A ninety-year old recpie for Apple Cake.

Bit of a back story first. When my mum and dad married in 1963, about six months after my paternal grandmother Marge went to my Mum and said "You know, George is looking a bit thin. You might need this." And she gave my mum a copy of the 1962 Commonsense Cookery Book. From it, my mother learned the basics of plain cakes, Irish Stew and Puff Pastry. She taught me from the book, and it still has the best profiterole recipe I've ever used.

When my grandmother moved from her home to a retirement village, we discovered among her belongings a copy of the 1926 Commonsense Cookery Book, and I can just imagine young Marge, about 6 months into her marriage, being approached by Granny Richards and handed a copy of the book and told "You know, Chas is looking a bit thin, dear. Perhaps you might need this..."

One of the recipes in the 1926 edition is for vegetable soup, and starts off "3d worth Beef Bones". The 1962 book has many of the same recipes, including this one, and it still starts off with "3d worth Beef Bones". You'd think in 36 years the value of beef bones might have changed a little. (For those not sure, 3d is "threepence", which translates as 2½ cents. It would buy 2 eggs out of a dozen in 1926, and less than 1 egg in 1962.)

Anyway, without further waffling, here's the recipe I first made from the 1962 cookbook. I shall translate the whole thing to modern-day terms, unless of course you're comfortable with "moderate ovens".
( Apple Cake! )