Skip to main content

Tunis Cake

-

 Although my Mum was a great baker, she occasionally brought home one of McVitie's Tunis cakes near Christmas time. Do you remember these cakes? Apparently, it got its name because a baker at McVities had tried a similar cake while stationed in Tunisia, where he was stationed during WW2.



Well I was feeling all nostalgic and thought I'd try and make one. Not as elaborate as the original, as that looks too tricky for my icing skills!
Mary Berry has a recipe, but I found another one, which was apparently sent by McVitie to a fan of the cake, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's in ounces.

3oz ground almonds
6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
3 medium eggs
rind of 1 lemon
8oz plain flour
11/2 tspn baking powder
2 tbspn milk


For the topping:
10oz plain chocolate
Marzipan fruits [banana, orange, pear, apple]

Preheat oven 160C/gas3                                        8" cake tin brushed with melted fat and lined with                                                                                        greaseproof paper at the bottom

Beat the butter and sugar together till white and fluffy then mix in lemon rind. Gradually add the beaten eggs.
Sieve the flour and baking powder together and fold into the bowl with the ground almonds using a metal spoon. Add milk to give a dropping consistency.
Spoon the batter into the tin and bake for about 11/2 hours till golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

For the topping:

Break the chocolate into a bowl with 1 tbspn water and melt over a pan of simmering water.
Wrap foil around the side of the cooled cake making sure it extends about half an inch above the top of it. When the chocolate has melted, pour it carefully onto the top of the cake, tapping the cake gently so the surface is smooth. Leave to set.
Decorate the top with marzipan fruits.


This is my simpler offering. It's a Madeira cake mixture, which is one of my favourite cakes. I found a small bag of  marzipan fruits at our local deli, but they only had one bag left. You could always make your own fruits. Haven't eaten it yet, so will let you know how it tasted!









Comments

Phil in the Kitchen said…
My Mum was definitely not a baker and there wasn't enough money or spare time to buy or make treats at Christmas but Tunis Cake was the one exception that we always bought from the local Co-op. So I certainly have very fond memories of it. I'm impressed that you've made your own version - it sounds like an excellent idea for Christmas. I do remember that all through my childhood the layer of chocolate on the cake got thinner with every passing year.
12/12/22 3:51 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aberffraw cakes

-
Image
These were mentioned recently on the GBBO, so I thought I'd find out more about them. They're made on the Isle of Anglesey and are a traditional biscuit really, not a cake. They're served sprinkled with sugar and even with cream and jam, like a scone. The bit I liked was that a scallop shell is pressed into the top to give it a shell-like pattern. Nowadays, a lot of the Aberffraw cakes have the pattern put on with a knife. I have a bag of scallop shells, brought back from France so I used a genuine one to make my pattern. The recipe is a 3.2.1  - quite common for biscuits. This means 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part sugar. 175g flour 110g butter 55g caster sugar a little milk more caster sugar for sprinkling over Preheat oven 190C/gas5. Grease a baking sheet. I used a processor to make my dough. Put flour and sugar in a bowl and rub in the butter. Bind together with a litle milk to make a soft dough. Roll out and cut out circles. I used a 7cm cutter an...
Read more

Carrot Cake Muffins

-
Image
 I’m a great muffin fan and have adapted my basic recipe, given to me by an American friend, many times. This is my latest idea. I made the muffins and was asked by a friend if I could make some for a party with the icing you usually get on a carrot cake.  280g plain flour, 1 tbsps baking powder, 1 tspn mixed spice, pinch salt, 115g soft dark brown sugar, 200g grated carrot, 50g chopped pecans or walnuts, 50g sultanas, 2 eggs, 175ml milk, 6 tbsps sunflower oil Optional: icing - 75g soft cream cheese, 49g butter and 35g icing sugar, sprigs of orange zest Preheat oven 200C/gas6. Grease a muffin tin or use muffin cases. Sift together the flour, baking powder and spice. Add carrots, sugar walnuts and sultanas and stir together. In a jug add the milk, oil and beaten eggs. Mix well. Make a well in flour mix and add milk mixture. Stir gently till just mixed. Don’t over mix or muffins will be heavy. Soon into the muffin tin - I use an ice cream scoop. Bake for 20 mins till risen. Cool...
Read more

Bakewell Pudding (or maybe not!)

-
Image
  I recently picked up a book in a local charity shop about 'Food of the British Isles'.It's a compilation of recipes from restaurants and cooks. I was especially interested in the Cake Section, as I've been wanting to try some of the more unusual British cake and pudding recipes for some time. This one isn't very unusual, but thought I'd try it as it's called a Bakewell Pudding and not a Tart. In the book, the writer says says that a Pudding is made with puff pastry and the Tart with shortcrust. Is it that simple? I bet a lot of local people would disagree with this definition! The writer made her puff pastry from scratch, but I bought mine, butter of course! For the Pudding you need : 500g butter puff pastry, 3 tbspn raspberry jam, 150g butter, 150g caster sugar, 3 eggs plus a yolk, beaten, 150g ground almonds, zest of a lemon,2 tspn almond extract, 1 tbspn flaked almonds and some icing sugar to dust the top. Preheat oven 190C/gas5        ...
Read more