Ladysmith Cake

I bookmarked this recipe yonks back, Im one of those people that saves a stupid amount of recipes every day knowing full well I wont ever get around to making them all, I think its an addiction. I remember thinking how interesting and pretty the cake was, and the name made it sound like the perfect dainty tea time treat! I'd never seen anything quite like it but it seemed pretty easy and used ingredients I almost always have on hand, however the lack of reviews (i like to know other peeps have success with a recipe before I try my hand at them, im a whimp!) meant it just went into my 'bake some-day' file. Until today, hurrah!

You begin by making a basic vanilla sponge to which you add yummy spices to half (and over yourself if you are a clutz like me, fact of the day - cinnamon stains fingers an interesting brown tinge and is a pretty strong makeshift perfume also!)
You layer the spice mix in a prepped tin, smooth on a layer of jam, top with the plain mix then sprinkle away to your hearts contents with some scrummy chopped nuts, all the while smuggly licking the multiple batter smothered implements with a content little grin.

The result: a crisp top of crunchy toasty nuts, a gorgeously fluffy moist sponge, a layer of your favourite jam and a hint of comforting spice - I mean really...how can you refuse that! It is the perfect cake to give as a gift, easy enough to whip up last minute but just something a little special, and you can switch around various factors in it to tailor make it to yours/the receivers tastes. I think the fact the spices are definitely present but more of a soft undertone complements the cake rather wonderfully. You could use whatever nuts you wish (maybe even coconut..i wonder if that would work, i bladdy love coconut!) and of course the jam layer is completely open to whatever you have on hand. I used raspberry conserve and threw in roughly 7/8 fresh raspberries I happened to have leftover, i loved stumbling across a little pocket of berry goodness so might add a few more next time.

Im so glad I got around to making this one, truly I can't tell you how much so! It exceeded the expectations of both my mum and myself, I am in no way exaggerating when I say I only made it about 4 hours ago now and a good third has been happily shovelled away between the 2 of us!

  

I hope you don't take as long as I did before biting the bullet and trying this unique little gem of a cake, just a piece of insider knowledge - it is particularly lovely warm :)

Ladysmith Cake

Adapted from Linno-Yum

185g butter, room temperature

185g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 large eggs

185 g all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp cornflour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

4 Tbsp jam

1/4 cup (50g) chopped walnuts (I used 60g)

Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare a 20cm (8inch) round tin 

(original recipe calls for an 18x18cm square tin)

Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the vanilla

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition

Sift in the flour, cornflour and baking powder and fold together until incorporated

Scoop half the mixture into a separate bowl*

Sift the spices into one half of the batter, fold them through, then spread this mix evenly into the cake tin

Spoon the jam onto the spiced cake mixture and carefully spread as evenly as possible**

Top with remaining plain cake mixture and sprinkle with walnuts

Bake for 50-60 minutes***

Notes

* Just incase you are as fussy as me and have to be stupidly exact, I weighed the batter and it came out as 728g, so each half was 364g :)

** The jam was easier to spread than I thought but next time I would not spread allll the way to the edge as when putting on the top layer it squishes out a little anyway

*** I left mine in for 63 minutes, covering the top with baking parchment for the last 10mins, to be on the safe side as my oven is moody and I have had some soggy centered cakes in my time which is deeply disheartening!

**** In the above photos the spiced layer looks much thinner than the plain, and it is mostly slightly thinner but it varies in each slice. This can kind of be seen by looking at the right side of the cake in the second large photo

         Dinky Little Printable