54321 Cake
No scales? No problem…
Ever been desperate to make a cake and not had any functioning scales to weigh out your ingredients? This happened to me just the other day (batteries died) but luckily I had this great little recipe in reserve.
The unusual name comes from the quantities of the ingredients used in the original recipe (from an old Tupperware recipe book): 5 heaped dessert spoons of flour, 4 of sugar, 3 of milk, 2 of oil and 1 egg! Easy to remember, right?!
My version of the recipe includes quantities in grams for people who are a bit more organised on the batteries / scales front, or who prefer precision (I include myself in this category under normal circumstances!).
I’d recommend adding an extra egg, as I think it makes the cake just that little bit more moist… although I’ve decided to stick with the original name, as 54322 cake just doesn’t sound quite as catchy!
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 5 heaped dessert spoons self-raising flour (or 100g)
- 4 heaped dessert spoons sugar (or 80g)
- 3 dessert spoons milk
- 2 dessert spoons sunflower oil
- 2 (yes, two!) eggs
- 2 or 3 apples
For the topping:
- 4 heaped dessert spoons sugar (or 100g)
- 80g butter (use the size of a 200g packet to help you estimate how much you need if no scales are available)
- 1 egg
Method
- First mix the flour, sugar (either granulated or caster) together in a large bowl. Then add in the milk, eggs and oil.
- Mix well to obtain a smooth batter, which will be quite thick and ‘elasticy’. This is the perfect consistency.
- Pour the mixture into a greased, round cake tin measuring about 23cm across.
- Next, peel, core and halve the apples before cutting into thinnish slices.
- Arrange the slices of apples on top of the cake in a circular fashion, overlapping each other and following round in the same direction.
- Cook the cake for around 25 minutes at 180°C.
- About 20 minutes in, prepare the topping. Start by cracking the egg into a glass and whisking it up. Next, gently heat the butter in a saucepan on the hob and then add in the sugar. Heat until the whole mixture has melted. Remove from the heat and add in the egg. Do not heat the egg or it will start to cook.
- When the 25 minutes cooking time is up, take the cake out of the oven and pour on the topping ensuring that the entire cake is covered. Then, return to the oven and cook for around 15 more minutes.
- Leave the cake to cool until the topping has set… then enjoy with a lovely cup of tea!
NB This recipe makes 6 , but if you save it to your MyMeals365 app, you can change the number of servings and the app will work out the exact quantities of each ingredient you need.