Sand cake
“Lay out your fine china, cover up the piano legs and invite the vicar over for a genteel afternoon tea of these jaunty English cakes and biscuits.”
- 500g butter, clarified
- 500g potato flour
- 4 large eggs
- 2 yolks
- 350g castor sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
I have never lost my enthusiasm for traditional British cakes and biscuits, nor for afternoon tea. I cooked a burnt house cake, rich with fruit, made with ground rice and without eggs - no explanation given for the unusual name, although the very well-caramelised raisins on the finished cake were rather burnt. Here is a recipe for Lady Jekyll's Sand cake, similar to a Madeira cake, given in the chapter titled "Teatime and some cakes", from her classic book Kitchen Essays.
Method
To clarify the butter, melt and simmer it until the solids fall to the bottom of
the saucepan, then ladle the liquid butter through a damp muslin cloth into a
bowl. Cool and refrigerate until butter is congealed.
Preheat oven to
180C.
Grease a 22cm or 24cm springform tin and line the base with
paper.
Sieve the potato flour. Lightly whisk eggs and yolks. Beat butter to a
thick cream in an electric mixer. Beat in the sugar and then the eggs and flour
alternately. Add the lemon zest.
Spoon into the tin and bake for about 1 hour
until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
