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Marmite and cheese cake
Mixing sweet and savoury is typical South African: we grew up with combinations such as grated cheese and apricot jam, or cheese and golden syrup, on sandwiches or vetkoek. Although it was a little unusual at first, Jaco’s colleagues quickly became partial to these small marmite and cheese cakes, baked in muffin pans for morning tea.
While it is fun to make small cakes, the usual method is to bake it in a single cake pan.
We’d like to encourage you to try it. It is surprisingly delicious.
Ingredients:
Cake
- 1 extra large egg
- ¾ cup (200 ml) sugar
- ¼ cup (60 ml) oil
- 1½ cup (375 ml) flour
- ¼ teaspoon (1 ml) salt
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
- 1 cup (250 ml) milk
Topping
- 100 gram butter
- 3 to 4 teaspoons (15 to 20 ml) Marmite (or use Your Mate, Vegemite or Bovril)
- ¾ cup (200 ml) grated cheddar cheese
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Beat egg, add sugar and whisk together.
- Add oil and beat until light and creamy.
- Sift dry ingredients and add to the egg mix with the milk. Mix thoroughly.
- Bake in 24 cm ovenproof dish for about 45 minutes, or in muffin pans for 25 to 30 minutes. Prepare the topping while the cake is in the oven.
- Melt butter and Marmite and mix together.
- Pour warm mixture over hot cake when it’s cooked, sprinkle with grated cheese and return to oven until the cheese melted.
Serve warm or cold.
Comments
Great trip down memory lane - my mom always used to make this!
Sounds a bit like comfort food then ;-)
I remember I shared an office with a young colleague who still lived at home. The day she celebrated her birthday, her mum came in with a lovely spread of birthday delights for all of us, that included a marmite and cheese cake, hot from the oven. It is at it best luke-warm. What a delicious memory!
I live in the USA (New Jersey) - is there any substitute for Marmite???
Hi Cathy, we performed a few online searches but can't find a US substitute for Marmite.
There are articles about marmite and vegemite on Wikipedia that might help you to track it down - it is made from yeast extract and is a by-product of beer brewing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite
Vegemite can apparently be purchased at some supermarkets that stock imported food items.
We'd love to know if you find either vegemite or a substitute: please let us know :-)
A friend suggested that shops which stock UK food, are likely to have Marmite too.
Hi There, Bovril or bovrol is a substetute for marmite, dont know if you get it in the US, but you defnitley get it in the UK.
I never use marmite (don't like it)
If you are familiar with Bovril or Oxo - it tastes really good.
When I lived in Manhattan in 1997 to 1999, I found Marmite at the Gourmet Garage on the upper west side in Manhattan. Those years it was $14 or $15 for the big jar.
Otherwise, try Zabars or such like. Good luck!
Man, I love this, my mom used to make this for us!!! Love the sweet sour combo!