Retro cake
March 24, 2012 • Category: Dessert
I guess everyone has their own personal notion of what a retro cake is. A retro cake, to me, is the one my mother used to serve when she had her girlfriends over for the purpose of playing bridge or gossiping. Personally, out of the two activities I find gossiping to be a lot more fun than spending hours shuffling cards.
To get back to the cake, her cake was this dense rectangular pound cake studded with hard candied things (angelika and such) that tasted sour and that I would secretly pluck out when no one was looking. Strangely I had a yearning for this cake, wondering if I would find it as boring now as then.
The cake is a bit boring, but, hey, it is a classic. The major improvement here is that the candied fruits are actually good.
If you go through the trouble of making it, don’t worry, it will be gone fairly rapidly. It freezes well and I would freeze it in individual slices so that whenever you feel like it, you can reach into the freezer, grab a slice and warm it up in the toaster.
INGREDIENTS: 12 servings
- 2 cups all-purpose or cake flour (add 1/4 cup if using cake flour)
- 1 cup of unsalted butter or 1/2 cup of butter, 1/2 cup of oil
- 1 1/2 cups of extra-fine sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla or orange blossom or rose water or any other flavoring you like
- 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
- pinch of salt
- Fruits: 1 cup of dried cranberries, golden raisins, dried kiwi or melons or mangoes, diced small
- Beat butter (and oil, if using) and sugar till lighter in color. Mix the flour in a bowl with the baking powder and salt. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time and mix thoroughly each time. Add the flavoring. Add the flour mixture gradually and mix until well combined. Add the diced fruits.
- Line a rectangular loaf pan (or 2 if necessary) with parchment paper. Pour the batter and bake in a preheated 350F oven for about an hour. Twenty minutes into baking, you can score the cake with a knife all the way across the pan to form a slit in the middle; this is supposed to help the cake bake evenly. About 40 minutes into baking, check to see if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick in the middle.
Comments
20 Comments • Comments Feed
rosa says:
Lovely! I love such old-fashioned cakes.
Cheers,
Rosa
On March 24, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Belinda @zomppa says:
I am such a fan of hearty, dense pound cakes!
On March 24, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Pierre says:
le rétro est encore à la mode !!Bizz ensoleillée de notre capitale !!pierre
On March 25, 2012 at 1:05 am
Nele says:
I recently tried Omani version of this pound cake that I found in one cookbook and it was marvelous. The base is basically the same, just add orange juice, orange rind and pieces of dates, also the original recipe calls for nuts, such as walnuts. I did not use the nuts and it was great nevertheless. In Egypt, where I live, they usually add just vanilla, but it is also very popular in here. Probably the most popular cake made at home – because all the other are usually bought from the bakery.
On March 25, 2012 at 1:45 am
fimère says:
le retro ça ne s’oublie jamais, il m’a l’air excellent
bonne journée
On March 25, 2012 at 1:45 am
Hanan says:
I love this cake, it’s my favorite, but without the dried fruits.. So funny how you write you used to pluck them out, I still do that! 😉
On March 25, 2012 at 3:52 am
Mark Wisecarver says:
Love retro, artisan, etc.
Not much of a cake eater really but am wondering if might happen to have any of the old Lebanese doughnut recipes. There was one brought to Detroit, the Coffee house across from Belle isle was ours, and I miss that flavor with Turkish Coffee. They were old fashioned “cake” doughnuts, medium in color, no toppings but delicious.
On March 25, 2012 at 9:06 am
Joumana says:
@Mark: Were they fried?
On March 25, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Jeannie says:
I love simple old fashion cakes like this one, so delicious!
On March 25, 2012 at 9:09 am
Mark Wisecarver says:
I think they probably were, was only 12 when Sito passed away.
Is anything like that common in Beirut where card games and coffee are served?
For the most part these were all old Lebanese men playing cards. 😉
On March 25, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Joumana says:
@Mark: In my mother’s and grandmother’s time (60s and early 70s) ladies would get together to play cards (pinnacle colonne and other games) and sip tea and eat cakes like this.
On March 26, 2012 at 3:46 am
Mark Wisecarver says:
Thanks for sharing that. 🙂
I was born in 1961. Detroit had a booming Lebanese community back then.
On March 26, 2012 at 5:14 am
Barbara says:
There are a couple other advantages to retro cakes like this, Joumana. One…they freeze a dream, which makes them perfect gifts for friends who are homebound for one reason or another.
The other is, they are simple cakes, and perfect with tea or coffee.
But then, those retro years were my years! So I’m biased/
On March 26, 2012 at 7:03 am
Banana Wonder says:
I love the name of this cake and also never thought about adding dried kiwis(!!) Great idea!
On March 26, 2012 at 9:57 am
Hanan says:
Baked this today [without the dried fruits bien-sûr], it was soooo yummy, merci Joumana 🙂
On March 26, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Joumana says:
@Hanan: MY pleasure! 🙂
On March 26, 2012 at 10:58 pm
s says:
this is lovely- this is indeed a retro cake- we call it fruit cake in Pakistan, but your phrase is much better. my in laws play bridge and they eat this cake whilst playing- how fascinating your mum did the same! i actually love this cake, i grew up w it. x s
On March 26, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Alaiyo Kiasi says:
Retro Cake! I love the name. My grandmother made a cake like this, flavored intensely with lemon, which she kept available for anyone dropping by–like the minister. I think these types of cakes, besides being easy to make, were a form of sweet comfort food. I’m intrigued by the rose water addition. I’ll bet it’s wonderful!
On March 26, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Katie@Cozydelicious says:
I love the name! I think of coffee cake as retro cake for the same reason – it reminds me of my grandmother’s card parties with the ladies. This cake looks yummy!
On March 27, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Caffettiera says:
I hated dried fruit too. I imagine it was due to poor quality. And I really don’t get cards as well – my partner loves them. I just don’t have the patience to make and effort and remember the rules.
On March 28, 2012 at 3:27 am