The cake that killed a rolling pin

Having baked my apple pie on Saturday, I washed my rolling pin and set it in the still-warm oven to dry out. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten about it by Sunday night, when I turned the oven on to make a ladysmith cake (p49). Of course, I would have found the rolling pin before long had it not been for one thing:

On perusing the recipe more carefully, I decided it looked like way too much faff for a Sunday night, elected to do it Monday instead, and went back to my room to watch TV. Some hours later, I wandered out into the lounge and wondered, "why does it smell like sawdust in here?" Actually, it doesn't smell like sawdust; it smells like burning rolling pin.

So clearly, it's the complicated recipe that was at fault, and not my own stupid carelessness, right? (Oh, come on - it was worth a shot!)

This evening I had a chance to find out just how tricky the ladysmith cake was. Answer: not very. It just requires a few different bowls and a few different layers. First, you cream butter and sugar in one bowl, and beat eggs in another. In a third bowl, sift flour and baking powder, then add the eggs and dry ingredients alternately to the creamed mixture.

Ok, so you have to dirty a few bowls, but it's really quite simple, as is the next bit - separating out one-third of the mixture and adding cinnamon. Actually, my split ended up more like half/half, because I accidentally got some of the cinnamon in the main bowl and had to scoop out more of the mixture, but it still worked ok.

The next step is to spoon the cinnamon mixture into the bottom of a cake tin. On top of this I spread some raspberry jam (slightly heated, to spread more easily) before adding the plain cake batter and topping it all with a sprinkling of chopped nuts.


After 50 minutes in the oven, the ladysmith cake came out looking and smelling delicious. As soon as I got it out of the tin, I cut a piece and had a taste. It was just as delicious as it smelled: light and fluffy, with a pleasant nutty crunch and a cinnamon and jam flavour almost reminiscent of belgian biscuits.

This recipe is certainly not as involved as it first appears, and the result is definitely worth dirtying a couple of bowls. I really have to concede that the effort required does not in any way justify a delay which in turn results in the sacrifice of a certain kitchen implement. Guess I'll have to take the blame after all.