BAKING AND CAKES IN THE BALLROOM CAFE.

I love baking nearly as much as I love writing. What better way to wind down than to set to baking a cake.

   My mother loved to bake cakes too, as well as puddings she steamed for after the roast lunch on Sunday. She never seemed to have to take out a recipe book; it was all in her head. She always said if you kept key ingredients in the food cupboard, you would never be stuck.

 Flour in those days came in large white cloth sacks and it was my job to scoop it out with a big metal scoop and weigh it.

   I know now she only got me to set it on the scales to humour a  young helper. She herself could throw the ingredients together and whip up a cake in no time.

We made lemon cakes, coffe cakes, the rich family chocolate cake for special occasions and seed cakes. But it was what we called ordinary sponge, which I still love best.

   If there was nothing for dessert or we were all fed up with eating every variation of apple tart or rhubarb pie, a sponge would be whipped up as my mother used to say " like nobody's business."

I had the job of mixing,  stopping the mixer every few mintues to check if the figure eight would stay on top or sink down into a too thin mixture. Sometimes I tried to be cool, balancing a book in one hand and whipping  up the mixture in the other. It never lasted long;  either the mixer or my mother would object.

  "Concentrate, block out everything else, enjoy doing it and it will all show in the cake," she said.

 She was right of course. Ever tried to bake when the world is wrong for you and unhappiness gurgles through you; you end up with a stodgy, flat offering. Be happy and make a nice, light, fluffy sponge; it works all the time for me. 

  My mother always thought being able to do a good sponge was a life skill. 

"If you can do a sponge light and fluffy, you will never be stuck for something nice for tea," she said.

  She is right again.  Know how to do a good sponge and you can fancy it up with icing; stick fruit and cream in the middle and dress it "like nobody's business." 

Much as I like to throw ingredients together, when I am looking to impress with my sponge cake, I opt for this recipe from Rachel Allen. Works every time , "like nobody's business." 

Ingredients

• 175 g (6oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 175 g (6oz) caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 175 g (6oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tblsp milk
• icing or caster sugar, for sprinkling
• two 18cm (7in) diameter sandwich tins

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4), then butter and flour the sides of each tin and line the base with a disc of baking parchment.
2. Cream the butter until soft in a large bowl or in an electric food mixer. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl for a few seconds until just mixed, then gradually add them to the butter mixture, beating all the time. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then add the milk and fold in gently to incorporate.
4. Divide the mixture between the two tins and make a slight hollow in the centre of each cake so that when it rises it doesn’t peak too much in the centre, making it difficult to sandwich together with the other half.
5. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 18–25 minutes or until golden on top and springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then loosen around the edges of each cake using a small, sharp knife and carefully remove from the tins before leaving on a wire rack to cool down completely.
6. Once cool, spread 3–4 rounded tablespoons of jam, such as raspberry, strawberry or blackberry, over the first cake, followed by a layer of 125ml (4 1?2 fl oz) of double or regular cream, whipped until almost stiff.