Titri was the family farm on my mother’s mother’s side. We used to go there a lot when I was little to visit my grandmother’s rather comical brothers, Ben and Max, who would tease me mercilessly. I still think of them as the Statler and Waldorf of our family.

We also used to go to Titri every spring to pick daffodils – nobody knows when or why they were planted, but an enormous field of daffies cropped up in front of the house every single year.

I don’t know when the old house at Titri was built, but this photo was taken sometime around 1900. You can see its amazing garden – a huge vege patch to the side of the house, and flowers, trees and shrubs in front. It also would have had an orchard. Just in the background at the left you can see the dairy shed where the family made their butter.

My great-grandparents, Charlie and Mary farmed here. Sadly, Charlie died suddenly in 1945, when their four children were still teenagers, and from then on, Mary ran the farm with the help of the boys. My grandmother moved to another farm in 1953 when she married my grandfather.

This is Mary (seated) in front of the old house – my grandmother is standing beside her, and the little baby is my mum!

A new farm house was built at Titri in the 1960s, but Ben and Max never really got around to pulling down the old one. This photo was taken around the late 80s or early 90s, and you can see the old house in tumble-down form.

I have a recipe from Titri for you today. You might have read my previous Vintage Cooking posts – I’ve been working on a project to make recipes from my grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s recipe books.

This was actually one of the first recipes I tried from Mary’s book – how could you go past a name like Goldenglow Cake?

It’s quite lovely – it’s really a vanilla cake, but has just a tablespoon of cocoa, which gives it quite an interesting colour and flavour. The real discovery was in the icing, which is boiled. Actually, it’s like an unset/unbeaten caramel fudge that you pour over the top of the cake. I took some liberty and sprinkled with walnuts and pistachios, of which I’m sure Mary would have approved.

Goldenglow Cake

¼ lb butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1½ cups flour
1½ baking powder
1 Tbsp cocoa
3 Tbsp milk

Icing:
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
3 Tbsp milk
vanilla
pistachios and/or walnuts, to decorate (optional)

To make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 180°(C). Grease a 20 or 23cm round cake tin and/or line with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again. Sift the dry ingredients and add them to the  butter mixture in three lots, alternating with the  milk.

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake. Now I unfortunately didn’t write down how long mine took, but I imagine it was about 45 minutes. Unfortunately Mary has a habit of only leaving lists of ingredients, so she can’t help us, either. I’d say go for 45 minutes but check it frequently. It will be cooked when the sides start to come away from the tin, and a skewer comes out clean.

Leave the cake in its tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool. I cut mine through the middle and spread with plum jam before icing – I think I was worried I’d slightly overcooked the cake and it would be dry without it – so that’s an option if you like jam. And who doesn’t?

To make the icing:
Put the sugars and milk in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring slowly to the boil, boil for three minutes, then remove from the heat, add the vanilla and beat until creamy. Quickly pour over the cake (or it will set like fudge), and sprinkle with roughly chopped pistachios and walnuts.