Cinnamon Tea Cake in honour of Margaret Fulton

Today is a sad day for Australian cooks, as the great Margaret Fulton passed away today at the age of 94.  Margaret is legendary in Australia, and many people grew up with their mothers cooking her recipes, or owning her cookbooks themselves.  My mother received the first edition of The Margaret Fulton Cookbook for her 21st birthday, and she still uses it, albeit it long ago having lost its cover and numerous pages hanging by a thread from the binding.

I bought the revised and updated edition of The Margaret Fulton Cookbook when it was first issued in 2004, when I was living in Sydney.  It was the first new cookbook I had ever bought, and I felt very proud to own it because I now had the same cookbook as my Mum.  The first recipe I made from it was Margaret's cupcakes, which I made and took to work iced with green icing, and a jaunty spearmint leaf lolly on top of each for St Patrick's Day.  I did not tell anyone that I made them, and I remember my then boss coming in to show me one, quite amused.  (I did not let on that I had made them!)  

I have made a number of different Margaret Fulton recipes over the years.  The Beatles birthday cake is probably my favourite because it is so fun - I saw the recipe in an exhibition of Beatles memorabilia and scoured the Internet to find it. However, there are Aussie staples like Anzac biscuits and lemon delicious, as well as plenty of Christmas recipes.

In 2012, I even saw a musical called Margaret Fulton: Queen of Desserts, celebrating Margaret's life and work.  There was audience participation involved in the form of being handed mini Australian flags and being required to wave them at the right time.

I thought it only fitting that I celebrate Margaret's life on this sad day by baking one of her recipes from the original and still the best, The Margaret Fulton Cookbook. In keeping with Margaret's mission to make cooking accessible to all, I decided to make a very simple cake - the Cinnamon Tea Cake.  Her book marks the recipes with dots in the heading so you know at a glance how complex or not they are to make, and the Cinnamon Tea Cake is indicated to be easy by a single dot.

While this cake is simple to make, it is not at all skimpy on flavour. It is light and buttery, and given a spicy, crunchy boost with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar on top.  Served fresh out of the oven while it is still warm, it is absolutely heavenly. It was very hard to limit myself to one slice.   

To make your very own Cinnamon Tea Cake according to Margaret's recipe, you will need:

1 egg, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup self-raising flour
30g melted butter

For the topping:

2 teaspoons melted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.  Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Beat the egg white until stiff peaks form, then beat in the egg yolk.

Gradually beat in the sugar.  Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a cup, then slowly beat it into the egg mixture.

Using  a rubber spatula, fold the flour and melted butter into the cake batter.

Scrape the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked through and golden on top.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon from the topping ingredients together.  

Immediately on removing the cake from the oven, brush the top of the cake with the melted butter from the topping ingredients, and sprinkle over the combined sugar and cinnamon.

Turn the cake onto a wire rack, right side up.  Serve warm or cooled.