Prince Regent Cake

Prinzregententorte

Ingredients

Cake:
250g (9oz) Butter or margarine
250g (9oz)Sugar
1 packet Vanilla-sugar (small packet, approx 10g?)
4 Eggs
A pinch of salt
200g (7oz) Plain flour
50g (1.75oz) Gustin (cornflour)
1 level teaspoon (3g) baking powder

Filling:
1 packet Vanilla Custard (300g)
1 level teaspoon cocoa
100g (3.5oz ) sugar
5 tablespoons Cold milk
250g (9oz) Butter or margarine
1.75oz Coconut butter (optional)
425ml milk

Icing:
150g (5.5oz) Icing sugar
3 level tablespoons Cocoa
2-3 tablespoons Hot water
20g (0.75oz) Butter or coconut butter, melted.

--------------o--O--o--------------
Method

For the cake:
Cream the fat and add to it the sugar, vanilla, eggs and salt. Mix and sieve together the flour, cornflour and baking powder and then add to the creamed ingredients a tablespoon at a time. Bake 8 separate layers out of the mixture. Spread about 4 tablespoons of mixture each time on the base of a well greased, round cake tin (with removable rim and 10.5”/26cm diameter). Take care that the mixture is not too thin near the edge, as it might become brown. Bake each layer without the cake tin rim until golden. Cool each layer on a cake rack after baking.
Oven: Moderately hot (180C)
Baking time: 8-10 minutes.

For the filling:
Blend the vanilla, custard, cocoa and the sugar with the 5 tablespoons of milk. Bring the 425ml milk to the boil, remove from heat, stir in the vanilla custard mixture and bring to the boil once more, stirring all the time. If coconut butter is used, add this to the hot pudding. Set aside to cool, stirring frequently to prevent a skin forming. Cream the fat and beat into the cold pudding gradually. Take care that neither pudding nor fat are too cool or the cream may curdle. Spread each layer with the filling and place on top of one another to build the cake.

For the icing:
Sieve the icing sugar with the cocoa, add the hot water, to give a good coating consistency. Add the hot fat and ice the cake.
--------------o--O--o--------------

This recipe was bought to Australia by a German migrant, Annie Ringenberg, during the 1950's.
It was written down by Uschi's mum, as it was a family favourite. The "packet of vanilla sugar" is a bit of a mystery. We think it was a small sachet of vanilla used at the time. Maybe vanilla essence would do as a replacement. "Gustin" is a German brand name cornflour, any fine cornflour suitable for sponge cakes would be acceptable.
The cake is usually iced with a chocolate icing. Annie's special variation had a toffee covering on the top.