HEIRLOOM: GOING DUTCH
THE ORIGIN AND INGREDIENTS OF THIS BUTTERY CAKE PERSUADED DELL VOUT TO ADD IT TO HER HANDWRITTEN RECIPE COLLECTION.
This buttery Dutch ginger cake topped with almonds may soon become your family’s favourite, too.
WHEN SUSIE DEEGENAARS discovered a recipe for Dutch ginger cake as she was sorting through her mother’s handwritten collection, she stopped to pause and smile. “Dell was a great lover of ginger, whether it was glacé, chocolate-coated or ginger in her baking,” explains Susie, 69, of Banora Point in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. “But I feel the real story lies behind the fact I had a Dutch boyfriend, who later became my husband.”
Susie says Dell (short for Adeldorita), who was of ‘fiery Irish’ descent, was intrigued by Bert Deegenaars’s heritage, even though he was born in Sydney in December 1949, eight months after his family migrated to Sydney.
“I think that’s why the recipe caught her eye,” she says. “She teased me about having the longest surname of all the family and would often joke about Bert’s homeland traditions, like wearing clogs and being surrounded by water and stone walls. She even once grew a pineapple to convince him they did not grow underground like a Dutch potato.”
Dell herself was Australian born and bred. Born in 1916, she grew up in Casino, NSW, and attended a Catholic boarding school in Kyogle, staying on to train as a nun and a teacher. “But she came home to look after her father who was not well and somehow met my dad and never went back to the convent,” Susie explains. “They had 10 children so they were still good Catholics!”
Frederick Vout (pictured above left with Dell at the front of their farm) ran a successful Casino dairy and pig-breeding operation called Lyndhurst Stud. With 10 children, Dell also had her hands full. “She made all our clothes and did lots of cooking and baking,” Susie says. “Later in life, when she lived as a widow with her bachelor son, she cooked every day for them both and always had a cake, biscuit or treat for visitors.”
In 1964, during Susie’s final years of school, the family moved to Port Macquarie. Her father passed away suddenly in 1973 and Dell coped by joining local church and community groups and turning to her religious beliefs. “She didn’t drive but she loved to travel. She would hop on the train to go to the Melbourne Cup, visit her family and went to places like Coober Pedy and Broken Hill.”
After finding the Dutch ginger cake recipe after
Dell passed away in 2003, Susie sent it to her sisters to try. “We found it very buttery but Mum loved butter
— we often said she would have a tiny slice of cake or bread with her butter. But I loved the fact that she had obviously treasured this recipe.”
DUTCH GINGER CAKE
Serves 6–8
185g butter
13⁄4 cups plain flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup caster sugar
125g preserved ginger, chopped 1 egg
60g whole blanched almonds
Preheat oven to 180˚C. Grease a 20cm round sandwich tin, then line with baking paper.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Set aside to cool at room temperature. Sift flour into a mixing bowl. Add salt, sugar and ginger and mix until combined.
Beat egg with a fork in a small bowl. Remove 1 teaspoon of beaten egg and set aside for glazing. Stir remaining egg into flour mixture with cooled butter and mix until well combined. Spoon into prepared tin and use back of a spoon to firmly press.
Brush top of cake with reserved beaten egg. Press almonds into cake top in a decorative pattern. Bake for 45–50 minutes or until golden and firm to touch. Allow to cool completely in tin before turning out.
SHARE YOUR FAMILY FAVOURITES Do you have a recipe that has been passed down through generations? Send it to us, the story behind it and a copy of a photograph of the relative who passed it on. Remember to include a telephone number. Email vcarey@ bauer-media.com.au or send a letter to Heirloom Recipe, Country Style,
PO Box 4088, Sydney NSW, 1028.