The simple pleasure of a Queen Elizabeth cake
Four people + one TV kitchen + a royal recipe = baking fun
I leapt at the chance to marry my interest in royalty with my fondness for cooking. So on Thursday, I was in the kitchen in the studio of The Morning Show on Global TV in Canada to make Queen Elizabeth Cake (recipe below).
The top-rated show was concluding a month of “September Switches” in which regular guests such as food blogger Laura Keogh of Sweet Potato Chronicles and I take on each other’s roles: I do the baking part of the segment while Laura is the royal expert who informs cohosts Carolyn MacKenzie and Jeff McArthur on the royal history of the Queen Elizabeth cake.
Laura and I regularly appear on the show on Mondays and spend time before and after each other’s segments chatting about food and royalty. It took us about 10 seconds to decide that the Queen Elizabeth cake should be the focus of our September Switch.
What I soon realized is that TV cooking is very different from my usual Royal Roundup segments. For one, it involves choreography — I had to go through the baking process while involving co-hosts into the cooking process and also rattling off the recipe and tips. I’ve no clue how Laura does it!
On Thursday, we were both at the studio before 8 a.m. to set up for the segment, which didn’t begin until around 9:20 a.m. I had three bins of royal commemoratives, books, and tchotchke to place in the cooking area of the studio, while Laura was equally busy setting up the cooking part of the segment. In addition, the segment producer and floor director were making last minute tweaks. Not a moment was wasted to the point that the floor director dropped a hint that I might want to remove the velcro curlers from of my hair, given that it was already 8:55!
I hope you enjoy the result as much as we had fun making it!
The history of Queen Elizabeth cake
The origins of the cake aren’t exactly clear. The “Queen Elizabeth” in its title may refer to Queen Elizabeth II or her mother, Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother).
We know that it became a staple of the 1940s and 1950s, when people needed to make an inexpensive dessert that took little sugar, eggs, and butter and didn’t require refrigeration. This era is marked by the Depression, Second World War, and post-war food rationing, which existed well into the 1950s in Britain. Even today, it costs around $10 to make all five small cakes in the recipe provided below .
The cake was at the height of its popularity for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, when families crowded into the home of a relation or neighbour who had a TV (still rare in those days) so everyone could watch the crowning of the young Queen. In Canada, Chatelaine published a recipe for an elaborate version in its coronation issue.
After that, its popularity slowly waned. You can still find the cake at church bake sales and markets in rural areas but it’s largely vanished from urban centres. That’s a shame because it’s a good cake — it’s easy to make and is rich without being too sweet. It’s relatively low in fat (1/2 cup of butter for 5 cakes) and freezes perfectly.
I regularly make it at least two or three times a year (not including a big bake for my church bake sale) — I give most away to friends, family, and neighbours and then freeze the rest in slices.
My history with the cake
I attempted to make the cake for a celebration to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. It did not go well. The dense moistness of the cake meant that my first attempts had craters in the middle of the pan where the batter never cooked thoroughly. I tried. And tried. And tried.
On the sixth or seventh attempt, I got a recipe to kinda, sorta work. (My royal baking saga is documented in this Maclean’s article.)
Four years later, for the Queen’s 90th birthday, I wanted to find a recipe that really worked. This time, a friend of a friend, professional baker Cheryl Pollock, heard of my quest and offered her traditional recipe, which she sold for years in markets in the Ottawa area.
SUCCESS!
Cheryl’s two rules for the Queen Elizabeth cake:
Use smaller pans to avoid the “crater” baking issue
Use the inexpensive block or dried cooking dates that were originally used by bakers in the 1940s and 1950s (better quality dates have too much moisture and throw off the proportions of the recipe)
Queen Elizabeth cake by Cheryl Pollock
Makes five 5- or 6-inch cakes
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare five round cake pans (either 5″ or 6″) by greasing the sides with butter, and then flouring the sides. Line the bottoms with parchment paper.
MAKING THE BATTER
Start with the date mixture (which is a two-part process)
Date mixture
2 cups chopped dates (block or dried cooking dates)
2 cups boiling water
First part: In a bowl, pour boiling water over the dates.
Wet ingredients
1/2 cup butter (room-temperature)
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
Beat the butter in main mixing bowl.
Gradually add the sugar until well combined.
Add the eggs, and beat.
BACK TO the date mixture: ADD 2 tsp baking soda. It will foam. Stir a few times and let sit.
Dry ingredients
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
Combine well in a bowl
Add to the wet mixture and combine (it will be slightly crumbly.)
Then slowly add the date mixture to the main batter until thoroughly combined. Don’t over mix.
Pour the cake batter evenly into the five pans.
Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees
Cool on wire racks
Remove from pans, discard the parchment paper round.
You can stop here. There’s no need to add any topping. But if you like coconut …
Coconut topping*
6 tbsp butter
10 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp milk or cream
1 cup unsweetened coconut
Combine ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Stir constantly for three minutes.
Remove from heat, and cool.
Place the cakes on a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Spread the topping evenly on the rounded cake tops.
Broil until the topping turns golden (3-ish minutes)
*For those who really like coconut, increase the topping amounts by 50-100
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My latest Royal Roundup on Global TV’s The Morning Show on September 23:
My latest article for Zoomer: “Prince Harry at 40: From Hollywood to Philanthropy to Tabloid Takedowns, the Duke of Sussex is Charting His Own Path Forward”
Five years ago, Harry joined hands with his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and together they leapt off the proverbial cliff, leaving the strictures of royal life for one that they could shape and control more to their liking (the continued gaze of the world’s media notwithstanding).
Now, as the Duke of Sussex turns 40 this weekend, Harry is building his own life away from the comforts of palaces and castles, and he’s doing just fine.
