We're travelling south of the border for this recipe! Gordon tried this cake for the Open Day in July having found it in a wartime recipe book created by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Library and Archives Service using their Nutrition Collection. This recipe came from a Ministry of Food pamphlet issued in June 1918 called 'How to eke out the fat'. Fat was needed to manufacture explosives so there was a shortage at home. The recipe suggests using bacon fat - 'excellent for this purpose' - but Gordon just used butter so that visiting vegetarians wouldn't miss out!
- 4 oz oatmeal
- 4 oz flour
- 4 oz treacle
- 2 oz fat
- 1/2 gill milk
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice, ground cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves to taste
- 1 tsp vinegar
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Mix the oatmeal, flour, ginger and spice together in a bowl and rub in the fat
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Warm the treacle slightly. Make a well in the centre of the ingredients in the bowl and pour the treacle into the well
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Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda into the milk and add this into the well too
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Work into a stiff paste, adding the vinegar at the last moment
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Divide the paste into equal quantities, form into rounds, flatten them and bake on a slightly greased tin in a moderate oven for 20 to 25 minutes
The recipe suggests that equal amounts of ordinary flour and potato flour can be used - there would not always have been enough ordinary flour during the First World War, particularly after rationing began.
