Mabel Tea cake

While I was trying to name the cake debating Mom's teacake , I thought more appropriate and justified will be Mabel Tea cake. Mabel aunty as well call her, my mom's colleague and neighbour learnt this recipe and showed us and my mom. It was almost 30 years ago. Then it was no stopping for us ( Caroline, Billy and me) . Every Harvest festival in the Church and during Christmas time, we will be helping her mix the cake ( those days we had to use wooden mathu and which I was using till few years back) and wait to lick the left over mix from the vessel. ( It's so yum)  I used to help my mom also. So the recipe and the procedure became so familiar  to me.
Mabel aunty is the who taught me not to wait till the day of harvest festival to raise funds.  She takes prior orders and supplied them. Now I am following that .  Even after so many years, my cakes are never closer to hers in taste and look.

Ingredients
All purpose flour- 250 gas
Eggs- 6
Sugar-250 gms
Unsalted butter-250gms
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Baking powder- 1 tbsp
Cake seeds- 2 to 3 pinches
Nuts of your choice- Cashew, walnuts, dry grapes etc
Procedure
Powder the sugar in a mixer Jar. Add the butter and blend nicely.

 Collect the white of the eggs in a separate vessel and add the yolk to the above mixture. Blend it . Whisk the white of the eggs till frothy. Add it to the rest of the mixture. Add the baking powder and mix.. add the flour  and mix nicely .. add the essence and cake seeds ( cake seeds may be avoided if not available. It gives excellent flavour to the cake .I don't find it in Chennai. I used to bring it from home town).

Use butter paper in the cake vessel. Pre heat  the oven for 10 minutes. Keep the cake mixture in the oven and let it cook for 50 minutes to one hour with frequent checks  ( I use a very basic eletrical oven for this cake ). You can use the usual setting for cake in the latest ovens.

Enjoy the yummiest cake you would have ever tasted.