Dundee cake

Moved to bake today, nearly a year after the last recorded baking on 16th August last year, the great Alberta date cake bake, the Alberta date cake which no-one in Alberta seemed to have heard of. There was subsequently a rumour that the cake was actually named after a lady called Alberta, in honour of Prince Albert. There has, of course, been some bread and there may have been some cheese scones in that time, but they do not count as proper baking.

Be that as it may, I believe that the Dundee Cake is firmly domiciled in Dundee, the town with a very long railway bridge (see just to the right of 56°26'15.9"N 2°59'18.5"W). Not sure why I lighted on this particular cake, perhaps it being a rather heavy cake which one was unlikely to bolt in one sitting - as we used to do with seed cakes when we were still living in flats - gave the thing a subconsciously healthy boost, a boost resulting in its selection. It does, after all, contain a vast number of calories, being made with 6oz flour, 4oz butter, 4oz sugar, 2oz glacé cherries (mainly sugar) and so on.

I am presently wondering how a cake mix described as soft dropping consistency is going to turn out given that one then added more or less its own weight in dried fruit, which one might think would result in rather a dry cake.

I shall report further in due course, which might be a day or so, as the plan is to let the thing stand for 24 hours before broaching. Let the flavour develop as it says in the bread books.

PS: then moved to check the word broach in OED and decided that the use above was legit.. It is also a relative of the French brochet for a pike (as in fish) and a brochette de personalités for a bevy of VIPs. According to Collins that is.