This week marks two years of The Cake Mistress. Thanks for reading, sharing your comments and emails, and just being generally awesome. Since switching to a charity aim mid last year, where 100% of this site’s income goes to a food-related charity, over $500 has been donated. So thank you also for helping reach that mark!
To celebrate I was going to bake the mother-of-all cakes with crazy layers and such, then I thought going back to my cake-y origins instead would be more fun. Having just flown back from spending time with my family over Christmas, I wanted a nostalgic taste from the past. So I baked the cake Mum used to make for us kids all the time. It was a brilliant after-school treat, even providing much bargaining power at recess.
Best of all, I realised this is the EASIEST cake to literally throw together. Everything goes in one bowl, then you walk away and make a cup of tea while the electric beaters whip the magic in to the cake for you. Finish with a simple chocolate icing and some sprinkles to make it fancy. Sidebar: a dropped pack of sprinkles travels a looooooong way. *cry*
Being at home made me think of all the growing-up and changes with time, so I made a list of the moments I’ve thought “oh hell, I’m getting old”. If you are a fellow 80s/90s lady, you might notice some of these happening too:
Signs You’re an 80s Baby Growing Up (aka Getting Old).
- You hear a “new” song on the radio and you’re outraged at how they’ve poorly sampled, and thus ruined, your favourite song as a teen. Kids, the Black Eyed Peas did NOT write Time of Your Life.
- That moment when YOU realise songs you loved were not originals either: Eminem’s Sing For The Moment? Aerosmith’s Dream On. Ice Ice Baby? David Bowie’s Under Pressure. Mind. Blown.
- You support Leggings Are Not Pants.
- You’ve said “the music was better in my day” at least once. It was better too, alright? The Macarena was just an aberration.
- You’ve also said “the cartoons were better in my day”. She-Ra would open a can of whoop-ass on Dora.
Princess Power!
- Actually, you’re saying “back in my day” with increasing regularity, and you’re not even being ironic or mocking the “olds”. Guess what, you are the “old”.
“Back in my day we didn’t have torrents: we had to pirate our music by waiting next to the radio with a blank cassette for our favourite songs, then press record and get really annoyed when the host would talk over the end of the song. “
- The tween working in retail addresses the customer behind you as Ma’am, then you realise there’s no one behind you. You’re the Ma’am. Aww, seriously?
- Twitter? Pfft. Back in my day, we had mIRC. And ICQ. On dial-up. And we’d mimic the sounds of the modem back at it while connecting to pass the time. We didn’t have Google – we’d ask a butler called Jeeves, or use Alta Vista. And we made nice sites in GeoCities, like this one. - (caution: may incite eye-gouging). You could never have too many GIFs.
- You’ve lived long enough to see trends you thought were cool making a resurgence. And you now recognise their uncoolness. Hello double denim! Some mistakes shouldn’t be made twice.
Die ... of embarrassment maybe ....
- You catch a heavy waft of Impulse on a gaggle of teens and your scent memory drags you to the terror of the high school change-room and the oxygen-starving cloud of Vanilla Kisses, Incense and Waterberry. And for a limited time, Spice Girl.
- Gratefully realising that being an adult without a tramp stamp is more liveable than being a lame teen without a tattoo.
- The smell of Passion Pop, Cruisers, Breezers or UDLs makes you sick.
EASY CHOCOLATE CAKE
1 cup Caster Sugar
1/2 cup (85g) Unsalted Butter, softened
3/4 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Instant Coffee
2 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups Self Raising Flour, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder, sifted
1/4 teaspoon Bicarb Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Basic Chocolate Icing
Icing sugar mixture
1 teaspoon Cocoa Powder
2 teaspoons Margarine
Water
100s & 1000s to decorate
Directions:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.
Add caster sugar, coffee, flour, cocoa powder and bicarb soda into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the softened butter, milk, eggs and vanilla, and beat together in electric mixer for three minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Pour batter in greased cake tin and bake for 45-60 minutes. Cake is done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, and the dome springs back when lightly pressed.
Allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
When cool frost with chocolate icing sugar and 100s & 1000s. To make the icing I just pour around 1 cup or so of icing sugar into a bowl with the cocoa powder and butter, then trickle in enough water to form a spreadable consistency.
| Mum’s Easy Chocolate Cake |
- 1 cup Caster Sugar
- 1/2 cup (85g) Unsalted Butter, softened
- 3/4 cup Milk
- 1 teaspoon Instant Coffee
- 2 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 1/4 cups Self Raising Flour, sifted
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder, sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon Bicarb Soda
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- BASIC CHOCOLATE ICING:
- Icing sugar mixture
- 1 teaspoon Cocoa Powder
- 2 teaspoons Margarine
- Water
- 100s & 1000s to decorate
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.
- Add caster sugar, coffee, flour, cocoa powder and bicarb soda into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the softened butter, milk, eggs and vanilla, and beat together in electric mixer for three minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Pour batter in greased cake tin and bake for 45-60 minutes. Cake is done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, and the dome springs back when lightly pressed.
- Allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- When cool frost with chocolate icing sugar and 100s & 1000s. To make the icing I just pour around 1 cup or so of icing sugar into a bowl with the cocoa powder and butter, then trickle in enough water to form a spreadable consistency.
