Vintage Valentine Cake Recipe

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and today I’m featuring this pretty no-bake cake from a very delicious vintage recipe book: Cadbury’s Chocolate Cookery. (All you chocoholics out there, more about this book will follow at another time!)

Chocolate Crumble Cake (for variation to make a Valentine Cake, see below)

½ lb. sweet broken biscuits (which make include corn flakes or a similar ingredient)

Vanilla Essence

2 ozs. butter or margarine

1 oz. sugar

1 tablespoon corn syrup

1 oz. Bournville Cocoa

Grease a 6-inch sandwich tin (loose-bottomed if you have it). Cream fat with cocoa. Beat in melted syrup and add crushed biscuits and vanilla essence. Mix together until thoroughly coated. Pack tightly into tin. Leave to set 3 or 4 hours or overnight if possible. Ease out of loose-bottomed tin. It may be necessary to warm tin slightly. Spread with jam and coat with coconut. Decorate with cherries if desired.

Valentine Cake:

Use double quantities of Chocolate Crumble Cake and press into a heart-shaped cake pan. To make the arrow on the heart, cut an arrow out of stiff paper or cardboard. Place this on the coconut, sprinkle Chocolate Vermicelli round it, and remove the cardboard.

 

With love from, 

Brownie Recipe from Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two (1958)

Brownie Recipe from Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two (1958)

With Valentine’s Day just under a month away, I thought it appropriate to feature a recipe from the 1958 classic Betty Crocker’s book Dinner for Two.

Everyone loves Brownies, and I’m sure you would enjoy this recipe – you can never get tired of the classics, especially one which is 57 years old!

Interestingly, the book illustrator, Charles (or Charley) Harper was a well known American Modernist artist, images as below. Yet another reason why I love this fabulous book! 

Brownies

2 sq. unsweetened chocolate (2 oz. or 56g)

1/3 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup sifted Gold Medal flour

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ cup broken nuts

Heat oven to 350° (mod.) [180° C]

Grease generously an 8” square pan. Melt chocolate and shortening together over hot water. 

Beat in sugar and eggs. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and sit into chocolate mixture. Mix in nuts. Spread in pan. Bake 30 to 35 min., until top has dull crust.

A slight imprint will remain when touched lightly with finger.

Cool slightly. Cut into 16 2” squares.

Enjoy!

With love from,