Molasses Cake

Recipe courtesy of The Lost Recipes by Ross Dobson, Echo Publishing, RRP $39.99

Sourced

HAY

NEW SOUTH WALES

1894

The molasses man was the Pied Piper of Tumbulgum (the small town I grew up in, on the far north coast of New South Wales) which sits on the flood-drenched banks of the Tweed River, where the river makes a sharp bend like the crook of an elbow. Brackish water on two sides of the village, endless canefields on the others. Molasses is what is left after the sugar is taken out of the cane. A truck, as big as a petrol tanker, would drive along the dirt roads of the town, the handful of local kids running behind, empty jars in hand, waiting for the driver to get to a spot to safely pull over. The molasses man would go to a tap fitted to the bottom of the tank, at the back of the truck, and fill up our bottles.

Kids get wildly excited about anything being given away. Pretty sure our mums didn’t share the same enthusiasm about the sickly sweet, burnt-earth smell filling the house.

I went in search of recipes using molasses. This is a good one, especially if you are a licorice fan, because it ends up tasting like that. This is for all those long-suffering, patient mums who supported their children’s wide-eyed enthusiasm for an adventure.

Makes 10 – 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup (165 g) softened butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
• 1 cup desiccated coconut

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 24 cm round cake tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb, allspice, cinnamon and a pinch of salt into a bowl.

Use electric beaters to beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the molasses, vanilla and eggs and beat to combine. Add the sifted flour mixture, then the milk. Fold the coconut through.

Transfer to the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired.