Vintage Baking - Queen Cakes from 1912

 Queen Cakes is a recipe from 'The Goulburn Cookery Book'.  According to the Southern Tablelands History Matters website, The Goulburn Cookery Book was compiled by an Irish lady by the name of Mrs William Forster Rutledge of Gidleigh, Bungendore. She gave the copyright to the Church Society of the Anglican Diocese on 2nd October 1899, and for thirty years the cookbook brought in a steady income to Church funds, selling 205,000 copies in thirty editions.  By the thirty-sixth edition in 1936, the book had been reprinted almost every year with either 5,000 or 10,000 copies.  There were three more editions, the last in 1945.  I have the Twelth Edition from 1912. The pupils of the Goulburn Public School Cooking Class contributed several recipes, and three are from the National School of Cookery, London. 

Girls living in the country were brought up to manage a household and to be self-reliant.  There was much work to be done to provision a country house.  Milk from the dairy was set in flat open pans and skimmed for cream.  Butter was churned by hand, the surplus clarified and used for cooking.   

So lovely ladies apply your brightest red lipstick, pop on your tiara, a pretty dress and a retro apron and let's get baking.  I made my Queen cakes miniature size.  They look absolutely gorgeous when served up on a vintage plate for afternoon tea.  Guaranteed, when you eat one of these little darlings you'll feel like royalty!

Queen Cakes
Half a pound of flour, 1/2 lb. sugar, 6 oz. of butter, 1/2 lb. of currants, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 4 eggs, a little salt, 1 teaspoon brandy.

Beat the butter and the sugar to a light cream; add the yolks of the eggs; sift in flour and baking powder; add whites of eggs, beaten till stiff, add the currants.  

Blending the currants & stiff egg whites into the cake batter.

Put into buttered patty-tins and fill half full. Bake from 15 to 25 minutes, according to the heat of the oven.  These cakes are nicer if the baking powder is omitted; but in that case the mixture must be beaten for an hour.  The brandy may be omitted.

Ready to be popped into the oven.

As a six generation Australian, I am sooooo proud to say that I can still buy products in the supermarket that were around over a hundred years ago! 

White Wings Flour Australian Owned & Milled for Over 100 Years!

Since 1926 Sunbeam Australian Grown Currants

Australian Western Star Butter since late 1800's

Anchor Since 1854 Baking Powder Proudly Made in Australia

Now you may be wondering... mmmm, how much is half a pound or how much is 6 oz?  Worry no more as I've included conversions and tips below :)

Half a pound is equal to 250 grams
6 oz is equal to 180 grams

Tip:  I decided to make miniature Queen cakes so took the chance of omitting 2 eggs to obtain a stiffer cake batter.  Luckily, they turned out just perfect.  I cooked them at 170 degrees celsius in a conventional oven for 15 minutes. The only problem I had was trying to prevent my gorgeous girls from eating them before dusting them with icing sugar!