Butter Cake from Holland

I am not a fan of German style cakes, the ones with the thin sponge or wafer thin, biscuit type base and then the thick layer of cream, gloop basically, on top, it just doesn’t do it for me, in the slightest. Although to be fair in honesty the creamy gloop is more like stiff whipped cream, with a silky texture, a bit like cheesecake but lighter. The base is usually wafer thin and not very appealing, at least not for me! It’s indescribable to someone who has never tried it, I guess it’s like gateau but nothing like gateau really, or maybe a cross between gateau and genoise, but also not like either (if you google Torte images, it will show you some examples of what I mean) I just don’t like it. I would dread birthdays and the coffee and cake occasions at the children’s Grandma’s – luke warm coffee which was either so weak it was like drinking tepid water, or so strong you could stand your spoon in it (on the upside if you were constipated this would surely clear your insides, like an enema) and hair grew on your teeth. Add the cake on top and it was what my nightmares where made of. All you could do was hope that she didn’t make one of her loaf cakes to go with it as well, I think it was meant to be like pound cake, but it was dry and crumbly, I have no idea why it was so bad, because it came out of a box and that stuff is normally fool proof. It had a consistency that was hard to swallow and would get stuck to the roof of your mouth or stuck half way down your throat, so you had to drink the coffee to wash it down. Polite excuses like ‘Thank you so much, but I am on a diet’ never worked as it was considered an insult of the worst order not to sit at the table and eat cake and drink coffee, it got worse though, because in hopes of conversation the T.V would get turned off, which left only the sounds of food being chewed, that slapping of lips for the inability to eat with their mouths closed. I am not sure what made me feel worse, seeing the food being masticated round and round, or it being picked out of facial fluff when it fell out? All that said, not all was loss when this Dutch  butter cake was on the table, served with a little whipped cream it is one of my favourites and when I found the recipe, I was so pleased.

Butter Cake from Holland

175g butter, softened plus extra for greasing

250g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

250g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp milk

40g flaked almonds

1.       Preheat your oven to 190˚C/375˚F. Grease a 9” spring form baking pan and line the bottom with baking paper.

2.       In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and pale looking. Then stir in the vanilla extract. Beat the egg in a jug, save a teaspoon of the egg, and slowly add the remaining egg to the creamed butter, beating well (add the egg bit by bit making sure to beat well after each addition to avoid curdling).

3.       In another large bowl stir together the flour and baking powder, then sift it into the butter and egg mixture, fold the flour into the butter until you have a smooth but stiff batter. Then pour it into the cake tin and smooth out evenly, mix together the remaining egg and milk and brush it over the batter mixture and sprinkle with the almonds over the top.

4.       Bake the cake until it is risen and golden brown, about 40 minutes. It should have a sticky looking shine to it once it is baked and once it has cooled it will sink a little, so don’t worry, your cake didn’t collapse at all.