to not tell my neighbour the secret ingredient

[Cailinsalach]

My old Dad loves treacle cake and asked me to make some for him. (I am a slave to my father's appetite).
I hadn't a clue how to make it so asked the next door neighbour who very kindly copied her recipe for me. When I saw it I noticed it was very similar to a recipe my Mum gave me when she was alive but with treacle. So I make my Mum's recipe, add treacle and Dad is happy.
So I gave the neighbour a bit one day and she raved about it.
Yesterday she confessed she is distraught trying to reproduce a treacle cake as nice as mine. She admits to having made dozens none of which comes close to mine. She thinks I use her recipe and I did not disabuse her of this notion. The main difference is (looks around nervously....) Olive oil....sssshhhh.
Am I very wrong to not tell her? Am I bad to want to hold on to my status as uncrowned queen of Treacle Cakes?
I feel I should take this secret to my grave.....

How can treacle be the mystery ingredient in a treacle cake?

I have never wanked in a bhaji..but...nope not going to say anymore.
Yes I am the daughter of a 90 year old father who eats the equivalent of a horse (hmm I might actually not be metaphorical) And yes it is the same neighboir that he slopes off to if he thinks her cake tin is more interesting. She tried to entice him with fancy cup cakes yesterday. Blatantly. She is such a minx.
I am happy to share recipe:
1lb plain flour
Pinch salt
Teaspoon sodium bicarbonate
Teaspoon cream of tartare
Large egg whisked with large glug olive oil)
Buttermilk ( ordinary will do)
3 ounces soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons treacle.
Packet sultanas
2 heaped teaspoons ginger powder

Mix well. Mixture should be a bit sloppy. Put into buttered cake tin in hot oven for 15 mins then turn down to moderate for a further 45 mins
Cooked when knife comes out clean.

Cool, slice, butter and serve with strong tea. Best eaten within a day or two

Don't tell her next door.

How much milk/buttermilk please?

Share it, I hate this cake snob fuckwittery. Sorry YABU and unbelievably petty, but you're not alone so feel better about that.

(I have been BEGGING my mum for her chocolate cake recipe for YEARS... she gave it to my sister, who's now given it to me, and it's left me feeling that my own mother is a petty twat of the highest order)

Mmmmm...and do you mean that slightly scary very very thick black treacle that comes - often - in a red tin?

Oh, and what do you mean by a hot oven, and then a moderate oven? I'm a hopeless cook; I need to do it all by the book or I panic.

If you add a tablespoon of lemon juice to normal milk and let it stand for a few minutes, it becomes a good buttermilk substitute.

Aldi poison the cow and share the recipe.

You really are a cailin salach if you don't give your neighbour deas the recipe!

YAAC & YABVU

I am your neighbour and I am saddened by this thread.

I hate treacle cake and in fact all things treacally, yabu op.

Moderate oven is 180oC
Hot oven is 220oC

Yes it is the thick black treacly treacle in a red tin.

Good tip about the lemon juice. Thanks!

You put as much buttermilk in so the mixture is wetter than pastry but not as wet as batter.

If you really my next door neighbour I have two things to say

1. Stop feeding my father cake. Thats my job
2. I lied about the olive oil

I dont know oven temps. I have an oil range so the temperature guage is cool/moderate/hot. I think hot may be 190?

I am the most salach of all cailins

@ formallyknowenaslovelydarling

You caved easily Cailin! I have copied and pasted your recipe into Word as I am shite at finding old threads I've been on. Saved without looking; cake recipe (including red herring olive oil glug) now saved as "How did we get from treacle cake to wanking into a bhaji?"

Never seen that in a Mary Berry book (although I wouldn't put is past Paul Hollywood...)

Paul Hollywood combines the two things I really love...
Hunky men and baking. Sigh.......

Sorry I think you are being total bitch. Why wouldn't you give recipeand why have you posted here asking???

Pettier than Tom Petty.

YABU.

Give her the recipe before thw poor woman gives herself severe health problems making and eating treacle puds.

Share and share alike - and she sounds like she bakes more than you do so she will undoubtedly pay you back a few times over.