OLD FASHIONED MACAROON CAKE

Well ladies I did say in "country' cooking class last week , preparing great cakes is not all about the 'must have ' gadgets .. Let's get started . Preheat your oven to 180 deg C . Grease and line a 20cm ( 8') round pan . First mix together in a small bowl 1 and 1/4 cups of plain flour with 1 and 1/4 tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt . In a medium bowl cream together 125gm of room temp butter / marg with 1/2 cup of castor sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract . Use a wooden spoon to cream the mixture well . Separate 3 eggs . Lightly beat 3 egg yolks and add in alternate amounts with the flour mix to the butter mixture and 2 tbs of milk . Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan . Carefully spoon over 4 tbs of softened berry jam ( your choice ), make sure you do not take the jame to the edges, simple isn't it !! The next step is to prepare the macaroon topping . Now beat the 3 egg whites until stiff ( okay use the electric beaters ), gradually adding 1/2 cup of white castor sugar , beating well . In a small bowl mix together 1 tsp of cornflour , 3/4 cup of dessicated coconut and 3/4 cup of quick / rolled oats . Now fold the dry mixture into the egg white mix and carefully spread over the jam layer . Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until set and lightly colouring around the edges . Allow to stand in the pan for 5 minutes before carefully turning onto baking paper covered wire cooling rack , then reversing so the macaroon topping is uppermost . Cool completely before slicing ... IT'S AN OLDIE BUT A GOODIE .