Fry’s Condensed Milk Chocolate Cake

Today’s recipe for Fry’s Condensed Milk Chocolate Cake is an incredible vintage cake recipe from 1923 Fry’s Cocoa recipe booklet.

*Scroll to end of the post for the recipe*

A Fabulous Vintage Cake Recipe from 1923

Today’s recipe for Fry’s Condensed Milk Chocolate Cake is an incredible vintage cake recipe from 1923 Fry’s Cocoa recipe booklet.

It’s a proper old fashioned chocolate cake, using the rubbed in fat method, with 1/4 pint (150ml) condensed milk, cocoa, SR flour, baking powder, an egg, stork margarine, a little fresh milk, vanilla extract and caster sugar.

The recipe doesn’t suggest adding buttercream or icing, and it was delicious just the way it was. But, you could add buttercream or icing if you wish – maybe for a celebratory cake.

The cake has a shiny finish – probably due to the condensed milk. It has a light, crumbly crumb, and a lovely rich cocoa taste.

I’ve shared the original recipe, and as you can see from my printable recipe card below, I haven’t edited or changed the recipe at all, it was made exactly as it was printed in 1923, almost 100 years ago now.

Serve this cake with pouring cream, or slightly warm, in the style of a “pudding cake”. As I said above, you can add frosting, icing or buttercream if you wish, which I may do next time I make this cake.

The Ingredients:

• 6ozs SR Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Fry’s Cocoa (I used Cadbury’s Bournville cocoa)
• 4ozs margarine
• 3ozs sugar
• 1/4 pint sweetened condensed milk
• 1 egg
• Vanilla essence (I used vanilla extract)
• About 3 to 4 tablespoons milk

The Ingredients in Metric:

• 170g SR flour
• 10g baking powder
• 30g cocoa
• 115g margarine
• 85g sugar
• 150mls sweetened condensed milk
• 45 to 60mls milk

More about Fry’s and Fry’s Cocoa

A little more about Fry’s – Fry’s, was a British chocolate company owned by Joseph Storrs Fry and his family.

Beginning in Bristol in the 18th century, the business went through several changes of name and ownership, becoming J S Fry & Sons in 1822.

In 1847, Fry’s produced the first solid chocolate bar, and the company also created the first filled chocolate sweet, Cream Sticks, in 1853.

Fry’s is most famous for Fry’s Chocolate Cream, which I always used to have in my Christmas Stocking, which was the first mass-produced chocolate bar.

Fry’s Turkish Delight, launched in 1914, was another Christmas stocking treat that I used to look forward to when I was growing up.

Fry’s, along with Rowntree’s and Cadbury’s were all founded by Quakers, and these three chocolate companies were renowned for treating their workers very well, especially during the Victorian era.

Sadly, Fry’s Somerdale Factory near Bristol was closed after the 2010, after the hostile takeover of Cadbury’s by Kraft Foods* of which Fry’s was a part of.

*In February 2010, following the takeover of Cadbury plc by Kraft Foods, the closure was controversially confirmed to take place in 2011; Kraft had specifically agreed during the takeover battle to keep the site open. There was widespread outrage in the press and later a House of Commons Select Committee investigation into the affair. Wikipedia

More Chocolate Cake Recipes:

• Old-Fashioned Milk Chocolate Cake
• The Famous Drinking Chocolate Cake Recipe
• The Queen’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake

• Romantic “Chocolate Box” Chocolate Cakes
• “Kladdkaka” Swedish Chocolate Fudge Cake
• Chocolate Crispy Cakes for VE Day

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Vintage Recipes:

• A Vintage Recipe: Queen Cakes
• Farmhouse “Teacup” Spiced Fruit Loaf Recipe
• Vanilla Butterfly Cakes
• Old School Raspberry Buns
• Old-Fashioned Almond Rice Cakes
• Old-Fashioned Tea Cake Squares

More Vintage Recipes:

• Hikers’ Walnut Bread
• Manor House Cake
• Overnight Country Fruit Bread
• VE Day Condensed Milk Cake
• Easy Cornflake Tart
• Traditional “Bara Brith” Tea Loaf

Recipe for Fry’s Condensed Milk Chocolate Cake