Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's Favourite Cake - 'The Cake' which we enjoyed at a Garden Open Day at Brow Cottage

 Several of us enjoyed a drink and cake at an open garden recently. It was so good that I went to ask the ladies serving if there was any chance of the recipe.  I was told that it was called Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother's, Favourite Recipe.  Whilst still in the garden Carolyn confirmed the recipe on her phone and sent me the link.

Back home I searched and found a number of versions of what is in effect a Date and Walnut Traybake.  There is also a Queen Elizabeth tray cake but with coconut topping.  Bearing in mind that this cake was probably first issued around 1953 for the coronation, 'The Cake' most probably predates this. Compared to many modern versions of which I can recommend from Mary Berry's Baking Bible, her Date and Walnut Traybake, 'The Cake' has far less rich ingredients.  Bearing in mind that the recipe probably was around in the 1940s, whilst The Queen Mother was still The Queen, when there was still rationing for many items, it would have been considered a real treat. Various sources tell me this was published in various places such as ladies's magazines with encouragement to make it to sell to raise funds.

Here is the cake I made for when my gardening friends Alison and Julie came to visit last week.

What I did like was that in one old typewritten recipe, there was the note that instead of single cream you could add the top of the milk.  Since we are on a goat's milk, butter etc diet, and have our milk delivered unhomogenised it was easy for me to draw off the cream from the top of the bottle. I don't think back in those days they had the traybake cake tin that many of us now have, and since I do not have a swiss roll tin, I used that.  These days a traybake usually measures 30 x 23 cm and a swiss roll tin 33 x 23.  I think the larger swiss roll tin would give a thinner cake similar to the one we had at the garden open day.  Also the vanilla flavour came through very nice, and next time I make this I would increase the vanilla in the cake, and put a little into the fudge topping as well.

This is a delicious cake and well worth trying.

Cake Ingredients and Method

225g ready stoned cooking dates chopped

5g bicarbonate of soda

250ml boiling water

Combine these three and set aside whilst you line your tin with baking parchment, weigh and prepare all your other ingredients. These must be cool before adding later to the mixture

Preheat your oven to 160C fan

200g caster sugar ( this is less than most recipes I found)

80g butter soften (a little more than several recipes which quoted around 50g)

1 large egg beaten

1tsp Vanilla essence...which I would increase to 1.5 tsp next time

285 g plain flour sifted with

5g baking powder and 

2g fine sea salt

60g chopped walnuts

Cream the sugar and butter together till pale.  This takes some effort first with a fork then with a hand held mixer as the ratio of sugar to butter is very high.  Then add the egg and whisk again till light.  Fold in the flour and the cooled date and water mixture, along with the chopped dates.  I lightly bake all my walnuts first as this really brings out the flavour.  

Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 mins.  Remove from the oven, then the tin, and place on a cooling rack.

Topping

30g butter

70g Soft Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp single cream or top of the milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence (next time)

Extra Walnuts

Combine all the ingredients in a small pan, heat up and bring to the boil, keep boiling for three minutes or so, and have a spatula ready both to stir and stop any catching at the bottom of the pan, and to spread this across your cooling bake.  Scatter with more bits of walnuts (lightly baked).  When cool remove from the paper and cut into sections.  It kept well for several days, and I also froze two long sections ready to bring out at a later date.

I liked this fudge topping and will be using again on other cake recipes.

Do leave comments whether it is about this recipe that you have tried, or further information about the history of this cake.

In a Vase on Monday - Birthday Lily in the Valley

 A few weeks ago I was walking round a beautiful garden with friends, and as often happens we split into two or threes depending on the interest in different sections. Carolyn who is one of the two ladies who selects and plans our WI  Blooming Fun outings and is equally interested in gardening as I am enjoyed pointing out different features to each other.

Today I dedicate my little vase to Caroly: Lily of the Valley and blue forget me not like flowers from Brunnera Jack Frost.

As we were walking round Brow Cottage which coincidentally featured in April 2026 Gardens Illustrated, Carolyn told me the story of how her mother used to prepare a little vase of Lily of the Valley each year for her birthday, even just a very few stems of just opening blooms.  So here today although not the exact date of Carolyn's birthday, which is nearer the end of the month, I dedicate this vase to a beautiful and generous lady.

We also both had the same piece of delicious cake at Brow Cottage.  I had to go back and check if the recipe was available.  It was called The Queen Mother's favourite cake which is a Date and Walnut Tray Bake with a fudge type topping.

Each time my Lily of the Valley comes into bloom I shall now think of Carolyn. I shall not forget the precious moment of Carolyn sharing this memory with me.

The little watering, can which I have shown before, signals hot days and watering.  The Lily of the Valley are suffering but it was worth cutting the last fairly OK blooms for this IAVOM. Each week we link into Cathy's Post.  

Six on Saturday - 25 April 2026

 During the week I had my good gardening friend Alison visit and she brought another friend whom I met for the first time.  Not dissimilar to SOS where we visit each others gardens via Jim's post. 

We had a  tour round the small front and back gardens, and of course had coffee and cake in the garden.  It was so warm we sat in the shade.  It probably was not the best time for digging up little patches of plants, but hopefully with care and shade they will soon perk up and I hope Julie will enjoy them.

1. One of the plants which Julie had a piece of was Saxifraga stolonifera which is a fantastic ground covering plant for shaded areas with' if one stretches the point, purple or rather maroon and green leaves, especially as later it will have some delightful flowers.

Saxifraga stolonifera

2. Alison asked for a piece of this little plant growing very successfully in the gravel garden.  The little blue pom pom pom flowers are just starting to open which of course called out to be admired. Globularia cordifolia, commonly known as the heart-leaved globe daisy or matted globularia, is a low-growing, evergreen subshrub.  

Globularia cordifolia

3. Nearby the Thyme 'Jekka' is looking glorious, and as it extends, it roots itself into the gravel and pieces of that too were easily prepared.

Thymus 'Jekka'

Loved by the bees and also frequently used in the kitchen, it is the most floriferous and easy going thymes in the garden.

4. Early this year I took one of the biggest of the Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve' and refreshed it by pulling it apart and replanting the most vigorous sections in a piece of 'improved' soil, and therefore it was easy to pass on a good young plant onto to Julie, with the strict instructions to cut off all the flowering stems just this year so that the plant could re-establish itself nicely.

Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve'

5. It looks as if the theme for this week could be purply blue especially if I showed you one plant that I had been seeking out for years, ever since I saw it in 2016 in the Birmingham Botanic gardens.

I moved it to the shade this week, and I think I may even have to move it to a plastic pot as it is not coping very well in this hot dry weather. It is a tricky one and this time I will not be dividing it as I did with my blue one, which I lost.

Viola Pedata bicolour

Luckily another little blue one is soldiering on, but it is in intensive care right now, and no visitors allowed!

6. The Scilla Peruviana are in full swing..including these newly divided ones sheltering close by the Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’.

The rest of the gang are rather raucously enjoying the sun on the dry southern side of the front garden amongst other plants that enjoy this position.

Scilla Peruviana

Extra Growing Angels Fishing Rods (Dierama) from seed

My seedlings are up, it will be ages till they are large enough to flower.  I shall enjoy watching them thrive and hopefully not falter.  Please do not make me admit to where I obtained the seed from!! They were only falling across the path and being trodden on my lord!

In a Vase on Monday - Small spring vase

For this In a Vase on Monday I give you this spring mini arrangement featuring the beautiful Primula Treborth Yellow.  The lovely soft mauve flowers are from Polemonium ‘Lambrook Mauve’ which contrast beautifully with the yellow of the Primula.  Anna recommended this Polemonium to me, and since getting it in 2021, each late winter I have taken pieces and simply pushed them in the ground such that I have several plants across the garden.  The third little flower is a diminutive pansy Viola Tricolor which seeds itself gently around the garden.

The little vintage brass snail often slithers across the photographs, and helps to give a idea of the scale for some IAVOM. It was the idea of the imaginative Cathy to start this series of get togethers each Monday with flowers from our gardens. 

Six on Saturday - 18 April 2026

This is a very sad time for our leader Jim, but he has valiantly and bravely decided that his garden is to be his refuge and I am sure his personal friends and family will be supporting him as well.  His garden was shared with his wife Sue who was I am particularly fond and knowledgeable on cacti and succulents, so it is a fitting tribute that Jim's first plant this week was one of Sue's Echeverias.  I am linking this week's post on Jim's blog. 

1. In the conservatory border I have a number of primroses and other spring specials. 

Primula Garryarde Guinevere

Primula 'Guinevere' or 'Garryard Guinevere' came to me via Broadleigh gardens and is quite late flowering for me.  With dark leaves and a polyanthus form quite a beauty. 

2. Also from Broadleigh Gardens is this Scilla hughii in the front garden. It is yet to produce any offsets unlike the Scilla Peruviana which is growing well elsewhere in the garden.

Scilla hughii

3. Another favourite which makes this the third from Broadleigh Gardens: a little violet which is just starting to flower. There is a charm about it. Viola cucullata alba, with its large flower all white with mauve guidelines poised above its recently emerged leaves.  

4. Toona sinensis is still in its pot. I have yet to decide where and whether it will go in the ground. It was quite a vibrant pink a couple of weeks back, but it taking on a more silvery hue now.

Chinese cedar

5. As the light fails in the evening the newly emerging leaves on Fatsia 'Spiders Web' look like so many waving hands. I've never had so many white leaves, I wonder what has caused this?

6.  This may or may not be Primula Maisie Michael, it should be more yellow. But my pledge not to buy has been broken, I've found a few different ones including another 'Maisie Michael' from someone else, and it will be fun to compare them.

The garden seems to developing along the lines of a spring garden, let us see what happens in the weeks ahead.  This coming week I am going to have a block of time that I can be in the garden just as much as I like...I hope I have the right weather it is forecasted.