Last month, a neighbour lent me her school cookery book from the 1950s. It is a wonderful guide to the basics of French cooking, and contains dozens of recipes that should be preserved for posterity. The book builds on previous recipes, assuming that students will work their way through from start to finish. Flipping through, the recipe for friands caught my eye - it requires a portion of puff pastry (covered earlier in the book), some ham, and a half portion of mornay sauce (also covered in a previous chapter). Later in the book, basic preparations for preserves, tarts, pâtés, and stews all build on the skills learned earlier. To cook your way through the book, from start to finish, is to get an education in traditional French home cooking. Unfortunately, I won't have access to the book for long enough to copy it out - and translate it - in full. I do, however, have time to present some of the greatest hits in the form of forgotten classics.
I'm not quite sure what makes this cake Mexican, but I suppose you could always add a few chili peppers to the icing...
4 eggs, separated, plus 1 yolk
125g sugar
90g flour
80g melted butter
35g cocoa powder
chocolate buttercream icing (make a standard buttercream, but add cocoa powder)
chocolate icing
3 tbsps apricot jam, melted
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a sponge tin.
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mix and stir.
3. In a separate clean and dry bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Using a metal spoon, fold the whites into the yolk mixture.
4. Finally, stir in the melted butter.
5. Bake the mixture for 40 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and allowing to cool completely.
6. Once the cake has fully cooled, slice it across the mid-section so you have two layers of cake. Fill the cake with the chocolate buttercream icing and stack the layers on top of each other.
7. Using a pastry brush, cover the cake in the melted apricot jam.
8. Once the apricot jam has dried, cover the cake in chocolate icing.
I'm not quite sure what makes this cake Mexican, but I suppose you could always add a few chili peppers to the icing...
4 eggs, separated, plus 1 yolk
125g sugar
90g flour
80g melted butter
35g cocoa powder
chocolate buttercream icing (make a standard buttercream, but add cocoa powder)
chocolate icing
3 tbsps apricot jam, melted
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a sponge tin.
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mix and stir.
3. In a separate clean and dry bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Using a metal spoon, fold the whites into the yolk mixture.
4. Finally, stir in the melted butter.
5. Bake the mixture for 40 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and allowing to cool completely.
6. Once the cake has fully cooled, slice it across the mid-section so you have two layers of cake. Fill the cake with the chocolate buttercream icing and stack the layers on top of each other.
7. Using a pastry brush, cover the cake in the melted apricot jam.
8. Once the apricot jam has dried, cover the cake in chocolate icing.
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