Wednesday 5 June 2019

Memories of my Queen cakes

Fairy cakes are very easy to make. 
My fairy cakes always turn out a success. The first time I baked this cake was in 1971 during my domestic science class, Stella Maris Secondary School. The class was taught by our late Domestic Science teacher, Mrs Dawson. The recipe was called Queen cakes at that time. Now, it has other names, ie cup cakes or fairy cakes.

Our school's recommended cookery book was a 175 pages book which was published from the Borneo Literature Bureau. The title of the book was "Cookery for beginners" with a green cover and it's a cooking book for junior secondary level.


My photocopied "Cookery for beginners" book.

This photocopied cookery book is old but still useful.  Believe it or not, it has followed me wherever I go especially to many countries.😁 
I loved this book so much when I was a teenager and had it photocopied at my later age. Mainly because I didn't want to spoil the original book by flipping too much on the pages while cooking a recipe. πŸ˜… My 6th sense tells me, I will not regret. When I was in my 20's, the original book was kept at my late parent's home and only had the photocopied one with me at all time. 
 True enough, some years later, there was a sudden flash flood at my late father's house. A large number of items kept in his store were badly damaged such as his precious records and record player, old style movie player, his children's stuff, many more, including my original school cookery book. 
Many years has passed, and my photocopied book which holds so many memories is still intact.😊. 

Asian weighing scale

In those days, all recipes were measured in ounces, not in grams, while vegetables, meat and fish were weighed in Kati. Even the weighing machine was all in Ounces or Catty.

One of my favourite recipes in cooking sessions..... fishball soup, page 39....
Look at the measurements..Fish 1/2 kati !!

I like this old school cookery book because it brings lots of beautiful memories of my junior school time and how my late mom excitedly, waited to see what I would bring home from each of my cooking sessions, to taste it.
 I remember going to the market a day early, to buy the ingredients for the cookery class,πŸ˜‚  Some vendor got annoyed for the small amount purchased but some were understanding and gave it free because they knew it's for the cooking class in school.
There were no supermarkets in those days


Teachers from Stella Maris Secondary school, Tg Aru. Sabah. Year 1971.
Sister Aquinas, the school principal sitting in the middle . Mrs Margaret (our ex class teacher)on the far left and our Late Mrs Dawson on the far right of this photo. 

 Stella Maris Secondary School began in 1968 so the building was still new when I was transferred to this school in 1971, with less than 10 classes and limited teachers for secondary 1 to secondary 3 only.

In those days, education was very simple. Among all the class sessions, I like most is the Domestic Science Class because it's related to food!πŸ˜πŸ˜‹ I am not academically gifted in school but excel more in practical skills. Well it's not a bad thing either because everyone has a stronger left or right brain function. Research says those that have strong right brain function are more artistic and creative so we tended to do well as writer, artist or psychology. Whereas those prominent on the left side of the brain are more to logical and analytical, therefore they normally do well in science and mathematic so tend to go into career such as accountancy, scientist, computer engineers etc. 

During my domestic science class, fairy cake is the easiest for me to remember.
 Every thing was 4 oz. ie butter, flour and caster sugar except the baking powder, egg and vanilla essence.
As a student, I remember our late Mrs Dawson said, " After the cake mixture was done, scoop out a spoonful of the mixture and try to drop it from the spoon within 3 counts. If it doesn't drop after 3 counts, add 1-2 tablespoon of milk." Those words stay in my memory forever. 

Queen cake Ingredients :


110gm (4 oz) margarine or butter.


110gm (4 oz ) caster sugar


110gm(4 oz) self raising flour

2 free-range eggs ( Lightly beaten )


1 teasp vanilla essence

 50 gm raisins


Method:


1. Preheat oven to 180C and line the cup cake tin with baking paper cups.


2. Sieved the flour in a bowl and set aside.


3. Cream butter and sugar together with electric beater until pale and fluffy.


4. Add the beaten eggs 


and Vanilla essence. Mix well.


5. Add Flour


and fold in the flour


6.Scoop out a spoonful of cake mixture and try to drop the mixture counting to 3.
    Add 1-2 tabsp milk if the mixture doesn't drop after 3 counts.


7. Add in the raisins
  Remember to dust the raisins with abit of flour so that the raisins won't sink into the bottom of the cake during baking.



8.Pour out the mixture into paper cup 3/4 full.



9. Bake for 8-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Stick a skewer into one of the cakes and if the stick comes out clean, means it's ready.
 Set aside to cool.


It was tea time.
My family enjoyed these freshly baked Queen cakes with a cuppa.πŸ˜‹πŸ˜‹



References



4 comments:

  1. Yummy …. Clear & precise instructions in ur recipe . We’ll plan a teatime together one day .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problem, state the date and time for kopi2πŸ˜‚

      Delete