Homemade spice cake, a vintage recipe

Today has been so hot and I can scarcely believe we are heading in to autumn, we are experiencing a true indian summer this year! I have made a spice cake to welcome in the new season, using an old,

 ancient recipe and was so pleased with how it came out, so soft and golden inside. I made a traditional vanilla buttercream to top it with and decorated with wafer flowers and scattered almond pieces.

Here is the recipe I used

. One and half cups of flour

. Half a cup of butter/soft margarine

(. A little extra for greasing the tins!)

. One cup of sugar

. Two eggs

. Half a cup of buttermilk

. Half a teaspoonful of cinnamon

. Half a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg

. A teaspoonful of grated (I used ground) ginger

. One teaspoonful baking powder

. Grated lemon rind

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream and then beat the eggs separately. Combine them with the flour and the butter and sugar and beat thoroughly, adding the baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon and buttermilk as you go. Originally it would have taken one and a half hours to bake, although for me it took about 25 minutes to turn a ginger brown colour and a knife inserted came out clean.

The end result is a beautiful aromatic, moist cake that indulges all of the senses and whets ones appetite for the incredible season to come. I would really love to collect old cookery books from hundreds of years ago, that sounds amazing to me! I seek to connect on some intimate level with the people who used them before; I only wish I had a window to see through time, to an age where knowing how to cook was essential and what was made depended almost entirely on the season's produce.

Did you spot my bad pun in there? On a little lovely note - today I celebrated three years with my beloved! Do you have any Autumn traditions? Do let me know! ♡