AMY JOHNSON CAKE

The famous Amy Johnson Cake.  found in the CWA cookbook 1957
History of Amy Johnson the person.  http://youtu.be/QZRg6bPJ8jE

Amy Johnson was born July 1, 1903, in Hull Yorkshire and lived there until she went to Sheffield University in 1923 to read for a BA. After graduating, she moved on to work as a secretary to a London solicitor where she also became interested in flying. Amy began to learn to fly at the London Aeroplane Club in the winter of 1928-29 and her hobby soon became an all-consuming determination, not simply to make a career in aviation, but to succeed in some project which would demonstrate to the world that women could be as competent as men in a hitherto male dominated field.
It was on one of the routine flights on January 5, 1941, that Amy crashed into the Thames estuary and was drowned, a tragic and early end to the life of Britain's most famous woman pilot.
Jason was the name she called her first plane which was a Gypsy Moth aircraft.

Preheat the oven to a180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees
Ingredients:  for Base

2 ozs Butter
I cup SR Flour
Pinch of salt and a little milk Raspberry jam 
Currents
Method
Rub 2ozs butter into 1 large cup S.R flour, sifted with a pinch of salt, mix to firm dough with a little milk. Roll
 out 1/4" thick and line a greased cake tin.  Spread with raspberry jam and sprinkle with 1/2 cup currents. 

Ingredients:  for the sponge mixture
2 Eggs
3/4  cup of Sugar
1 cup sifted Flour
2 tablespoons Melted Butter
3 tablespoons Milk
Method:
Then make a sponge mixture: beat 2 eggs and 3/4 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.  Fold in 1 cup sifted S.R flour and finally 2 tablespoons butter melted in 3 tablespoons of milk.  Pour on top of pastry.  Bake about 40 minutes in moderate oven. 

When cold, ice with thin lemon icing and sprinkle with coconut.

Image via Wikipedia

 Lemon Icing

Ingredients:

100g butter

1 tsp grated lemon rind

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 - 2 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Cream together the butter until it turns light and fluffy
2. Add the lemon Rind and mix through
3. Beat in the icing sugar gradually,  keep beating until the resulting mixture goes smooth.
4. Add the lemon juice. Add only in small increments until the icing becomes of a spreadable consistency. It is always better to a little than too much! 

On Sunday I went to visit my dear friend Iris Goldstein.  We rented a house from Mark and Iris for some ten years and Iris is a cook of legendary status.  I tasted this cake and I had to come home and make it and blog it for my children.  There is a lot of history in this cake given it is named after the famous female aviation legend.  Iris does not fly planes but she knows how to fly around her kitchen.  She has a new kitchen now.