Blast from the past

I used to bake a lot as a kid. Since then, my parents' carefully-instilled lessons to do with checking you have all ingredients before starting, and always cleaning up immediately afterwards, seem to have fallen by the wayside. On the other hand, my fondness for baking endures, and it was with some nostaglia that I whipped up albert squares (p60) this afternoon, since that was once one of my regular recipes.

It's very simple to make: you just cream butter and sugar, add eggs, then beat in vanilla and golden syrup. When that's all mixed in, you fold in a heap of currants, before adding the dry ingredients alternately with milk.


This mixture then goes into a sponge roll tin and into the oven for half an hour. Of course, it's not finished until it's been iced, so let it cool on a rack for an hour or so, then ice with a plain vanilla icing and top with lemon rind and coconut.

Ok, so if you don't like currants, you're not going to be keen on this one. If you do, you'll enjoy this spongy, fruity square - just the thing to go with your mid-morning cuppa.