1940’s Golden Syrup Loaf Cake

Today’s recipe for 1940’s Golden Syrup Loaf Cake is loosley based on the late, great Marguerite Patten’s wartime recipe for Syrup Loaf

A Traditional Tea Loaf Recipe

Today’s recipe for 1940’s Golden Syrup Loaf Cake is loosley based on the late, great Marguerite Patten’s wartime recipe for Syrup Loaf.

In her recipe, there are no eggs, fats or sugar – the cake relies on flour, baking powder, golden syrup and milk.

I’ve made this recipe, and it is of its time, a palatable but quite heavy cake, which I am sure would have been very welcome during the wartime and post war years.

I’ve added an egg, just one, some sugar and some butter to my adapted recipe for 1940’s Golden Syrup Loaf Cake.

Although I have changed the recipe, the concept is very much the same insofar as it’s an easy to make and classic tea loaf style cake.

Serve this cake in slices, halved with butter or spread. It’s also makes a fabulous pudding cake when served warm with custard.

The flavour of this cake is very much like a traditional steamed treacle pudding, but much lighter and without the steaming!

For the adventurous in you, why not try the original version which I’ve shared below. Especially if you are vegan, as you can use a plant based milk.

I hope you enjoy this recipe if you make it, Oh yes! This cake keeps extremely well in a cake tin for up to a week, and gets stickier and moister the longer you keep it.

Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten

Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten, CBE (née Brown; 4 November 1915 – 4 June 2015), was a British home economist, food writer and broadcaster.

She was one of the earliest celebrity chefs (a term that she disliked at first) who became known during World War II thanks to her programme on BBC Radio, where she shared recipes that could work within the limits imposed by war rationing.

After the war, she was responsible for popularising the use of pressure cookers and her 170 published books have sold over 17 million copies.

During World War II, she worked for the Ministry of Food suggesting nourishing and inventive recipes using the rationed food that was available.

She broadcast her ideas and advice to the nation on a BBC radio programme called the Kitchen Front.

When the war ended, she demonstrated kitchen appliances for Harrods, including the pressure cooker which her work popularised in the UK.

Marguerite Patten’s Original Syrup Loaf

Makes a small 1lb loaf cake

INGREDIENTS:

4ozs SR flour or plain flour with 2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

6 tablespoons warmed golden syrup

1/4 pint of milk or milk and water

METHOD:
Sift the flour or flour and baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Heat the syrup and milk or milk and water, pour over the flour and beat well. Pour into a well greased 1lb loaf tin and bake in the centre of a moderately hot to hot oven for 30 minutes or until firm.

More Tea Loaf Style Recipes

• Fruited Date & Walnut Tea Loaf
• Traditional “Bara Brith” Tea Loaf
• 1950’s Condensed Milk Fruit Loaf

• Royal Tea Bread
• Old-Fashioned Malt Loaf
• Old-Fashioned Tea Cake Squares

Recipe for 1940’s Golden Syrup Loaf Cake