Birthday Cake

I made it to 55 last week. A venerable age and one which was recognised by my wife with a present of a banana milkshake. (She says I'm difficult to buy for but I can't remember how many subtle, and unsubtle, hints I have dropped over the years about wanting a Gibson SJ200 - natural finish, obviously, not sunburst).

I might have been disappointed were it not for the fact that my mum (obviously even a more venerable age than myself!) had made me a coffee cake.

It needs to be known that a coffee cake by Pauline Roberts is the baseline by which all other coffee cakes are judged. So, how would this stack up against the other entries in this blog?

Here we go...

The icing was perfect. And, by perfect, I mean slightly stale and crusty. A common mistake is for cakes to have fluffy fondant icing. This is wrong. The icing needs to be stiff and substantial. Almost chewy. The only point lost on the icing is for the fact that it didn't go right down the sides of the cake. A schoolgirl error but one which, as she is in her dotage, I am willing to forgive. Even though it was my birthday cake. The filling needs to be obvious, not just an afterthought. It is an integral part of the experience - check the photo for how the filling ought to be done.

The sponge was exactly as it ought to be. Slightly claggy, nice and moist, with no chance of it falling to bits on the plate or on the fork (or in your hands, for that matter, I'm not always patient enough to use a cake fork).

There were no walnuts. This does not matter. Mum has never put walnuts on, or in, the cake. It has never been described as a 'Coffee and Walnut Cake' therefore their absence is immaterial.

The crux of the matter is, of course, that there ought to be so much coffee in the cake that it needs to be eaten before lunch if you are intending to sleep at night. The coffee needs to be in the icing and the sponge, giving both a dark texture and a genuine coffee flavour. At this, as with everything else, my mother excels.

And so to the scores on the doors...

Price: Free of charge

Walnut Garnish: no
Walnut in sponge: no
Sponge: 10/10
Icing: 9/10
Filling: yes - and plenty of it.