Food in Cocaine Blues - Tea Cake

During their first encounter in the Block Arcade Phryne and Dot share tea cake and a pot of tea. This recipe is the one from A Question of Death: An Illustrated Phryne Fisher Treasury.

Tea CAKE

2 tbsp butter

½ cup caster sugar

1 egg

1½ cups self-raising flour

4 tbsp milk

A pinch of salt

Topping

2 tbsp melted butter

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp caster sugar

Cream the butter and sugar. Gradually add the egg to the creamed mixture, then add the flour and

milk alternately, half at a time, and beat well. Place mixture in a greased sandwich tin and bake for

20–25 minutes.

Turn cake out onto a cake cooler while warm and brush with topping

Here is my effort unfortunately it didst come out very well. I can see why Phryne would leave the baking to her Mrs Butler:

The recipe does not give a baking temperature and time so a little guess work is involved. I found that the recipe does not make a lot of cake batter and the batter it made was very thick but this may be due to the fact that I was using bakers flour which is a stronger flour. If you have the same problem I would recommend adding a drop more milk. It might also be worth doubling the recipe for a decent sized cake. 

I also found that the topping was incredibly cinnamony so you may like to readjust it to suit your taste.