In 1934, British flour brand McDougalls highlighted a new recipe in an ad for its self-raising flour and that recipe was coffee and walnut cake. ‘Hokey pokey’ is a version of this with added pieces of cinder toffee and is popular in New Zealand.

From the mid-19th century, ‘hokey pokey’ was a slang term for all flavours of ice cream from the men of Italian descent who sold it, the ‘hokey pokey men'. It is believed that ‘hokey pokey’ derives from a corruption of an Italian phrase such as ‘oh che poco (oh how little).

Emigrants to New Zealand took their favourite ice cream recipes and somewhere along the way started calling cinder toffee ‘hokey pokey’, mostly forgetting its ice cream meaning. Hokey Pokey was patented in 1897 by William Hatton who lived in Dunedin a city known for its Scottish roots. But there is evidence that it existed before he made an official claim.

Camp coffee was created around the same time for the Gordon Highlanders. It was one of the first attempts at instant coffee. For those of us who grew up in the UK during the 50s/60s, Camp is nostalgia in a bottle. We were a nation of tea not coffee drinkers and so a bottle of Camp often sat on the shelf for years just in case a dreaded coffee-drinker turned up! It gives an intense coffee flavour to this cake.

With a nod to its Italian roots (and for my dear Dad), I’ve added a boozy cappuccino frosting and shards of walnut praline (or if you prefer add bashed Crunchie to 'Get that Friday Feeling'!)