Solar Honey Spice Loaf

I was feeling emboldened by my success in recreating my 100% whole wheat bread from memory so I thought I'd try accessing another recipe filed in my brain vault. Among the few recipes I brought with me from Italy was one for "Torta al Miele" (honey cake). I had made many changes to the recipe but once again had never written them down. Add to that the fact that the original is in metric, recreating this was a little more daunting than the bread. Here's a translation of the original recipe.

Torta al Miele

300 grams all purpose flour

1 packet baking powder (it's sold in pre-measured packets in Italy)

80 grams sugar

1 cup milk

100 grams ground walnuts

8 tbs honey

grated lemon peel (from one lemon)

Mix well first 5 ingredients (flour through milk) in a medium bowl. Add the honey and lemon peel while continuing to mix. Put mixture in a greased and floured pan. (the original recipe does not specify what size pan!) and bake. It also doesn't say at what temperature but that doesn't really matter with a solar oven because it will depend on the weather.

Anyway, I added 1 cup raisins, 1 tsp cinnamon and, because Italian baking soda contains a touch of vanilla, 1/4 tsp vanilla. I'm not sure how much baking powder there is in a packet so I went with 1 teaspoon. After it was in the oven I realized the recipe didn't call for any salt. If, and that's a big if, I try it again I would add a pinch. With my original, but long forgotten, modifications this used to make a very good cake to have with tea. Unfortunately I think my much needed improvements are lost forever. From now on I think I'll stick to recipes from epicurious.com or other sources for my baking needs.