Love Cake June 2014 round up

It's been cold! It's been wet! It's been hot! Then cold and wet again. It seems June was never able to make its mind up. Even in the rain we braved some visits to gardens and may have sampled the cakey delights that were on offer. Your enthusiasm for vintage bakes wasn't diminished either and here are all the wonderful cakes you have been making this month.

We started the month with Heidi at From The Council Flat Kitchen posing the question can all British cakes be classed as vintage in some way? For a cake with some proper vintage credentials she shared with us Great Grandma Murphy's Chocolate Button Cake.

You can't get much more classic than a Victoria sponge and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy Food For Families treated us to her version with a twist. For a seasonal touch it was filled and topped with strawberries. To complete the vintage feel lavender sugar was used in the cake and then some extra lavender was added to the top.

Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog took the traditional dessert of Eton Mess and used it to form the basis of her Eton Mess Chocolate Cake. The addition of dark chocolate, cardamom sugar and lilac cordial made it extra special.

Will it be a boy or a girl? Caroline at Caroline Makes... had this problem to contend with when she made a cake for her friend's baby shower. Added to this it was her friend's birthday as well and one of the guests was vegan! A double layer Half and Half Vegan/Regular Lemon Birthday and Baby Shower Cake was the answer. For the non-vegan layer Caroline turned to the doyenne of cookery that is Delia Smith for the recipe.

Caroline was back baking again for a work's volunteering day. Needing to take something that would survive a trip in a rucksack she adapted a recipe for some classic Queen Cakes and turned them into Blueberry Muffins.

If you're going vintage how far back can you go? Will 130 years do? Kate at Gluten Free Alchemist went for a gluten free version of Battenberg cake which just happens to be one of my all time favourite cakes. To have it as a truly homemade cake Kate used the recipe for marzipan perfected by Laura at I'd Much Rather Bake Than....

Talking of Laura she had a number of bakes in mind for this month and decided on Vinegar Cake - A Vintage Fruit Cake recipe. This was devised as a wartime cake when fresh eggs were in short supply. It's perfect as a cake to satisfy the need for fruit cake when it is only June and not December!

I spotted an old recipe in a museum last year and decided to get it a try. I found though that the handwritten notes for 'Frish scones' were not as fool-proof as I hoped. The final result was a sugar and salt free version of Old fashioned scones.

So that concludes the cake making for June. Thank you to everyone who joined in. Watch out the theme for July in a couple of days.