Sarah Ellen's Sour Milk Cake

So as I attempt my first Sarah Ellen cake trial I discover that her book is less of a Recipe Book and more of a Great British Bake Off  'Technical Challenge'!

The book lists ingredients and quantities, with at best, a brief method. Fortunately the Sour Milk Cake turns out to be an easy enough first bake to guess.  Sour Milk Cake? - thrifty genes makes this one a winner!  The biggest test was to resist the temptation to grab the Kenwood mixer and instead rub the butter into the flour by hand, as Sarah Ellen herself would have done.

This leads to the second realisation, whilst my fingers repetitively strain at rubbing half a pound of butter into 2 cups of flour, that Sarah Ellen's book was perhaps her quantity conversion for her restaurant, or one to eat, one to store.

Sour Milk Cake

2 BR Cups Flour (BR - Bee-Ro I'm thinking, I used standard US cups)
1/2lb butter (225g)
1lb sugar (450g, I used a bit less, about 400g)
1/2lb currants (225g)
1 small teaspoon soda
1 cup sour milk
1 egg
Bake 1 1/2 hours.

I rub the butter into the flour until it was like fine breadcrumbs.  Added sugar, currants, bicarb of soda, sour milk and egg.  Baked for 1 1/2 hours in the Aga - no temperature guidance, an Aga is what it is!

One to keep, one to freeze

The camera never lies - a bit more stirring needed!

I'm rather pleased with the end result, however, the next challenge is to restrict Mr Turner to just one piece a day!