies, you only need a tiny lift. In my book, plain and powder is a winner.
4)Using a rubber spatula, gently but thoroughly fold everything together. For me, the mixture was too thick, so I added a tbsp of milk to loosen the mix. After there are no lumps of flour left, pour the batter in the prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes, but start checking after 30. You may need to turn the heat down if the cake is browning too quickly.
5)A final flourish is a little light cream. Use creme fraiche or natural yoghurt, add a little vanilla bean paste and some syrup or icing sugar and dollop generously on the cake. This is not necessary however, the cake's moistness can hold its own.
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