The loaf is a recipe from my ever-expanding collection of WWII rationing recipes. It's also a way of using byproducts from canning.
The original is from Marguerite Patten, but needed some tweaks due to, I suspect, differences in ingredients. I don't know which of three available kinds of baking powder (at the time) she used. Also, the National Flour was very different from unbleached all-purpose. (The National Flour and National Bread was so hated at the time that the Brits called it 'Hitler's secret weapon'). I'm still working on the recipe, but I'm getting closer.
It's a bread, not a cake, so only a little sweet. However, the first attempt had an actual slight sour taste and the loaf didn't rise in the middle. Both point to too much baking powder, so I cut the powder in half. I also increased the flour from 4 ounces to 5 ounces, making it a whole cup, and added cinnamon. Taste is better, but not perfect, and it rose all the way without any divot. In terms of rationing, it involves no eggs, no fat (except for buttering the pan) and no white sugar. The sweetening comes from 2 Tbsp Lyle's Golden Syrup in Patten's recipe. My version involves 1/4 cup of a thin sauce made from boiled down apple-infused light syrup left over from canning apples and also from opening one jar. I substituted this for both the sugar and for part of the 'household milk' used by Patten.
Next time I might try eliminating the small amount of baking soda and see if that adjusts the taste even further. However, it's quite tasty as it is. It's a very small loaf and fits the two of us quite well for three breakfasts. I won't post it, however, because when the syrup/caramel is gone, it won't be useful again until I do more canning.
I play with my food.
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