Anne of Green Gables Layer Cake

My favourite book series is Anne of Green Gables. I think I've read the series from the first book to the eighth like about three times. So today, following up on the "baking from books" thing I did with Mathilda's chocolate cake, I decided to bake Anne's liniment layer cake. 

Anne's liniment layer cake scene occurs in a chapter called, "A New Departure in Flavourings" in the first book. Marilla Cuthbert invites the new minister and his wife over for tea. On this special occasion, Anne is allowed to make a layer cake and she is overjoyed and also very worried. She wants the cake to be perfect and fears that the cake might not rise because the baking powder might be poor. 

The cake did rise, however, and came out of the oven as light and feathery as golden foam. Anne, flushed with delight, clapped it together with layers of ruby jelly and, in imagination, saw Mrs. Allan eating it and possibly asking for another piece!

But knowing Anne, who always gets into scrapes... 

When the minister's wife Mrs. Allan tastes the cake she tries not to grimace and keeps on eating it mechanically. Then Marilla tastes it, and finds out that Anne had used anodyne liniment, not vanilla extract as flavouring! Anne had mistaken the old vanilla bottle when in fact it was filled with liniment and couldn't smell the difference between the two because she had come down with a cold. 

So that layer cake is what I made today except I used vanilla, not liniment of course. >.< Also the L.M. Montgomery didn't specify what type of layer cake it was except that it was filled with ruby jelly, so I made a sponge cake and filled it with lingonberry jam. Lingonberry is not as sweet as strawberry or raspberry and I wanted to tone down the sweetness of the whole cake. For the top I just dusted it with powdered sugar like a Victorian sponge cake. The flowers I added for decoration and also because it reminded me of how Anne picked wildflowers from outside and decorated the table for the occasion. I just picked a few flowers and mint leaves from our backyard.

Also, I think the method for the sponge cake is the method Anne would have used, because in Anne of Avonlea Anne and Diana help a neighbour bake layer cake while his wife is away and Diana is said to be beating the eggs while Anne mixes the rest of the ingredients. That would be the method for a sponge cake. 

So yeah! I loved how this cake turned out and it is something I will make again, but next time I'll be careful not to overbake it. 

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES LAYER CAKE

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 room-temp. eggs

2 cups sugar

115g butter

1 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla

A jar of red jam

Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line a 9-inch springform pan.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Beat eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until pale and thick. 

4. Microwave the butter and milk for 3 minutes and stir in vanilla.

5. Sift flour mixture over the egg mixture and fold with a spatula.

6. Pour in the butter mixture in thin streams and gently whisk by hand.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

8. Unmould the cake and slice it into three layers.

9. Spread the jam in between the layers and then dust the top layer with a nice coating of powdered sugar. 

10. You can decorate the top with flowers if you wish. 

Enjoy with tea!

Watch me make this cake here:

Recipe adapted from It's all Frosting: https://itsallfrosting-wordpress-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/itsallfrosting.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/readers-digestibles-annes-liniment-layer-cake/amp/

#layercake #bakingfrombooks