tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164790262024-03-18T17:52:21.255+00:00Baking for BritainBaking my way round the United Kingdom, trying out regional specialities, traditional ingredients etc., and generally making (and sampling) nice things to eat in the cake, biscuit and bun line. Now with the assistance of my junior chef, Ellis.AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-4949263054600989722010-11-13T22:23:00.004+00:002010-11-13T22:29:01.818+00:00Ruby Wedding Cake - the Winner!Finally, I can post about the recipe that won my vote for my parents' celebratory Ruby Wedding cake. Their anniversary fell towards the end of September, but for various reasons we did not have a family hurrah for them until the end of October. We met up at a country house hotel in the Cotswolds for a lovely lunch and then a stroll around the house gardens enjoying the autumn colours.<br />
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Afterwards we travelled the short distance to my parents' home and had a light tea with the much anticipated (by me at least) anniversary cake. The recipe suggestion I had gone with came from Kate Noble, who recommended the recipe she had used for her own wedding cake, no less. It originated from BBC Good Food, who entitle it <a href="http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2988/hot-toddy-fruitcake">'Hot Toddy Fruit Cake',</a> and list it as a Christmas cake. I chose it because I liked the idea of a very moist cake, and as my parents are keen tea drinkers I thought it apt to go with this recipe.<br />
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I made it a month ahead, and then fed it a couple of times with a little more whisky, and possibly some rum too. A week before D-day I added a layer of marzipan, and then a day or two before the final eating I added some royal icing coloured a splendid shade of ruby red (you should have seen my hands after adding the colouring - attractive for meeting my child from nursery...).<br />
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Finally, I added the piped wording and the piped heart embellishment, along with some edible gold glitter, the day before. I mixed some of the glitter with the icing in the piping bag but as this didn't give the full twinkle I added some more afterwards. I was actually quite impressed by my restraint with the glitter. You know, sometimes less IS more...<br />
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The cake was a perfect travel companion on the three hour trip from here to there. The weight of it stopped it from sliding about on the cake board and the simplicity of the decoration meant no tears on that front either.<br />
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Now, I should confess that I was a little nervous about the moment the cake was cut into. It had seemed very moist when I transferred it from the tin to the board, and despite reinserting a skewer several times and coming back with a dry reading, I was worried that the centre of the cake would prove to be soggy. The moment of truth came and a sigh of relief was issued. The cake had cooked perfectly, and I hadn't ruined it all with that final tot of brandy (for medicinal purposes).<br />
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Yes, it was as good as it looks here, managing to pull off the trick of being both light and dense, and kist as importantly, moist and tasty. Scrum-tiddly-dumptious. In fact, my only disappointment was that I only got to have one piece of it. I plan to make a Christmas cake using this recipe, and as Christmas cake is not so popular with my husband, this cunning ruse should ensure that I get to eat a whole heap of fruit cake in just over a month's time. Roll on Christmas.</div>
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Happy anniversary, Mum and Dad!</div>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com201tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-92032584563197319472010-08-17T22:40:00.003+01:002010-09-17T06:58:29.432+01:00Ruby Wedding Cake - A Call for Recipes!My parents are to celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary (40 years) next month and I would like to bake for them a special cake, reminiscent of their wedding cake which was an iced rich fruit cake in the tradition of most British wedding and celebration cakes.<br />
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Naturally I have pages and pages of recipes for such cakes, and have one that I am fond of from a Nigella Lawson book and that I have made twice (once as a Christmas cake and once as a birthday cake). However, whilst the recipe in question produces a very good cake I would love to know a recipe for a grand old fruit cake that would really blow your socks off. I have fond memories from my time at work of a Christmas cake brought in by a colleague and made by his Grandma. This was also a fruit cake, not as dark as some, but it was moist, not too crumbly, flavoursome, packed with fruit, nuts, peel, and topped with homemade marzipan and then royal icing. If I could only eat one type of cake until my dying day, then this would be this one. I might die 40 stone, but I would have spent my cake eating time wisely. Somehow it just ticked all the boxes and was superb eating. Rather than bake dozens of recipes to try and find an equivalent, I wondered if anyone out there might have a recipe that hand on heart they could swear would also put me (oh, and my parents too) into raptures? All recipes gratefully received (to annaweller at me dot com), and I have a new hardback copy of<a href="http://www.grubstreet.co.uk/products/view/394/english-bread-and-yeast-cookery/"> Elizabeth David's 'English Bread and Yeast Cookery'</a> to pass on to the sender of the recipe that I choose to bake.<br />
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Update:<br />
Thanks to everyone who sent me recipes. I have gone with Kate Noble's recipe for <a href="http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2988/hot-toddy-fruitcake">'Hot Toddy Fruitcake' </a>from the BBC Good Food website, partly because I love a really moist fruit cake but also because my parents are big tea drinkers, so it is appropriate that the fruit soak and the 'feed' are based on black tea (don't suppose they'll mind the whisky input either). I have baked the cake a month ahead of time - we are having a family get-together later in October - so I shall feed the cake weekly and ice closer to the time. Pictures to follow. Of the other recipes sent, well, so many sounded darn good that I shall be trying them out for Christmas cakes for me and to give as gifts. Thank again to all you bakers kind enough to take the time to let me know your favourite recipes.AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-49159587732681049862010-08-13T22:40:00.105+01:002010-08-15T22:47:03.978+01:00Shooting Cake for the Glorious Twelfth<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Hello again, at long last I am here to bring you more baking and this time I am here with my junior chef, Ellis. I confess that I have been motivated by the arrival on my doorstep of a book sent by Grub Street, </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1847834691"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">E</span></a><a href="http://www.grubstreet.co.uk/products/view/394/english-bread-and-yeast-cookery/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">lizabeth David's 'English Bread and Yeast Cookery</span></a><a href="http://www.grubstreet.co.uk/products/view/394/english-bread-and-yeast-cookery/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">'</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It seemed churlish, if not rude, not to give them a quick puff and bake a few goodies from it. I do have a copy already and indeed have baked from it previously on these pages, but this splendid hardback copy looked at me with authority and said 'Stop shirking, and get back in the kitchen'. By serendipitous chance I chose to bake Shooting Cake yesterday - the </span><a href="http://www.basc.org.uk/en/departments/game-and-gamekeeping/game-shooting/grouse/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">'Glorious Twelfth'</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> (August the 12th, like it or not is the start of the shooting season) - so I'll take that as an auspicious sign that the Blog Gods are smiling on my return...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Shooting Cake, although Elizabeth David doesn't mention in this book, was part of the spread produced by the Edwardian country house kitchen either to greet the hungry back from a day's shoot on the moors, hills, great estate or as part of a heaving picnic luncheon to fortify the hunters. The Glorious Twelfth being the start of the game season I can presume would have been an occasion for a particularly splendid feast to mark the day.</span><br />
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<r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">David's recipe comes from 'Ulster Fare', a booklet produced by the Belfast Women's Institute Club, 1946. The original recipe uses 1lb flour, 1/2lb brown sugar, 1lb raisins, 1/2lb butter, 2 eggs, peel and juice of two lemons, 2 teaspoons of carbonate of soda mixed with warm milk. The cooking instructions were to bake in a slow oven for two hours. Elizabeth David adds the comment, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">'I cannot help thinking that two hours' baking for a cake containing just three pounds of ingredients would be excessive. It would be a good idea to try the cake in half quantities and for a shorter cooking time'. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In a footnote on the same page she then gives her own version of the recipe:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> 'I now make the cake with 1/2lb flour, 1/4lb Demerara sugar, 1/4lb raisins, 1/4lb butter, 2 eggs, peel and juice of one lemon, 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. Bake in 6 and a half to 7 inch round tin, 3 ins. deep, for 50 minutes at gas no. 5, 375 degrees F, 190 degrees C'.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></i></r></r></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><r></r></span></i></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The recipe is also mentioned in a previously unpublished essay by Elizabeth David (written in 1978), that is printed in </span></span><a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140292909,00.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">'Is There a Nutmeg in the House? Essays on Practical Cooking with Over 150 Recipes'</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">. In this text the cake is called Lemon and Brown Sugar Cake:</span></span></span></r></span></i></r></r><r><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></r></span></i></r></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><r><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">'As an alternative to the rich and leaden fruit cake of Victorian tradition I think this one might prove popular.</span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> It has a most refreshing flavour and attractive texture. There is nothing in the least troublesome about it, even to a reluctant cake maker like myself.</span></i></span></r></span></span></r></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><r></r></span></span></span></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><r><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i></r></span></span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">Ingredients are 250g (1/2 lb) of plain white flour, 125g (1/4 lb) of butter, 125g (1/4 lb) of Demerara cane sugar, 125g (1/4 lb) of seedless raisins, the grated peel and strained juice of one lemon, 125ml (4 fl oz) of warm milk, 2 eggs, 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. To bake the cake, a 17-18cm (6 1/2 - 7 in) round English cake tin, 8cm (3 in) deep. (I use a non-stick tin).</span></r></span></i></span></span></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Rubbing butter into flour is tricky with hot hands...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">Crumble the softened butter into the flour until all is in fine crumbs. Add the grated lemon peel, the sugar, and the raisins. Sift in the bicarbonate. Beat the eggs in the warm milk. Add the strained lemon juice. Quickly incorporate this into the main mixture and pour into the tin. Give the tin a tap or two against the side of the table to eliminate air pockets. Transfer immediately to the preheated oven (190° C/375° F gas mark 5). Bake for about 50 minutes until the cake is well risen and a skewer inverted right to the bottom of the cake comes out quite clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes before turning it out of the tin.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-style: normal;"></span></span></r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span><br />
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<r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">Notes</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">:</span></span></r></r></span><br />
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<r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">The Demerara sugar is important. Barbados is too treacly for this cake. The raisins I have been using of recent years are the little reddish ones, seedless, from Afghanistan. They need no soaking, no treatment at all. Just add them straight into the cake mixture. They are to be found in wholefood shops.It is important to put the cake into the oven as soon as you have added the eggs, milk, and lemon juice mixture. This is because the lemon juice and bicarbonate start reacting directly they come into contact. If the cake is kept waiting, the rising action of the acid and the alkali is partially lost and the cake will rise badly.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-style: normal;"></span></span></r></r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"></span></r></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">Under the name of 'Shooting Cake', the recipe on which mine is based appeared in 'Ulster Fare', a little book published by the Ulster Women's Institute in 1944 (sic). I was struck by the composition of the cake - the Demerara sugar, the lemon juice replacing the acid or cream of tartar necessary to activate the bicarbonate and the grated peel instead of the more usual spices.'<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-style: normal;"></span></span></r></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">My assistant chef found the sugar 'fuzzy' and the raw cake mix 'sour'. He was keen to try a slice but not overly impressed. I could see a few dry spots in the cooked cake indicating that we needed to have made a few more turns of the bowl with the spoon. The mixture also could have done with the milk that David omits from the revised instructions in the 'English Bread' book, but includes in the recipe set out in 'Is there a Nutmeg...?'. I came to this second recipe only after I had baked to the first. However, it was a tasty cake and I liked the lemon flavouring alongside the addition of dried fruit. Within a smidgin of butter the slight dryness could be overlooked, and very nice it was too with a cup of coffee. Ellis was happy to lick the butter off his slice, but did at least nibble enough to qualify as a test portion.</span></span></r></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Spot that sneaky finger.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">It was one of a party of them lying in wait to snatch the cut slice</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><r><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">If you fancy something savoury as a starter, have a look at this </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/apr/07/how-to-make-shooters-sandwich"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">blog</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> featuring a recipe for the truly excessive </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2010/apr/07/how-to-make-shooters-sandwich?intcmp=239"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Shooter's Sandwich</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">, created for gentlemen (it does appear a very masculine sort of sandwich) to take out on the shoot with them.</span></span></span></r></span></span></span></span></div>
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</span>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-14821983593665146052010-02-10T14:31:00.005+00:002010-08-13T23:14:54.303+01:00I'm still here... only now I'm over here!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0zVWYEFlVH06Y5nc3yhaeDnKVI0gl-tbmtWNY3_YWcx27cQ_Xam1XtjQiF7EfmLcyPPga3y4-t7_nOw9cfVqGydJ4TLQcD5eLAtblRB6jk7G6aPMHLcIUV6YrXbojaU9BdyiKww/s1600-h/logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0zVWYEFlVH06Y5nc3yhaeDnKVI0gl-tbmtWNY3_YWcx27cQ_Xam1XtjQiF7EfmLcyPPga3y4-t7_nOw9cfVqGydJ4TLQcD5eLAtblRB6jk7G6aPMHLcIUV6YrXbojaU9BdyiKww/s320/logo.png" /></a></div>Hello to readers old and new. It has been an AGE since I last posted, but with good reason. For the last, ooh, well over a year, I have been in the process of setting up an online bead shop <a href="http://www.bigbeadlittlebead.com/">Big Bead Little Bead</a>. Ever since our son was born I have been looking for work that I can do from home and around him, and within a creative area that I can really enjoy getting stuck into. Beads and beading essentials fit the bill for many reasons: 1. They are twinkly and pretty and hard it is hard to get bored of looking at them; 2. I have always enjoyed jewellery making and working at a small and intricate scale; 3. They take up not too much space (although in bulk they do seem to have established themselves pretty extensively) and far less than if I decided to work from home selling handbags/cheese/second-hand cars; 4. Unlike cakes, you can leave a bead at a moment's notice to tend to a cry of 'Mummy. Build me a dinosaur' and the house is not in danger of burning down. If you have a whim or a passion for beads, please do check us out. My husband took all the photographs used on the site, and we used a local web design team for the site construction - who did a great job - <a href="http://www.therightdesign.co.uk/">The Right Design</a>.<br />
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The aspects of the site we are most proud of are the online Project Tray - you can add items into a 'tray' and move them around to try out layouts or simply to view beads side by side. All our images have been painstakingly scaled, so you can place beads next to each other in the Project Tray and see exactly how proportions will look. We are pleased to have a growing repertoire of artists make one-off beads just for us, so we have unique porcelain, polymer clay and shortly have lampwork and decoupage makers too. If you are looking for vintage items for a little je ne sais quoi, then we have those too. All this is wrapped up with an image-led, visually clear presentation. Well, we like to think so!<br />
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The planning, designing, researching, purchasing, stock data entry, labelling, bagging etc. etc. has taken up so much of my limited spare time, that Baking for Britain has sadly been placed on the back burner, but I hope that it hasn't been taken off the hob for good. My son loves cooking and baking and I would like to think that together we may be able to soon return to Bake for Britain! In the meantime, thank-you for all the comments that I continue to receive. I am flattered by how many people still take the time to read through my writings and enjoy them enough to leave their thoughts.AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-24274019026460529222008-08-08T13:18:00.011+01:002010-08-14T21:36:26.542+01:00Shetland Bride's Bonn/Bun or Bridal Cake<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUXQfs7DzWnIYPKIXSbI_fElZ1HULVfy25BDYt9nvo1HalxI1JoQHAOEkoOMEJr6xTVWT9zMlOSUPJL-mth_b0Fiy9Qs6zbx1XTahTfWJnfpRGjdYYiPVghxGp3HskSZgj5xfcg/s1600-h/BridesCake1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234484683975703826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUXQfs7DzWnIYPKIXSbI_fElZ1HULVfy25BDYt9nvo1HalxI1JoQHAOEkoOMEJr6xTVWT9zMlOSUPJL-mth_b0Fiy9Qs6zbx1XTahTfWJnfpRGjdYYiPVghxGp3HskSZgj5xfcg/s400/BridesCake1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a>
Shetland bride's bonn/bun or bridal cake was traditionally baked by the mother of the bride. It was broken over the bride's head as she entered the marital home after the wedding ceremony and was intended to bless the marriage with prosperity and fertility. This breaking of cake was a wedding tradition observed in many parts of the country, and indeed is also a feature in the wedding traditions of other countries.<br />
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In Shetland, the bride's bonn/bun was also known historically as either infar-cake or dreaming-bread. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841830704/qid=1145033346/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-5187347-8763865">F. Marian McNeill</a> has a note regarding infar-cake or dreaming-bread:
<i>‘A decorated form of shortbread is still </i>[1929]<i> the national bride’s-cake of rural Scotland, and was formerly used as infar-cake. The breaking of infar-cake over the head of the bride, on the threshold of her new home, is a very ancient custom, having its origin in the Roman rite of confarratio, in which the eating of a consecrated cake by the contracting parties constituted marriage. (Scots law, unlike English, is based on the old Roman Law.) Portions were distributed to the young men and maidens “to dream on”.’</i>
At christening feasts a dreaming-bread may also be distributed to guests, for the same purpose of giving maids and young men a sneak preview of their future partner - dreaming-bread is also known as dumb-cake.<br />
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Mark Morton in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cupboard-Love-Dictionary-Culinary-Curiosities/dp/1894663667/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218748628&sr=1-4">'Cupboard Love'</a>, further explains the Roman roots of the cake-breaking act:
'Romans solemnized marriages through the rite of <i>confarreatio</i>, a word literally meaning <i>to unite with grain-cake</i> (the far in the middle of <i>confarreatio</i> is the Latin <i>far</i>, meaning <i>grain</i>, a word that also appears in <i>farina</i> and <i>farrago</i>). In contrast, the English <i>infare</i> literally means <i>to go in</i>, deriving as it does from the words <i>in</i> and from the Old English verb <i>faran</i>, meaning <i>to go</i> or <i>to travel</i>. Before it was specifically applied to cake, <i>infare</i> could also refer to a feast provided for guests when someone, newly married or not, took possession of a new home.'<br />
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Although Shetland Bride's Bonn is generally classified as a shortbread, when cooked on a girdle (griddle), as it would have been historically, it is closer in form to a <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=16479026&postID=2427401902646052922">bannock or scone</a>. When oven-baked the bonn would be crisper and more biscuit-like.
My recipe comes from 'A Cook's Tour of Britain', by the Woman's Institute and Michael Smith (pub. 1984), and I have gone with the girdle cooking option.<br />
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110g/4 oz. plain flour<br />
50g/2 oz. butter<br />
25g/1 oz. caster sugar<br />
1/2 teaspoon of caraway seeds<br />
a little milk<br />
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1. Rub the butter into the flour.<br />
2. Add the sugar and caraway seeds.<br />
3. Mix to a stiff consistency with milk (get your hands in the bowl to achieve this, and add only a little milk at a time - start with a generous splash).<br />
4. Roll out into a round shape. Now at this point the book suggests that you roll a round 5cm/2 inches thick, but this is way too thick for this small quantity of dough, plus it would never cook in the time given. My dough was about 2cm thick. Cut the round shape into triangles.<br />
5. Bake on a fairly hot girdle for 3 minutes on each side, or in an oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 20 minutes.<br />
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I gave the caraway seeds to my junior helper to sniff, but he promptly stuffed a few in his mouth and demanded more. That's my boy! He was less enthusiastic about the finished cake, but then he had just finished a rather large lunch. I must teach him the benefits of pacing your food consumption, and that chocolate buttons don't always have to be downed in one hand/mouthful. I found the cake pleasant enough, but as a cross between a pastry and a scone it is best eaten fresh. I forgot to sleep with a morsel under my pillow, but I would only have had to disappoint Johnny Depp by explaining I am already married.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlYXcK3PyqNJ66UMQxUydvojRuOA0jCVVuHB7O2ZGc4wdvyc1Op8m0-Tg3vtK_EnIo0pVB2g-vYYSyTOQcSjyicVGqiBqwmP5qh-_E3ZfBZ9l-V3EyAEpJGKgvhjuDzdfh9SBZQ/s1600-h/BridesCake.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234484679634243394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlYXcK3PyqNJ66UMQxUydvojRuOA0jCVVuHB7O2ZGc4wdvyc1Op8m0-Tg3vtK_EnIo0pVB2g-vYYSyTOQcSjyicVGqiBqwmP5qh-_E3ZfBZ9l-V3EyAEpJGKgvhjuDzdfh9SBZQ/s400/BridesCake.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a>
For more information on the Shetland Islands and local food and drink - click on <a href="http://www.foodshetland.com/index.php">The Shetland Food Directory</a>, or take a look at <a href="http://www.shetland.org/">this </a>site if you want to be completely seduced and find yourself moving north (west/east/possibly not south).AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com61tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-87056165200390155302008-05-19T23:18:00.003+01:002008-05-19T23:27:14.943+01:00Deddington Pudding-Pie, Oxfordshire<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ya4g0icA0V5NIm-OiqBZyqxMTC8grwuoVhhhhK4LRAlhMNfXigzNANAdMLhB4o18BfFe843Z5hakQNHXlARuHeEZf3sP55SlvTelj6ny-nyMmoKl9JiXgDHuVY79rEK2AyQZjw/s1600-h/Deddington1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ya4g0icA0V5NIm-OiqBZyqxMTC8grwuoVhhhhK4LRAlhMNfXigzNANAdMLhB4o18BfFe843Z5hakQNHXlARuHeEZf3sP55SlvTelj6ny-nyMmoKl9JiXgDHuVY79rEK2AyQZjw/s400/Deddington1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201088319886323858" /></a><br />Earlier this month I was in <a href=http://www.deddington.org.uk>Deddington</a>, Oxfordshire. Deddington is a small market town with many interesting old buildings, houses and much history. I was there for a family get-together, so I had little time to explore - only enough for a short walk, and to take two scene-setting photos (taken with one hand whilst straddling a struggling toddler). During my walk I found a shop selling <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=banbury+cakes+revisited>Banbury cakes</a> as per my previous post. The picture below shows the town hall (front left) and the parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul. It also shows how, sadly, many old country towns have become overwhelmed by the motor car. Contrast this (carefully cropped) scene, with the second image. Spot the car park.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaBHTSifwPtQziNi2aWsN0HQEIR36KKhgZMGG0qIZr3P3wc0yoNPpfg1Mm3JNwerTwK353Zg_B6QvL01tH8HVpocrZsE1hprgTqvgMeurFxpCW3gl2g0yXPJkinFCKGMQnv93GEw/s1600-h/Deddington.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaBHTSifwPtQziNi2aWsN0HQEIR36KKhgZMGG0qIZr3P3wc0yoNPpfg1Mm3JNwerTwK353Zg_B6QvL01tH8HVpocrZsE1hprgTqvgMeurFxpCW3gl2g0yXPJkinFCKGMQnv93GEw/s400/Deddington.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195376628701326194" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/gallery/450/CC7/CC75_1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/gallery/450/CC7/CC75_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Deddington Market Place - image taken between 1860 and 1922<br />http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk <br /><br />Historically, Deddington had two annual fairs. One on the 10th of August (St. Laurence's Day) and the other held in November. This latter fair was known as the 'Pudding-Pie Fair' after the pudding- or pudden-pies sold there, and was held principally for the sale of livestock and the hiring of servants/labourers. The date was originally the 11th of November (St. Martin's Day/Martinmas), changing to the 22nd (St. Cecilia's Day), and then reverting back to the 11th of November in more recent times. The Pudding-Pie Fair was still being held at the beginning of the 20th century, but by the 1930s it had diminished and since has evolved into a fun fair. The pudding-pie is now as rare as a Deddington parking space.<br /><br />The Deddington pudding-pie appears to have been a hard pastry case (the pie) with a pre-cooked filling that included fruit (the pudding), the whole was then baked. Pudding-pies are known elsewhere in the country and often had an association with Lent.<br /><br />An early mention of the Deddington Pudding-Pie is in <a href=http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/archive/>'Notes & Queries'</a> (1869). This records that the pies <i>'are made by setting up a crust composed of flour mixed with milk or water, and mutton suet melted and poured into it hot. These crusts, which are set up like meat-pie crusts, are then placed in the sun for a day or two to stiffen. They vary in size from about three to four inches in diameter, and are about one inch deep. When thoroughly hard they are filled with the same materials as plum puddings are made of, and when baked are sold at twopence, threepence and fourpence each.'</i><br /><br />In the archive of the <a href=http://dnarchive.deddington.org.uk/72dpi/1976/DN19761102.html>Deddington News</a>, November 1976, Monica Sansome writes of the Pudding-Pie Fair, drawing on the personal reminiscences of a Mr. Lewis.<br /><br /><i>From its early days the Martinmas Fair was known as the Pudding-Pie Fair because of the pies made specially for the occasion. Mr. Lewis bought these pies in the early 1900s. They were about the size of a small pork pie, consisting of plum pudding surrounded by pastry. The pastry was made with mutton fat and formed an extremely hard crust "like thick parchment" according to Mr. Lewis, who doesn't remember them as being outstandingly palatable! He thinks they were sold for 2d and 4d depending on size.<br /><br />Just after 1900 the only bakers in the village to make these pies annually were Thomas and Ruth Fowler. The family had their bakery originally on the premises of Mr. Lewis' shop, then in the Old Bakery, New Street, finally moving to Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley's house next to the Crown and Tuns in New Street... Thomas and Ruth Fowler, like their family before them, guarded the pudding-pie recipe carefully and their recipe died with them.</i><br /><br />However, a recipe IS then supplied in this same article, courtesy of Mrs. Ella Marshall who has provided a recipe from 'Traditional English Cooking' (pbl. Angus and Robertson Ltd. 1961) This recipe creates a shortcrust pastry case, but the filling is of cooked ground rice over jam or coconut, and the whole is dusted with ground cinnamon. Quite different to the description of the pudding-pie as a plum pudding in an hardy pastry piecrust.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Shortcrust pastry:<br />1/2 lb. flour<br />4 oz. mixed lard and butter<br />4 tablespoons cold water<br /><br />To make the filling:<br />Heat 1 & either 1/2 or 1/4 cups milk (it is impossible to decipher the precise measurement from the original article), add 2 rounded tablespoons caster sugar. Mix 3 level tablespoons ground rice and 1/2 (? same problem) teaspoon salt with 3 tablespoons water. Stir this into the warm milk. Cook and keep stirring until it thickens. Continue cooking "pudden" mixture for a further 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Beat two eggs in a bowl and stir into rice mixture. Flavour with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence. Roll out pastry and line greased saucers with the pastry. Cover pastry with jam or dessicated coconut, then pour gently a little of "pudden" mixture over. Bake 20 mins. in medium oven 325F until pastry is cooked underneath. Remove from oven and if liked dust very lightly with ground cinnamon. Nowadays these could be made in an 8" flan about 2"deep. Serve hot or cold.<br /></span><br /><br />Born in 1903, <a href=http://www.deddington.org.uk/history/freddeely1.html>Fred Deely</a>, a life-long resident of Deddington, had his boyhood memories recorded by Dorothy E Clarke:<br /><br /><i>Fred once saw the famous 'Pud', which featured at Deddington's Pudd'n & Pie Fayre, held in November and continued until shortly before the Second World War. It was about 9 inches across, fruit inside, and pastry outside. The lad next to the Three Tuns - Fowler was his name - used to be a baker. He had a sister, Ruth Fowler, she was a cripple, and it was common talk she had the recipe, and when she died nobody ever found it.</i><br /><br />Mary Van Turner, in researching 'The Story of Deddington' (1933) spoke with Ruth Fowler, holder of the secret recipe and by this date an elderly lady. From her we learn how the pies were made in the early twentieth century.<br /><br /><i>Pudding pies have not been made in Deddington for the past six years. Miss Ruth Fowler of 'the Old Bakery', whose family had the original recipe from the Bennetts, who were baking in 1852, undoubtedly made that historic delicacy just as it should be, for in sampling one I found it corresponded exactly with the jesting descriptions which every elder Deddingtonian, including Miss Fowler, delights to give.<br /><br />'They say you could tie label to one and send it through the post a hundred miles - so hard it was.'<br /><br /> 'Deddington folk were supposed to save up all the scrapings from the candle drippings in the lanterns and put them in the pudding pies.' This was also repeated to me by another baker, Mr. W. Course.<br /><br />Miss Ruth Fowler, herself, quotes a story that gives a quaint, medieval flavour to their peculiar character - a King was journeying from Woodstock to Banbury through Deddington. At Woodstock they gave him gloves and at Banbury light cakes, but in Deddington something between the two, like leather but to be eaten.<br /><br />Actually they contain a sort of glorified bread pudding in a very hard case. Miss Fowler told me that the outer crust has suet as an ingredient, this is filled with boiled plum pudding, the whole being afterwards baked. Once all the bakers here made them and they were sold at the Stalls. Boiled and baked like Simnel cakes, but with what a different result!</i><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnPUsqvPvtlEbJ0pDYV8ZueHj5Inm3ISy2_wMzqZHf1VifVfQefwPTK7JX4DkTkRRXoUzNrAWmZqxfNl6tM5_U2X6_F7JM2pCTHEyPM4wkzAlIcFmCDwK_4aeeqgiGNtC6mqnQxw/s1600-h/Deddington1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnPUsqvPvtlEbJ0pDYV8ZueHj5Inm3ISy2_wMzqZHf1VifVfQefwPTK7JX4DkTkRRXoUzNrAWmZqxfNl6tM5_U2X6_F7JM2pCTHEyPM4wkzAlIcFmCDwK_4aeeqgiGNtC6mqnQxw/s400/Deddington1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195376736075508610" /></a><br />So, according to Mary Vane Turner's account, Deddington pudding-pies have not been made by local bakers since 1927. In the 1970s a version of the 'pudden pie' was baked for the Deddington Festival, held in late summer. In an archived piece from the <a href=http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:WBJ-vL5_CmkJ:www.deddingtonnews.co.uk/05-08pdfs/2007%2520pdfs/june07.pdf+%22deddington+pudden%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=safari>Deddington News</a> from June 2007, recalling an item from the Deddington Society's Newsletter dated September 1973 and focusing on the Deddington Festival held that month, it was reported that:<br /><br /><i>The highlight for gourmets at the Festival was the sale of Deddington Pudden pies specially made from a centuries-old recipe by the local baker. The pies, which were made in saucers and sold at the annual Deddington Fair many years ago, have a sweet filling of nuts, ground rice, chopped fruit and eggs and are served with cream. The baker, Mr. B. Wallin, figured in the Festival and a bread book used by his forefathers in the baking trade was displayed in the history exhibition at the parish church. </i><br /><br />The pies described here are clearly very different to the robust pies created by the Fowlers and other Deddington bakers at the turn of the twentieth century. They certainly sound more appertising. Curiously, the only other recipe I could find for the pudding-pies is pretty close to the the description of the saucer-baked puddings. I have a sneaky suspicion that the local baker may have seen a copy of Florence White's 'Good Things in England', which is where the recipe I cooked is from. It is here called Deddington Pudden Pie, and although the 'pie' is made of puff pastry, the filling is first boiled and then baked. Perhaps the inedible pastry crust was done away with for the purpose encouraging bakers to revive the pudding.<br /><br /><i>'A Deddington Pudden Pie was.. made by Miss R. F. Fowler and exhibited at the first English Folk Cookery Exhibition... on January 16th, 1931. The following recipe was published in the Daily News in 1930.<br /><br />Ingredients: Puff pastry: ground rice 4 oz. [110g]; milk 1 quart [2pints]; eggs 3; lump sugar 6 oz. [175g]; lemon 1; currants 4 oz. [110g] </i> I baked with half of this quantity of ingredients.<i><br /><br />Time: 10 to 15 minutes to boil and 15 to 25 minutes to bake in a moderate oven [180C/350F/Gas 4].<br /><br />Method:<br />1. Grease some large saucers and line them with puff pastry. <br />2. Make the rice into a cream with 6 tablespoons of the milk.<br />3. Add the eggs well beaten to it.<br />4. Boil up the remainder of the milk with the lump sugar, and the thinly pared rind of a washed lemon.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRATCjyNC8d9z5MbKUkis5JgVOwIV7wxolXaKbT-8C2XVc8u1gTERon3jZyf_jvlDImC-hhymNZMNHCf99cbTcSYdgGG3gxHbd3mk9IuDGJWMaprDwRn0njlIRiYonfgdQR0COwA/s1600-h/+Deddington"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRATCjyNC8d9z5MbKUkis5JgVOwIV7wxolXaKbT-8C2XVc8u1gTERon3jZyf_jvlDImC-hhymNZMNHCf99cbTcSYdgGG3gxHbd3mk9IuDGJWMaprDwRn0njlIRiYonfgdQR0COwA/s400/+Deddington" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201079549563105362" /></a><br />5. When this boils add the rice mixture and keep stirring for 10 to 15 minutes; then<br />6. Lift out the lemon peel, and add the currants.<br />7. Pour into the lined saucers to within one inch and a half of the edge of the crust.<br />8. Bake in a moderate oven until the pastry is nicely coloured and the mixture set. They can be eaten hot or cold.</i><br /><br />Although Florence White does not say whether she has managed to get Ruth Fowler to divulge her family recipe, I wonder if the recipe she gives, leaving aside the pastry element, is close to it. A 19th century recipe for Folkestone Pudding Pies given by Mrs. Beeton in her <a href=http://www.mrsbeeton.com/>'Book of Household Management'</a>(1861) is so very close to the Deddington Pudden Pie recipe in 'Good Things in England', that I would like to think that Florence White's recipe is authentic. My theory on the rock hard pudding-pie casing is that it was not designed to be eaten, but was to transport the filling home from the fair where it could be consumed. I believe that the pastry casing on the <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=black+bun>Scottish Black Bun</a> served a similar purpose, keeping the cake from going stale, but intended to be discarded. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZZBsmzuTu58ZXhGsoLhtvkPIYlvLWbwfmBAzTxEo78VonZjlGqnQV9SMiLoj0FmqtY4mzFmMMNH1ag-FOgLH4LvE9wXKyZeTfHKUszuxuxvZhUOqRBlxRBu2czRLLxGFVzw7-A/s1600-h/Deddington2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZZBsmzuTu58ZXhGsoLhtvkPIYlvLWbwfmBAzTxEo78VonZjlGqnQV9SMiLoj0FmqtY4mzFmMMNH1ag-FOgLH4LvE9wXKyZeTfHKUszuxuxvZhUOqRBlxRBu2czRLLxGFVzw7-A/s400/Deddington2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201085803035488370" /></a><br />I imagined that the 'pudding' would be solid, but it was a cross between a wet cheesecake and a stodgy custard tart (hmm, that will get you all rushing for the kitchen). Maybe I needed to cook the filling for longer, or maybe that was the desired consistency. I baked my pudding-pie for 35 minutes, with another 10 minutes in the oven whilst it cooled - plenty long enough to get a 'set'. Whilst baking the filling rose like a plump Chesterfield, but became the cushion favoured by the dog when it hit cold air. It wasn't unpleasant to eat, just a tad bland and a little too mealy in the mouth for my liking. On the positive side, the currants were nice and juicy and had imbibed the lemon flavouring. Maybe mid Lent or after a hard day flogging cattle it would hit the mark. <br /><br />Deddington has the most comprehensive and exhaustive website of local information that I have ever come across during my web research. If you have any interest in learning more about the town and its history, then I do urge you to take a good look at www.deddington.org.ukAnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-87850889743090267092008-05-01T12:38:00.006+01:002008-05-01T22:41:54.650+01:00Banbury Cakes RevisitedWhilst in Deddington, Oxfordshire, and already feeling inspired for my next post (I am obviously on a roll at the moment!), I came across a shop that sold genuine, 100% authentic Banbury Cakes. Banbury is just up/down the road from Deddington. Having <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=banbury+cakes>previously made these</a>, I bought myself a packet so that I could see how the original compared to the home-baked.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGh4Wii7tc0k92vLVJaHKfDU7lnzQUo33ZN7JUclqMkunLQJDA5f0x4UY4RrVg-MY2XeWEISH0kh-dZcxtW81OgAUyd6uyYV0YNRsTsQRtG5vsvTfvQnXAjFcYqsTrLnBHYTTQQg/s1600-h/Banbury.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGh4Wii7tc0k92vLVJaHKfDU7lnzQUo33ZN7JUclqMkunLQJDA5f0x4UY4RrVg-MY2XeWEISH0kh-dZcxtW81OgAUyd6uyYV0YNRsTsQRtG5vsvTfvQnXAjFcYqsTrLnBHYTTQQg/s400/Banbury.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195372926439516994" /></a><br />From a visit to the <a href=www.banburycakes.co.uk>Brown's Original Banbury Cakes website</a>, I was delighted to learn that the current owner/baker, Phillip Brown, is related to Banbury Cake bakers dating back to the early 19th century. He himself is a direct descendent of E.W. Brown who ran 'The Original Cake Shop' from 1868 - her name appears over the door in <a href=http://www.banburycakes.co.uk/Cakeshop.htm>this photo</a> from 1902. Phillip Brown hand bakes his Banbury Cakes, and they are available for purchase online, and from a select number of shops (including <a href=http://www.productsifter.com/Places/LondonFoodDestinations/A-Gold-review.aspx>A. Gold</a> in London).<br /><br />Since I wrote my earlier post about Banbury Cakes I bought Florence White's book 'Good Things in England'. She has a 'modern' recipe (dated 1929) for Banbury Cakes (alongside Gervase Markham's recipe from 1615), that is apparently for the <i>'same type of cake as those sold by E.W. Brown'</i>. An indiscreet plug for the cakes reads, <i>'Anyone who wants to buy the best Banbury Cakes ever made can buy them from E.W. Brown, 'The Original Cake Shop', 12 Parson Street, Banbury, Oxfordshire.</i> The recipe given is almost identical to the <a href=a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=banbury+cakes>one that I baked</a> for my Banbury Cakes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghOYQ3FO2W8BJ-dX4o4aWND_1NKmiGhmCpNJiy9ooGB9qDfsA42YqRKadZ4IiRcoMa2m-m2OVGaziyPphdZOjezPHb7ys8FhT66jbZzeXdnIx-H3yUr4Pzz6NQhXM1e7hn52x5IQ/s1600-h/BanburyII.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghOYQ3FO2W8BJ-dX4o4aWND_1NKmiGhmCpNJiy9ooGB9qDfsA42YqRKadZ4IiRcoMa2m-m2OVGaziyPphdZOjezPHb7ys8FhT66jbZzeXdnIx-H3yUr4Pzz6NQhXM1e7hn52x5IQ/s400/BanburyII.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195372930734484322" /></a><br />My purchased Banbury Cakes were oval in shape but lacked the three slashes on top that my recipe had instructed I cut (as does the one in Florence White's book). The tops were crusted with sugar, but differed from my efforts in that they were most likely brushed with egg white and then dusted with caster sugar. I used demerara, but this may have been an embellishment of my own devising. <br /><br />The pastry was, unfortunately, a little travel weary. The Banbury Cakes had only a short excursion in Ellis' changing bag, but this did compress the cakes a little. I felt that the cakes were probably best enjoyed as fresh as possible, and although they had a best-before date of almost four weeks hence, the pastry was a little dry. However, the filling of fruit, spices and sugar was positively fudgy, my only complaint was that there wasn't more of it. All in all I felt my own efforts were pretty decent - certainly in terms of the outer (hmm, to be fair I bought my pastry), and if I were to remake the cakes I would make the fillings with a little more sugar so that they could melt on the tongue in the way Mr. Brown's cakes did.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHPujk0SLBEPrZCY0ccRyyO0p0lyC2K70s33cyid1DsQ6X-aHTy85Pvm-tY4PFsip2pSp7Z3-DAoG06lTLBH3F4ilxa_z0DtvrJ0mzmeLq74ANOLxSDFAuivV3P41KUMssNwoAA/s1600-h/BanburyI.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHPujk0SLBEPrZCY0ccRyyO0p0lyC2K70s33cyid1DsQ6X-aHTy85Pvm-tY4PFsip2pSp7Z3-DAoG06lTLBH3F4ilxa_z0DtvrJ0mzmeLq74ANOLxSDFAuivV3P41KUMssNwoAA/s400/BanburyI.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195372930734484306" /></a>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-44053207874732349992008-04-26T16:01:00.001+01:002008-04-26T21:32:02.995+01:00Digestive Biscuits<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinaQMRhyBRLYivMfdbSQqn5RkVuQ74oLnrlJjvtIzpCMI6GsYoYXJNkWmm7mtr3hoZ9ADsuon3APXA2l5f8GK5wNfr0YlvX-Xjp7IFhpw8va0LNHhOPH00DBCkO36fvmlAVbex9Q/s1600-h/Digestive4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinaQMRhyBRLYivMfdbSQqn5RkVuQ74oLnrlJjvtIzpCMI6GsYoYXJNkWmm7mtr3hoZ9ADsuon3APXA2l5f8GK5wNfr0YlvX-Xjp7IFhpw8va0LNHhOPH00DBCkO36fvmlAVbex9Q/s400/Digestive4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5193555931935009586" /></a><br />Digestive biscuits are one of our most popular commercially-baked biscuit varieties - the chocolate-coated version gets wolfed down in the UK at a rate of 52 biscuits a second, according to the website of United Biscuits, one of the major producers. Don’t look at me. I can probably only manage that level over the course of a full minute.<br /><br />According to <a href=http://www.unitedbiscuits.com/80256C1A0047922E/vWeb/pcTSTT5EPGEC>United Biscuits’ website</a>; <i>‘The first ever digestive biscuit was created by a new young employee, Alexander Grant</i> [in 1892 according to a United Biscuit’s Press Release, but <a href = http://www.soci.org/SCI/general/2004/html/ge370.jsp>this site</a>, dates the biscuit to 1839]<i>. The name Digestive was derived from its high content of baking soda as an aid to food digestion.’</i> This idea that baking soda aided digestion is contemporary with creation of the biscuit, and manufacturers no longer make any such claim.<br /><br />As an aside, Mrs Beeton writing in 1861 says of biscuits; <i>‘Biscuits belong to the class of unfermented bread, and are, perhaps, the most wholesome of that class. In cases where fermented bread does not agree with the human stomach, they may be recommended: in many instances they are considered lighter, and less liable to create acidity and flatulence.’</i> No wonder we are such a nation of biscuit eaters (without flatulence... possibly).<br /><br />The gentleman United Biscuits credits for creating the digestive biscuit worked for a Scottish bakery called McVitie & Price Ltd., founded in Edinburgh in 1830. In 1948 the company merged with another Scottish family bakery, Macfarlane, Lang & Co., Ltd., to become United Biscuits Group. Mcvitie’s name lives on as a United Biscuits’ brand, and it is the name generally synonymous with digestive biscuits in UK supermarkets - although there are many rival brands, plus supermarket-own versions.<br /><br />A competing claim for the first digestive comes from another Edinburgh biscuit manufacturer. Robert Middlemass set up Middlemass’ Biscuit Factory in 1835. By 1896 production was mechanised and Middlemass produced the famous ‘Albert Biscuit’ during Queen Victoria’s reign (click <a href=http://www.bakers.co.uk/recipes-continents.php4>here</a> for a recipe) but the achievement he was proudest of was the ‘invention’of the digestive biscuit [sorry, I couldn’t find a date for this one]. The factory closed in 1974.<br /><br />The chocolate digestive biscuit was first produced by Mcvitie & Price in 1925. They named it the ‘Homewheat Chocolate Digestive’ because the wheat used in the biscuit was grown in Britain, at a time when competitors were using imported ingredients. It was therefore (and still is) a proudly British biscuit - although perhaps the Scots should really get the lion’s share of the credit for coming up with the idea in the first place. Incidentally, it is only in the last few years that ‘Homewheat’ has been dropped from the packaging of the Mcvitie’s Chocolate Digestive after a rebrand, although a scan around the internet suggests that exported biscuits still carry this name - check out the ‘product features’ for a chocolate digestive on <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Mcvities-Homewheat-Milk-Chocolate-10oz/dp/B000HRWO7S>Amazon.com</a>!. Don’t laugh, I think ‘snack’ , ‘teatime’,’easy dessert’ and not to mention ‘made in England’ are very important selling points.<br /><br />In ‘The Oxford Companion to Food’ (Ed. Alan Davidson), Laura Mason describes the digestive biscuit as being, <i>‘of the pastry flour type, made from coarse brown flour. It is thick, fairly crisp, but also crumbly and, being only moderately sweet, goes well with hard English cheese. The biscuit has no particularly digestive properties and is banned for sale under that name in the USA. Alternative names are ‘wheatmeal’ and ‘sweetmeal’. Recipes for home-made digestives generally include oatmeal to give the required texture.’</i><br /> <br />I found various digestive biscuit recipes on my shelves. The earliest is from a book published in 1902 (The Queen Newspaper Cookery book series, No. 11 - Bread, cakes and biscuits, collected and described by S. Beaty-Pownall), reproduced in Andre Simon’s ‘Cereals’ (pub. 1943):<br /><br />'Rub 1 lb. of butter into 5 lb.of wheatmeal; make a hollow in the centre and pour into this 4 lightly beaten up eggs, with 4 oz. sugar and 1/4 oz. of carbonate of soda; mix this all to a little pool of batter in the centre of the flour, then gradually draw down the latter from the sides with a circular motion of your fingers, moistening the dough this produced with about 1 quart of water, added by degrees, till you get it all to a nice workable consistency. Take up one-third of this dough and roll it out to the thickness of a penny; spread a clean cloth on the kitchen table; lift the dough on to the rolling-pin and roll it out again on the cloth, then cut out into oval or round cakes, prick these and place them in the oven. Finish off the rest of the dough in the same way.'<br /><br />No baking temperatures or times given.<br /><br />For cooking up commercial quantities (though not a batch to rival McVitie’s) you could turn to the recipe in ‘The Baker’s Repository of Recipes’, published in the late 1940s, and part of a collection of recipes representing Scotland’s bakery industry prior to 1939:<br /><br />6 lb. soft flour<br />3 1/2 lb. wheatmeal<br />1/2 lb. oatmeal<br />2 1/2 oz. soda<br />2 1/2 oz. cream powder<br />1 1/2 lb. butter<br />1 1/2 lb. pure lard<br />4 oz. glucose<br />1 1/2 oz. salt<br />1 1/2 lb. sugar<br />22 oz. water<br /><br />Rub fat finely through flour and make all into a dough. Allow the dough to rest, then run down through rollers. Cut out, preferably with a combination cutter. Lay on wires and bake. The dough is usually passed through rollers in canvas sheets.<br /><br />This second recipe uses a combination of different flours and adds fats to the mix. It looks not too far removed from the content of today’s supermarket biscuits, but I fancied baking something a little homelier (and smaller in proportions).<br /><br />110g/4 oz. medium oatmeal [I used fine oatmeal as that was already in the cupboard. By all means try medium, but I think fine will prevent the biscuit feeling too much like chipboard]<br />35g/1 1/2 oz. caster sugar<br />110g/4 oz. wholemeal flour<br />75g/3 oz. butter<br />A pinch of salt<br />A small pinch of bicarbonate of soda<br />1/2 egg<br /><br />Rub butter into flour and oatmeal, add sugar, salt and soda. Bind with the beaten egg, put the dough on pastry-board sprinkled with oatmeal, and roll out. Sprinkle lightly with oatmeal, roll it in, and then cut in oval shapes. Bake in a tin in a fairly hot oven.<br /><br />Recipe from ‘Farmhouse Fare - Country Recipes collected by 'Farmers Weekly’, published 1973.<br /><br />(N.B. The Reader’s Digest 'Farmhouse Cookery - Recipes from the Country Kitchen', carries an almost identical recipe under the name ‘Digestion Biscuits’. The text state; <i>'As their name suggests, Digestion Biscuits were considered good for the stomach. Certainly, the Victorians thought so, and the biscuits - made with oatmeal and wholemeal flour - were popular in many country households.<br /><br />Digestions Biscuits were sometimes eaten as an alternative to bread. They are excellent with butter and cheese.'</i>)<br /><br />It was this second recipe that I used for my biscuits. I used an oven temperature of 190C, and baked for 12-14 minutes. The observant among you will spot that I dipped one face of my biscuits into dark chocolate. Well, I had to really. I did try one or two undressed biscuits, and very nice they were too, but it would have been clear foolishness not to also have tried them with chocolate.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsDVP2bd4lV1nT00XWwfVEvG7UcY_vOjENNsm1evqKWte98_FEZQPyDtm-q5ODo-kCPeFzoktBwcd61x2x0Gfn1PPZaLYznYXJ6lPJOjgaTerte-86jXBkAIukH3209L5hL3NXg/s1600-h/+Digestive.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsDVP2bd4lV1nT00XWwfVEvG7UcY_vOjENNsm1evqKWte98_FEZQPyDtm-q5ODo-kCPeFzoktBwcd61x2x0Gfn1PPZaLYznYXJ6lPJOjgaTerte-86jXBkAIukH3209L5hL3NXg/s400/+Digestive.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192539888701663970" /></a><br />As a point of comparison, I purchased two packs of commercially made digestives. Everyone and their aunt produce their own brand of digestives, so I chose Doves Wholewheat Digestives as <a href=http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/organic/cookies-sweet-biscuits.htm>Doves</a> make the point of stating on their packaging that the biscuits are ‘Made with English Wheat’; and I selected Nairns Oat Digestives as <a href=http://www.nairns-oatcakes.com/content/>Nairns</a> are an Edinburgh based Scottish bakery, plus the inclusion of oats made the recipe similar to the one I baked from.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZnEgN9CsAwyuDj7n7JyqYlenCNFHXm67qKkRxQJVhOOwcB3n31CWcI88e9QTlJ-rW2Oadj6H-9CcmBgpL5qm-XrCaX6eN9jLKV25OuiXGdb9UWYN5f5-Kha89YzrE2oXg5xcOQ/s1600-h/Digestive3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZnEgN9CsAwyuDj7n7JyqYlenCNFHXm67qKkRxQJVhOOwcB3n31CWcI88e9QTlJ-rW2Oadj6H-9CcmBgpL5qm-XrCaX6eN9jLKV25OuiXGdb9UWYN5f5-Kha89YzrE2oXg5xcOQ/s400/Digestive3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192543852956478226" /></a><br />This may have placed them at a disadvantage, but neither of the other two sets of biscuit had any chocolate anywhere about them...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8OYL3SI4uW7mEw72OXl4rIuxutqiUj7XGuTIG7_oBIQZT66RCawC7CZsacGPMiQYG4lhGxLCwhRuYaXEwTOpES4jXCPaxMZ4-kky7hyphenhyphenrbBE9Gwm8AXEnoEuaYkQpU-AgvaLn_-g/s1600-h/Digestive1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8OYL3SI4uW7mEw72OXl4rIuxutqiUj7XGuTIG7_oBIQZT66RCawC7CZsacGPMiQYG4lhGxLCwhRuYaXEwTOpES4jXCPaxMZ4-kky7hyphenhyphenrbBE9Gwm8AXEnoEuaYkQpU-AgvaLn_-g/s400/Digestive1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192540940968651506" /></a><br />The biscuit tasting was carried out by myself and my junior kitchen hand. In Ellis' honest opinion they were all much of a muchness, and all samples disappeared into his tasting hatch at a fast rate. I tried him with a cheese laden biscuit, but this proved unpopular and was quickly ejected from the tasting hatch. For myself, I found the commercial biscuits dryer and crisper, with a firmer 'bite'. I couldn't discern the flavour of honey in the Nairns biscuit, and found the Doves biscuit was of similar subtle sweetness. Both stood up well to a dunking in a cup of tea (a very traditional method of consumption). My home-baked digestives had an easier texture, more crumble about them and were more interesting in the mouth. I had been concerned that the home-made biscuits would end up a little penitential - obviously, the chocolate coating helped - but they were tasty and far removed from a dry cardboard state. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5W1VFnw7mR6iKUrhyphenhyphenYN7DnmHG0Su3h2fJxAM5mDDTPA4yfoAaTOJWxtpiyk8KVNw2HZyhsuU9mfkNHoPfshvKeUEmB6kx4hDITXyipDMIH92PSwYJAApD0pZwiepcPAK7xOoqA/s1600-h/Digestive2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5W1VFnw7mR6iKUrhyphenhyphenYN7DnmHG0Su3h2fJxAM5mDDTPA4yfoAaTOJWxtpiyk8KVNw2HZyhsuU9mfkNHoPfshvKeUEmB6kx4hDITXyipDMIH92PSwYJAApD0pZwiepcPAK7xOoqA/s400/Digestive2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192542165034330882" /></a><br />Go on, you deserve a cup of tea and a biscuit...AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-11752703610341595002008-02-27T15:18:00.005+00:002008-02-27T15:43:00.585+00:00Happy Birthday to Ellis...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhqPqdpKUmv_uTFxKNE9s71PJg4MhoqfOMBzJoa2E93zS9i3k1oyBECYgLi_10EjeWqcFuSiPMWt6TwJbgD9Ggzsn7y-ucQkBguNjyZfqedTUn-LTrpo4ve8mG-JxMCZHy7xHsg/s1600-h/BeeDay3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhqPqdpKUmv_uTFxKNE9s71PJg4MhoqfOMBzJoa2E93zS9i3k1oyBECYgLi_10EjeWqcFuSiPMWt6TwJbgD9Ggzsn7y-ucQkBguNjyZfqedTUn-LTrpo4ve8mG-JxMCZHy7xHsg/s400/BeeDay3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5171681659319500114" /></a><br />Our little boy turned one on Monday, and we held a family birthday tea the day before. Apart from the birthday boy himself, my attention over the previous week had been on 'the cake'. Having children is an excuse to bake fantastical celebration cakes and play with day-glo icing colours that normally would not grace the tea table. I choose to make Ellis a bumble bee cake as the buzzing noise made by the insect, as reproduced my his parents/Grandparents/our lovely next door neighbours, was one of the first sounds to really make him chuckle. This cake brought a smile to his face too.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVAXsbjFhV8nNNCCJrRQaNsvp4Ox4YtyyLjZbU2slcztYqTUsUOpKX2iXZkjGRuEOYjSABa5YF9yQq0nLcE22EL27wUULNMXHd4VGzrgLxCxa2CbcP_F3jOPE2tWCOd70g08i7gQ/s1600-h/BeeDay.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVAXsbjFhV8nNNCCJrRQaNsvp4Ox4YtyyLjZbU2slcztYqTUsUOpKX2iXZkjGRuEOYjSABa5YF9yQq0nLcE22EL27wUULNMXHd4VGzrgLxCxa2CbcP_F3jOPE2tWCOd70g08i7gQ/s400/BeeDay.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5171682179010542946" /></a><br />I made the cake in two halves, using a recipe from Nigella Lawson's 'Domestic Goddess' (this contains a whole chapter of suggestions for baking for/with children - no jokes, please). The domed top half of the cake was baked in a silver foil lined colander (yeah, don't try it without that proviso), and the lower half was baked in a conventional sandwich tin. The whole was covered in super eye-catching orange buttercream, and the black icing I purchased from the supermarket in ready to pipe tubes. The wings were circles of netting, gathered and threaded onto cocktail sticks. Legs and feelers were sticks of soft liquorice. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3ATK8jJr4CkD3gPO5FY-qqgv5dq8_aW_2J-ovcuVJA5ovK0o9GwfY7e1OPjDS990BdoVan9w2GhtmLkDkLg57O8udagrxk6wZifBq5kneKQwYYMWruKVhgMfwjtHZmXa4LNubA/s1600-h/BeeDay2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3ATK8jJr4CkD3gPO5FY-qqgv5dq8_aW_2J-ovcuVJA5ovK0o9GwfY7e1OPjDS990BdoVan9w2GhtmLkDkLg57O8udagrxk6wZifBq5kneKQwYYMWruKVhgMfwjtHZmXa4LNubA/s400/BeeDay2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5171681655024532802" /></a><br />Happy Birthday poppet!AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-18784566113779968762008-02-05T13:30:00.000+00:002008-02-05T23:08:11.276+00:00Shrove Tuesday Pancake Festival, Hitchin 2008<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUuVQe3xQ-8I68X0ai-xmk4q55BtPjIDXcbbmI5GV0vTQJSE3p2x-NnIGRaM7BQXLL82igcG383AFWgUG_x5K9y-zSIjirNDAxTEbyD_Q7q9Dv7QLgOULmQev5T8UBEq036hJ41A/s1600-h/HitchinPancakes2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUuVQe3xQ-8I68X0ai-xmk4q55BtPjIDXcbbmI5GV0vTQJSE3p2x-NnIGRaM7BQXLL82igcG383AFWgUG_x5K9y-zSIjirNDAxTEbyD_Q7q9Dv7QLgOULmQev5T8UBEq036hJ41A/s400/HitchinPancakes2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163490613267900818" /></a><br />Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, is the final day pre-Lent. It is the day for clearing your cupboards of eggs and butter (historically both forbidden, along with other foods such as meat, during Lent), and for shriving (confessing sins and asking forgiveness). Pancakes have for many centuries, and in many countries, been a popular way of achieving larder cleanliness on Shrove Tuesday. <a href=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/02/20/nosplit/ftpancake20.xml>In centuries past</a>, pancakes made for the wealthy may have contained spices, scented waters, sherry, sack or ale, and could be brought to the table with bowls of flavoured cream or sweet cooked fruits. Fruit fritters - fruit dipped in batter - particularly apple fritters, were also a popular food on this day, and the name fritter can also be applied to the pancake. In contrast to these indulgent pancakes of the past, most of us in Britain are accustomed to eating plain flour, egg and milk pancakes with a sprinkling of sugar and a squeeze of tart lemon juice, quite austere by old standards! A few miles north of Hitchin, the small town of Baldock had a different tradition for Shrove Tuesday. Here the day was known as Doughnut Day, and fried doughnuts were eaten in place of pancakes. Was there perhaps a link with the Dutch tradition of <a href=http://teriskitchen.com/padutch/fastnachts-b.html>Faschtnachts</a>?<br /><br />On Shrove Tuesday morning the church bell would ring to call parishioners to church to be shriven. Post-Reformation the bell also signified the beginning of festivities, the last chance for a jolly and a feast before the dry days of Lent. Reputedly, the first pancake race was run in <a href=http://www.olneytowncouncil.co.uk/pancake.php>Olney</a>, Buckinghamshire in 1455, albeit unintentionally. One housewife cooking her pre-Lent batch of pancakes, heard the church bell ringing for the Shriving service, and realising she was late for the service ran out of the house arriving in church with the frying pan still in her hand. Olney still stages a pancake race each year, open to women over the age of 18, and happy to dress in the stereotypical garb of the housewife.<br /><br />The Pancake Festival in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, is in its 10th year, organised by the The Rotary Club, raising money for the The Garden House Hospice and other local charities. Three pancakes races are run:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQyI3VTkoekGV33J5pw9H9icufy3H7XawXMaDDVuFL3plpHxvpJp82Ougy5Fg6az8JjyyiBqH80W9iEmQwkO1gkCiLaXV_8mlVLOblxCZsvc7wn1bhdA_6YYKJRRTGXZF3gPGmrA/s1600-h/+HitchinPancakes1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQyI3VTkoekGV33J5pw9H9icufy3H7XawXMaDDVuFL3plpHxvpJp82Ougy5Fg6az8JjyyiBqH80W9iEmQwkO1gkCiLaXV_8mlVLOblxCZsvc7wn1bhdA_6YYKJRRTGXZF3gPGmrA/s400/+HitchinPancakes1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163488362705037698" /></a>The men's race.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUOqCCL87mo6IrcnBzT7i3o3uPaLDeJkP7a8RkzQZg7a1lwn1HhyxwEUSADmkty1yAjbP7MARiqsGCP2ccglJoVuHv0-2bEcXB3gB0gJ5Agl4YEIccSYCA1IZksCEbKB2YvMH6bA/s1600-h/HitchinPancakes4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUOqCCL87mo6IrcnBzT7i3o3uPaLDeJkP7a8RkzQZg7a1lwn1HhyxwEUSADmkty1yAjbP7MARiqsGCP2ccglJoVuHv0-2bEcXB3gB0gJ5Agl4YEIccSYCA1IZksCEbKB2YvMH6bA/s400/HitchinPancakes4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163490621857835442" /></a>The women's race.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOHkKnjjYfR0eUHOSE9tSFvM0SQUSbstPiRXeXgk9WxWNPkIaMklkUgyoPC5lXF2tbnaHOSomvQ1Fwa92L8Y-JlmZdUXD32CGowZm2D62IjwyH7qFUT9OzPUc__1_5r6XbG2EEA/s1600-h/HitchinPancakes3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOHkKnjjYfR0eUHOSE9tSFvM0SQUSbstPiRXeXgk9WxWNPkIaMklkUgyoPC5lXF2tbnaHOSomvQ1Fwa92L8Y-JlmZdUXD32CGowZm2D62IjwyH7qFUT9OzPUc__1_5r6XbG2EEA/s400/HitchinPancakes3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163490617562868130" /></a><br />Fancy-dress, with the 118 guys - obligatory at all good charity sporting events.<br /><br />In the town square I joined the queue for a pancake hot from the pan, serving to help me limber up for a pancake eating marathon later in the day. For pancake recipes both traditional and new, try this <a href=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/real_food/article3305941.ece>link</a>. I can't record my own efforts, as I am afraid they were consumed all too quickly, only to say they were very good!AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-82403435990904816072008-02-01T23:43:00.000+00:002008-02-01T23:44:32.401+00:00Scottish Shortbread<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJlbcJrF-RdzUd0AvYtO4W-inoR5ubx9o9AV8Y_-jpRNMu4GCOCQmeOeLj9J2zs0OHutgydiAs4xkSlkZjAQKFZRS4Kb0bWiUzHBpXeSABkkaXZ0f7WhCPcTMiuVOFn8-KWyr62g/s1600-h/Shortbread.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJlbcJrF-RdzUd0AvYtO4W-inoR5ubx9o9AV8Y_-jpRNMu4GCOCQmeOeLj9J2zs0OHutgydiAs4xkSlkZjAQKFZRS4Kb0bWiUzHBpXeSABkkaXZ0f7WhCPcTMiuVOFn8-KWyr62g/s400/Shortbread.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5162159173406140754" /></a><br />Shortbread is a biscuit ‘shortened’ by the prodigious use of glorious butter. The texture of the biscuit is crisp and snappable- hence ‘short’. The term 'bread' has been used interchangeably with 'cake' for many centuries (cakes, as we now know them, derive from sweetened, yeast-risen breads), and shortbread is the descendent of the short cakes baked from the the 16th century. One story has it that Scottish bakers used the name shortbread to argue the case against paying the government’s tax on biscuits (shades of <a href=http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stuart_payne/2007/12/let_us_eat_zero-rated_cakes.html>Jaffa cakes</a> v the VAT man/woman. VAT is currently not paid on cakes and biscuits, as they are deemed a necessity by UK law - the law is not always an ass it seems! - chocolate-covered biscuits, on the other hand, are considered luxuries and therefore are taxable). Short cakes were made from the same ingredients as we would use for a sweet shortcrust pastry (short, again refers to the texture), with the addition of a little yeast. The yeast in these early cakes could result in an uneven rise, remedied by the baker ‘docking’ or pricking the surface of the cake. Some modern biscuits have kept these pricked holes as decoration. Short cakes were eaten across Britain, and many local biscuits (i.e. <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html>Shrewsbury cakes</a>, or <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=goosnargh+cake>Goosnargh cakes</a>) are variations on the basic recipe. Shortbread, however, has a definite association with Scotland, and the best of its type has long been an export to the rest of the country, and to the rest of the world. <br /><br />It is the quality of the ingredients that make shortbread so decidedly delicious, and a lightness of touch in the making. Classic shortbread is made from only flour, butter and sugar, so that gives three opportunities for buying the best, or three chances to produce a disappointing biscuit. F. Marian McNeill writes in <a href=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841830704/qid=1145033346/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-5187347-8763865>'The Scots Kitchen’</a> that,<br /><br /><i> ‘Only the best ingredients should be used. The flour should be dried and sieved. The butter, which is the only moistening and shortening agent, should be squeezed free of all water. The sugar should be fine castor. Two other things are essential for success - the careful blending of the ingredients and careful firing. <br /><br />The butter and the sugar should first be blended. Put eight ounces of butter and four ounces of castor sugar on a board, and work with the hand until thoroughly incorporated. Mix eight ounces of flour with four ounces of rice flour, and work gradually into the butter and sugar, until the dough is of the consistency of short crust. Be careful that it does not become oily (a danger in hot weather) nor toughened by over-mixing. The less kneading, the more short and crisp the shortbread. Do not roll it out, as rolling has a tendency to toughen it, but press with the hand into two round cakes, either in oiled and floured shortbread moulds or on a sheet of baking-paper. The most satisfactory thickness is three-quarters of an inch for a cake eight inches in diameter, or in such proportion. If you make a large thick cake it is advisable to protect the edges with a paper band or hoop, and to have several layers of papers underneath and perhaps one on top. Pinch the edges neatly all round with the finger and thumb, and prick all over with a fork. Decorate with “sweetie” almonds (for small cakes, caraway comfits may be used) and strips of citron or orange peel. Put into a fairly hot oven, reduce the heat presently, and allow the shortbread to crisp off to a light golden brown.’</i><br /><br /><a href=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140273247/qid=1145032032/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl/202-5187347-8763865>Jane Grigson </a> suggests having in the kitchen a jar of plain flour mixed with rice flour or cornflour with a 3:1 proportion so that you have this to hand for biscuit making and for light sponge cakes. She helpfully notes that the proportion of ingredients for shortbread are 3:2:1 - flour:butter:sugar. <br /><br />Advice also comes from ’The Baker’s Repository of Recipes - With Special Reference to Scottish Specialities’, published post-WWII by The British Baker to help reinvigorate the baking trade by providing a comprehensive collection of national recipes:<br /><br /><i>‘Flour, butter, sugar, and sometimes eggs, was the order of the day at one time, but in shortbread making the type of ingredient used is the chief essential.<br /><br />There are no spices, fruits, etc., to counteract in the matter of flavour, therefore a good-flavoured butter comes first in importance. Flour would seem to be of next importance, and a very soft flour is not to be recommended. A top-grade winter or blended flour is usually selected. Sugar chosen is usually somewhat hard in the grain.<br /><br />The ingredients may be well chosen yet the results desired not obtained. This may be caused in the method of making up the dough. Good judges declare shortbread is often spoiled by overworking or overmaking the dough.<br /><br />The butter, sugar and eggs should be roughly creamed, the flour added, and the dough just formed.<br /><br />Finally, the baking must be correct. An oven of moderate temperature is used, but the exact temperatures have to be noted from experience. The thickness and type of shortbread being baking govern the baking temperature.’</i><br /><br />There are variations on the classic recipe - Ayrshire shortbread also includes cream and eggs, Pitcaithly bannock has chopped sweet almonds and citron peel mixed in with the flour and is decorated with peel. Petticoat tails are a thin form of shortbread baked in a distinctive circular shape with a smaller circle cut from the centre, and then the remainder divided up. Shetland Bride’s Bonn/Bun is flavoured with caraway seeds and baked upon a girdle. I am keen to try out this girdle-cooked shortbread, but I feel that I should give the ‘original’ recipe a go first.<br /><br />My ingredient quantities came from <a href=http://www.ilab.org/db/book2205_1346.html>‘A Cook’s Tour of Britain’</a>, by the WI and Michael Smith (just a little more butter than Jane Grigson’s ratios), and the method I employed was from Marcus Wareing’s <a href=http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Cook-Perfect-Marcus-Wareing/dp/1405317582/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201907870&sr=8-1>‘How to Cook the Perfect...’</a><br /><br />110g slightly salted butter (or unsalted butter with a pinch a salt) - use direct from fridge<br />50g caster sugar<br />150g plain flour<br />50g rice flour/ground rice<br /><br />1. Sift the flour into a bowl (along with the salt if you are using unsalted butter), and stir in the ground rice and sugar.<br />2. Put the bowl of dry ingredients on the scales and return the dial/reading to zero and (here is the clever bit) grate in 110g butter from a chilled block . <br />3. Work the grated butter quickly into the flour by rubbing first with the fingertips, and then between the palms of the hands. Once the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, stop.<br />4. Press the mix into a 20cm by 20cm square baking tin and level the surface. Chill in the fridge for about an hour.<br />5. Heat oven to 160C/320F/Gas 3, and then bake shortbread until light golden (about 40 minutes, but keep an eye on it).<br />6. Remove from oven and prick all over with a fork, then mark out into pieces (squares or fingers) cutting through to the bottom of the tin. Dust liberally with caster sugar, and then leave to cool in tin.<br /><br />I thought the idea of grating in chilled butter was a good one, and one that I have since also used for pastry making. It means that the butter needs very little work to properly introduce it to the flour. Putting a bowl-load of buttery flour ‘crumbs’ into the baking tin required faith that the end result would be a biscuit and not crumble topping, but, what do you know, my shortbread was appropriately ‘short’ and the texture was good. The shortbread was very butter-rich, and the scent of butter was also strong (but that might be down to the warmth of my kitchen). The biscuits were perhaps a little sweet for my taste, but that could simply be due to a over-exuberant sugar sprinkle.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1eAux9mmVtDk7Ce9xHy9iE47LdDXFpimsfTOefXEWf8IRgpaxu4v2YKTzKc3aC9nfZaC1-UHzLEf-iO3Of6pT6y52m9no9Ce3BsVFsfuIBuPhWwFQxbI8jesH2yrNfFtGXnQgg/s1600-h/Shortbread2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1eAux9mmVtDk7Ce9xHy9iE47LdDXFpimsfTOefXEWf8IRgpaxu4v2YKTzKc3aC9nfZaC1-UHzLEf-iO3Of6pT6y52m9no9Ce3BsVFsfuIBuPhWwFQxbI8jesH2yrNfFtGXnQgg/s400/Shortbread2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5162159177701108066" /></a>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-24225262553370252552007-12-25T23:35:00.000+00:002007-12-27T11:17:38.744+00:00Christmas Cake (an escape to warmer climes)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXijlTtArKRefU6Z84P-yZ6bbjHPIRx9SchYe1CulGBGWZaD_M2LIeISJ6jZyksCb1pu_0dmNDj1Z8VX8lq71mkuvaC2j6qDMIFN3EivO4lcpNB_QthKtZgGYXpyghUzIigmsEA/s1600-h/Christmas1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXijlTtArKRefU6Z84P-yZ6bbjHPIRx9SchYe1CulGBGWZaD_M2LIeISJ6jZyksCb1pu_0dmNDj1Z8VX8lq71mkuvaC2j6qDMIFN3EivO4lcpNB_QthKtZgGYXpyghUzIigmsEA/s400/Christmas1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5148302217164482914" /></a><br />This year I wanted to bake a Christmas cake - my first. I have made Christmas puddings and mince pies aplenty, but despite having polished off many a slice of Christmas cake I have never created my own. I love Christmas cake, love fruit cakes dense with fruit, nuts, peel, spices, and whatever other treasures can be packed in. I love the marzipan layer, and generally I like the royal icing on top (although sometimes this is too hard or too sweet). Lots of people don't seem too bothered about this element of Christmas food, some positively dislike rich fruit cakes of this type, and some (nutters) don't even like marzipan. Well, Christmas is a time of giving, and this year I wanted to give myself a lovely cake. Maybe I could also share a little of it if I felt the spirit of Christmas strongly enough.<br /><br />I had a suspicion that the British Christmas cakes that enthusiasts such as myself tuck into, are not all that ancient as a tradition of the season. From my research I learnt that the oldest cake associated with the British Christmas period is the Twelfth cake (King cake or Bean cake). Many other countries have their take on this - such as France's <a href=http://www.euro-info-tourisme.com/France/galettes.des.rois.html>La Couronne (or Galette) des Rois</a>, Mexico's <a href=http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/mexsoc/mexico/images/rosca.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/mexsoc/mexico/mexico_traditions_reyes.html&h=176&w=344&sz=26&hl=en&start=7&um=1&tbnid=VWTT4i6RnXM0ZM:&tbnh=61&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLa%2BRosca%2Bde%2BReyes%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN>La Rosca de Reyes</a>, Switzerland's <a href=http://www.switzit.co.uk/facts/food/recipe-3-Dreikoenigskuchen.htm>Dreikönigskuchen</a> or the <a href="http://www.mardigrasunmasked.com/mardigras/king_cake.htm">Gateau des Rois</a> of New Orleans. Twelfth cake was served on the Twelfth Day/Night of Christmas (Epiphany - the twelfth night after Christmas, a Christian holy day commemorating the visit by the Three Wise Men to the Christ child), and was a spiced fruit cake - originally a yeast-raised fruit bread or a light cake made from breadcrumbs, but by the 19th century had become more densely packed with fruit, heavier, and closer in consistency to the traditional Christmas Plum Pudding (which has a much older pedigree). Twelfth cake contained tokens (a dried bean for the King and a dried pea for the Queen) that would determine who had a one-night stand as a monarch, and those elevated could expect other party-goers to act out their every whim. The Twelfth Night feast was known also as the feast of fools, where misrule reigned and the lowest ruled over the highest, servants took precedence over their masters and chaos was celebrated. The feast itself predates Christianity and has links to the Roman feast of Saturnalia. The Puritans banned Twelfth Night activities, but with the Restoration the custom was also restored and the partying continued until late into the 19th century. In 1870 the revels came to Queen Victoria's attention and she deemed that they were irreligious and irreverent. She deleted the feast from the British calendar of feast days and festivals. But that, my friends, was not quite that. Victorian bakers, not wishing to miss out on the sale of the cakes that they produced for Twelfth Night, simply offered the same cakes for sale at an earlier date and rebranded them as Christmas cakes. According to the food historian, Bridget Ann Henisch, by the 1830s the bean and pea were no longer hidden within the cake, but instead were illustrated cards, slips of paper or ceramic figures, drawn from a hat or bag. Henisch suggests that by 1870 public enthusiasm for Twelfth Night had waned, and Christmas Eve and Day had become the focus of what had become a shorter (thanks to the Industrial Revolution) holiday period. Twelfth cakes were sometimes decorated with raised sugar figures or lattice designs, and these decorative elements continue in the use of marzipan, icing, and the odd rogue (although, some might say, obligatory) element of <a href=http://www.freedsbakery.com/other-las-vegas-cakes/childrens-birthday-cakes3/mr_-and-mrs_-claus-christmas-cake>tastelessness</a> on the top of Christmas cakes. <br /><br />There is no single recipe for Christmas cake, and I imagine it is probably a recipe which most people feel free to adapt to suit what they like (less peel, more booze, no glace cherries, extra stem ginger etc.). It is not a recipe to be precious with, it is a generous cake both in terms of its content and its spirit. I have decided to take this notion and run with it, as the recipe I am going to bake comes from beyond the shores of Britain, I am also drawing upon the Victorian connection and my recipe comes from one of the countries that the Victorians couldn't help themselves but meddle with. That country was known by the Brits as Ceylon, and is now called Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Christmas cake is a local variation of what would have appeared on Victorian Christmas tables back home. The Sri Lankan cake is made with semolina, dried fruits, <a href=http://asiafood.org/glossary_1.cfm?alpha=C&wordid=2507&startno=27&endno=51>chow chow</a>, cashew nuts, almonds, spices, rosewater, honey, brandy, butter and eggs. It is topped with a marzipan made from cashew nuts, icing-free, and is generally served cut into squares. Some of the ingredients betray the influence also of Portuguese and Dutch tastes, two other European countries that passed through.<br /><br />My recipe comes from <a href=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cakes-Around-World-Julie-Duff/dp/1904943764/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198752862&sr=8-1>'Cakes From Around the World'</a>. I roughly halved the ingredients given as I only wanted to make one cake. This recipe omits the chow chow - probably because it is not an easy ingredient to find here. To see a recipe that includes it, click <a href=http://www.xdw20.dial.pipex.com/recipes.htm>here</a>. <br /><br />Quantities given below will produce two 20 cm/8 inch square cakes. <br /><br />115g chopped stem ginger<br />115g chopped mixed peel<br />225g raisins<br />225g sultanas<br />225g currants<br />225g chopped crystalized pineapple<br />225g chopped cashew nuts<br />115g chopped almonds<br />115g chopped bright red glace cherries<br />115g chopped dark red glace cherries<br />3 tablespoons brandy<br />3 tablespoons rosewater<br />2 tablespoons honey<br />2 teaspoons vanilla extract<br />2 teaspoons ground cinnamon<br />1 teaspoon ground mace<br />1 teaspoon ground cardamon<br />1/2 teaspoon ground cloves<br />450g soft pale brown sugar<br />450g softened butter<br />225g semolina<br />12 large eggs, separated (you actually only use 6 of the egg whites, so keep the other 6 back for meringue making etc.)<br /><br />For the cashew nut marzipan:<br /><br />225g cashew nuts<br />450g icing sugar <br />1 egg white<br />4 tablespoons brandy<br />1 teaspoon almond extract<br />1 tablespoon rosewater<br />1 teaspoon vanilla extract<br /><br />Phew!<br /><br />1. In one large bowl put the peel, fruits, nuts, brandy, rosewater, honey, vanilla extract and spices. Give a good old stir up with a metal spoon, then cover and leave overnight for some flavour mingling.<br />2. Line two 20 cm/8 inch square cake tines with greaseproof paper, and preheat oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.<br />3. Using a hand mixer, unless you have wonderfully strong wrists, cream the sugar and softened butter until light and fluffy. On a slow speed, add the semolina and egg yolks a little at a time to avoid curdling. Take a metal spoon and stir in the fruit mixture until blended.<br />4. Take the 6 egg whites and whisk until they stand in peaks, then using a metal spoon stir the egg whites gently into the cake mixture.<br />5. Divide the cake mixture between the two cake tins and bake until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out cleanly - about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Leave the cakes to cool in their tins, then wrap in foil and set aside for 3 or 4 days to mature (you can feed with brandy during this time).<br />6. To make the marzipan put the nuts into a food processor and whizz until finely chopped. Add the icing sugar and other ingredients, processing at the lowest speed until the mixture comes together into a ball (my mixture seemed quite wet so I used extra icing sugar to help dry the marzipan). Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll out the paste - you want to create a sheet large enough to cover only the top of each cake (roll into rough shapes and trim).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpciZLKqr09vT2LMPknbnHxPaFX9uEKfnfYKT3sqpsjuxDtsve3yWcfKr1vCaYXo9jmCodsiRSg_mbwI5Aftz_aBVJU9qyLM1WvG3OEnPjsHt7eQLRkTkCCHZz5YO7lk78vim3A/s1600-h/Christmas.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpciZLKqr09vT2LMPknbnHxPaFX9uEKfnfYKT3sqpsjuxDtsve3yWcfKr1vCaYXo9jmCodsiRSg_mbwI5Aftz_aBVJU9qyLM1WvG3OEnPjsHt7eQLRkTkCCHZz5YO7lk78vim3A/s400/Christmas.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5148302608006506866" /></a><br />I decorated the top of the cake with snowflakes cut from marzipan - which looked quite tasteful and therefore my fingers felt itchy for a bit of tinsel to strew around. It was served for Christmas tea, that meal not eaten for reasons of sustenance or nutrition, but somehow necessary a few hours after the consumption of the largest lunch of the year. Several of us managed to enjoy a small piece, and found although it was bursting to the seams with fruit and nuts it was lighter than many Christmas cakes. Despite the fruitfulness of the slice, the spices were still evident, and this helped to evoke warmer climes and banished Hertfordshire drizzle. The marizpan also benefited from the extra flavourings of brandy, rosewater, almond and vanilla extract it contained, it was sweet but it didn't have the single dominating flavour that almond marzipan. If you aren't keen on marzipan usually, then I do recommend that you give this one a go - and the cake too!<br /><br />Merry Christmas!AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-29441266374925945492007-11-09T16:28:00.002+00:002007-12-02T17:32:34.773+00:00Parkin (or Perkin or Tharf cake)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9wICY4UDgaA5j_1WQdJlZKAHez6ofBbg5XbiazGNpVD11OVPtYMn9KP0Ep82rH7uoR2jx3axSVZDpe5JPcAWsFQkG6PMcFMBi_V1BFIVjdM4f7LAQByK0CqYtWiRKPvRYXAtDQ/s1600-r/Parkin1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAiiUFsMm5bSXozem2xcC47wZhez4vlf7oQUBOG6YZwtKelMA9rWaD5CO5BsEagl509IaFTJGBcu_Kqui30lGJLj_vEJmGZZePlA9jr62usrjXLJ8lKGXtwABJOyiaoZxOgTuaRg/s400/Parkin1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139426563797651282" /></a><br />To follow on from my Orkney Broonie baking I have journeyed a few hundred miles south to the north of England, with one foot remaining in southern Scotland. <i>Parkin</i> is an oatmeal gingerbread, usually made with the addition of black treacle, baked in the northernmost counties of England as well as over the border. Recipe variations are <a href=http://www.inkamera.ukgo.com/chrisyy/index.htm>numerous</a> and parkin can take the form of either a biscuit or a cake. Yorkshire and Lancashire both have their own favoured recipes (Lancastrian parkin has a larger proportion of oatmeal), and so do smaller communities and individuals (some add candied peel or other dried fruits and I have seen recipes with the inclusion of coriander seeds). The <i>thar, tharf</i> or <i>thor</i> cake also baked in the north of England – the word ‘thor’ is rooted in the Anglo-Saxon 'theorf' or 'tharf' meaning unleavened - is parkin by another name. Theorf/tharf cakes were made of oatmeal and water and cooked on the griddle, the ingredients were enlivened at feast times by the addition of spices and sweetening (originally honey). The southern Scottish and Northumbrian <i>perkin</i> is a griddle-cooked variety of parkin (now more usually tray baked in an oven), and elsewhere early recipes for parkin were similiarly cooked. This <a href=http://lists.richmond.edu/pipermail/milton-l/2006-October/004631.html>web-page</a> has some old recipes if you would like to try making the griddle-cooked thar and parkin cakes. <a href=http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/recipe2.php?opt=rec&subopt=rec51>Parkin biscuits</a> are a contemporary incarnation of the griddle-cooked cakes, and ingredients such as golden syrup give a modern flavour.<br /><br />Historically, each community produced their version of parkin to be consumed as part of local events that took at the end of October or beginning of November. The cake was so intrinsic to the celebration that many of these events took the name of the food. In West Riding the first Sunday in November was known as Parkin Sunday. The 1st of November was known as Cake Night in Ripon and Caking Day in Sheffield. In Lancashire, the Monday after the 31st of October was known as Tharcake Monday. The 1st of November is All Soul's Day, and it was customary to give some form of Soul or Soul Mass Cake to callers (children or the poor of the parish) - in these areas the cakes given out were one of the variations on parkin. Over time the national celebration of deliverance from the <a href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_robinson_01.shtml>gunpowder plotters</a> (1605) has taken precedence over smaller events, and gingerbread cakes, already eaten by many in the North of England and Southern Scotland at this time of year, have become a fixture of November the 5th festivities.<br /><br />I had many recipes for parkin amongst the books on my bookshelves, but I went with one from Sybil Kapoor’s <a href=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simply-British-Sybil-Kapoor/dp/0140273190/ref=sr_1_9/203-1215177-1908738?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194625241&sr=1-9>‘Simply British’</a> as I have not baked from this book previously (oh, and also, her recipe requires a whole tin of black treacle. This is the sort of excess that I like...).<br /><br />170g plain flour<br />3 teaspoons ground ginger<br />2 teaspoons mixed spice<br />340g medium oatmeal<br />1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda<br />455g black treacle (tins come at a weight of 454g, but I think that overlooking the last gram is acceptable)<br />115g butter<br />140ml milk<br />30g soft brown sugar<br /><br />1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Prepare a 25cm/10 inch cake tin (this needs to be oiled and fully lined with greaseproof paper).<br />2. Sift the flour and spices into a large bowl. Stir in the oatmeal and the bicarbonate of soda.<br />3. In a saucepan over a low heat, melt together the treacle, butter, milk and sugar. Stir occasionally until the butter and treacle are melted, and the sugar dissolved. Black alchemy (see below).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFq6m_WiJVwCtgcDyA_66lsscJmUKo7M_RsnLrkcIHAwDPuPNQ0guNFh1UMtduB85UrAwHDrDpkBC27xl1vBgK_CS2-5K_iM4y_rUDjE9U3HbJKQq8O2R8gW5_3mUcoZuPGvVQhw/s1600-r/Parkin.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZp9ISallOolERpwz9_VPIFxyxOSo630dvcD5O7KHFd_Krm9uvw2C9Unsv4PvDxXRI53LqImmzYe1BUYSO6lk1W3i6QJeOBF3xOvtsfDz4nEasatZA9vuytb6ZGZREiARI3mhg_g/s400/Parkin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139427233812549490" /></a><br />5. Immediately pour the warm and wonderfully dark mixture into the dry ingredients and beat thoroughly. Pour into your prepared tin, spreading mixture to fill tin evenly.<br />6. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until firm.<br />7. Leave to cool in tin, then cut into squares. Again this is one of those cakes that need 'resting' before consuming in order for maximum moistness and deliciousness to be attained. In order to do this wrap cake in foil and store in an air-tight box.<br /><br />I managed to be very obedient and restrained, and I left this cake for almost a week in its foil jacket before cutting a sample square. Although the flavour of the cake was good (with all that treacle it sure should be), the hoped for moistness was sadly lacking. In common with the Holywake Bake cake that I made last November the core of the cake was a little dry, enough to make the consistency cloying. This was disappointing, particularly after the seven day wait for a taste, and I wonder if the problem is down to my recipe, my baking, or perhaps I am expecting these cakes to have a moistness that they just don't have. Does the oatmeal greedily draw in all available dampness, but then refuse to share it round with the other ingredients. Did I treat oatmeal badly in a past life? I love the flavour and texture that oats and oatmeal can bring, but of my three attempts at oatmeal gingerbread, two have been damp squibs rather than fiesty firecrackers. Can anyone provide me with a tried and tested parkin or tharfcake recipe that produces a deliciously moist and flavoursome cake, a sparkler?<br /><br />I started this post at the beginning of November, and here I am finishing off at the beginning of December. What excuse can I offer? Well, my junior baker is already crawling and keen to move on to the next stage. Looks like he will be heading to the kitchen all by himself very soon. Every morning he puts on his 'active trousers' (in the photo they are just about to go on), and they keep him moving all day long - and me away from the computer, the camera, and the cake tin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWCOsKIgU0-EuZIWHg7rQg2jJMHPXUZ2bXhvYIkDUCLV1Dj6aT-jCZAnNYqXp6U_tEJlUhs-R8URlcEECPSSeSGTI-iPjdFclmyduJ705W4CYBJ5ksbD1R-NznoUo6ePhDUzsIw/s1600-r/StandingSmudge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi343kALES8Kgo2EzFIkZZ2ilohWMYms2fWW3MQmbsIE2duckCPqVuvWlvqxK4r7AA3VnjN4SzsIz44bDWHDjzZFoo6HiIyzCRsJr660gNGiJukWs5nWW3VcLYsss3ZYpDyz3ZXig/s320/StandingSmudge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139428127165747074" /></a>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-13290450825502002842007-10-09T12:04:00.000+01:002007-10-09T12:04:56.830+01:00Broonie (Orkney Gingerbread)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4V_vlF89OlrGS-uFI-NG3mYOrQ8_p-dlLMpLeYbo8-lv_GXA6wSQtxCXvyYw4sLloIX_kd-fnqwQtTGxdha4tsZcxKo69eBds3uFBIPA6R5aWFwYylFF8v4GRbtlOXYGe9-VVw/s1600-h/Broonie1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4V_vlF89OlrGS-uFI-NG3mYOrQ8_p-dlLMpLeYbo8-lv_GXA6wSQtxCXvyYw4sLloIX_kd-fnqwQtTGxdha4tsZcxKo69eBds3uFBIPA6R5aWFwYylFF8v4GRbtlOXYGe9-VVw/s400/Broonie1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118282279150446978" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.visitorkney.com/">Orkney</a> consists of about 70 islands and skerries, and is located to the north-east of the top of Scotland. In common with its Scottish neighbours and the northern counties of England, oats and barley (in Orkney a variety known as <a href="http://orkney.org/birsayheritage/mill.htm">bere</a> is grown, locally called corn) are the cereal staples used for breads and bannocks, and, less/more essentially, <a href="http://www.valhallabrewery.co.uk/islandBere.htm">ale</a> and whisky. Oatmeal is a primary ingredient in Broonie, a pale gingerbread made with black treacle, butter, brown sugar, wheat flour, egg, ground ginger (never!) and buttermilk.<br /><br />Gingerbreads, although <a href="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=holywake+bake+cake">found throughout Britain</a>, do seem to be particularly popular amongst those living at the top of the country and often include locally grown oats in the form of oatmeal. Parkin, traditionally eaten in the north of England on November the 5th, is another form of gingerbread that includes oatmeal, as does the Scottish Perkin. With Bonfire Night not too far off (fast followed by the big December event that I need not name) I feel a follow-up gingerbread baking session coming on already.<br /><br />F. Marian McNeill's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scots-Kitchen-F-Marian-McNeill/dp/1841830704">'The Scots Kitchen'</a> carries a recipe for Broonie - just one of 67 recipes that the book contains that make use of oats or oatmeal. Under her recipe is the note <i>'Correctly, Brüni, a thick bannock (Orkney and Sheltand)'</i>; Brüni is a Norse word for a thick bannock. As I have touched on previously, <a href="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/06/oatmeal-bannock-scones-part-1.html">bannocks</a> are a very old form of bread and also the forefathers of the scone. Bannocks were historically cooked on the girdle, but more recent recipes are oven-baked. F Marian McNeill's recipe for Broonie and that of Julie Duff in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cakes-Regional-Traditional-Julie-Duff/dp/1904943195/ref=sr_1_1/203-1215177-1908738?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191926940&sr=1-1">'Cakes - Regional & Traditional'</a> are oven-baked. Both recipes contain identical ingredients (although Julie Duff uses self-raising rather than plain flour with the addition of baking soda), but McNeill uses less butter and ginger, and she uses equal quantities of flour and oatmeal (175g each), whereas Duff uses 225g of self-raising flour and 115g of oatmeal. McNeill unfortunately has omitted the amount of sugar required for her recipe, so I am unable to bake two Broonies for comparative purposes/filling a large Broonie-sized hole in my tummy. This is probably for the best...<br /><br />Broonie (from Julie Duffs 'Cakes - Regional & Traditional)<br /><br />225g self-raising flour<br />2 level teaspoons ground ginger<br />115g medium or pinhead oatmeal<br />115g butter (cubed, at room temperature)<br />115g pale brown sugar<br />2 tablespoons black treacle<br />1 egg<br />150ml buttermilk<br /><br />1. Preheat oven to 160c/325F/Gas 3. Prepare a 900g/2 lb loaf tin (grease and line - you know the routine).<br />2. Sift the flour and ginger into a bowl and stir in the oatmeal. Add the cubed butter and rub in using your fingertips until you have the texture of fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and stir well.<br />3. In a small saucepan gently melt the treacle over a low heat and set aside to cool slightly (daringly, I warmed mine in the microwave). Beat the egg into the treacle and then add to the dry ingredients together with the buttermilk. Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly.<br />4. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for approximately one hour (until well risen and a skewer comes out clean).<br />5. Leave to cool in the tin.<br /><br />Broonie is one of those cakes for which the instruction is given - 'this improves after a few days wrapped in foil and stored in an air-tight tin' - all very well, but a real test of self-restraint when faced with a freshly baked cake of fragrant and warm charm. Naturally, I cut a few slices to try fresh, and then wrapped the rest of the loaf to try again in a day or so. The Broonie was surprisingly light in the mouth, but was a little dry in texture - something that the day or so of resting helped a little -so a generous topping of butter was a good addition to each slice, but for less indulgency serve with a cup of tea.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDlWSp3umzP_4_VNTnUgP5Uv8gBYSkr13Hr8axSOC-BEBVXw9J1T53lc9McRqeOZS-wZaoUohxczOyAqySQDsA3h5-9mGpff2Xle9a1DDU0CSrzfymPbyguv2OmDySUEmwILCJA/s1600-h/Broonie2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDlWSp3umzP_4_VNTnUgP5Uv8gBYSkr13Hr8axSOC-BEBVXw9J1T53lc9McRqeOZS-wZaoUohxczOyAqySQDsA3h5-9mGpff2Xle9a1DDU0CSrzfymPbyguv2OmDySUEmwILCJA/s400/Broonie2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118282283445414290" /></a><br /><a href ="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=truly+scrumptious">Ellis</a>, my young Junior taster (yep, he is now on solids, can't believe we are here already) tried a cube of Broonie, but decided it was not for him. This followed on from the failure of oatmeal porridge, so perhaps I should take note of his lack of enthusiasm for oats. Sweet potato on the otherhand... If anyone has a sweet potato cake recipe?AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-57113866650390294782007-09-27T10:00:00.000+01:002007-09-27T11:18:53.563+01:00Win Chocolates for Someone Special (Sadly Not Yourself)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMH4OXSvp7IuELF8Hn8epq-Rb1JiXL2YlHMmiLj1uNhennRPJVkftJ6VGIrGYXptxBDRI5k4dE7LIAnpvIgGtrjcAMMnvmhpWUs6jGKqnZ6OMTpNVkoH4pduNrAWQWxVWVH0w-g/s1600-h/Choc8.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMH4OXSvp7IuELF8Hn8epq-Rb1JiXL2YlHMmiLj1uNhennRPJVkftJ6VGIrGYXptxBDRI5k4dE7LIAnpvIgGtrjcAMMnvmhpWUs6jGKqnZ6OMTpNVkoH4pduNrAWQWxVWVH0w-g/s320/Choc8.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5114825444657490290" /></a><br />Because we all need a little luxury once in a while, Baking For Britain has teamed up with <a href="http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk">Hotel Chocolat</a> to offer you the chance to win a decadent box of chocolates from their summer range, AND a bottle of champagne, for a loved one. If you choose your loved one carefully (and I hope you have) then hopefully they woud be kind enough to share their prize with you.<br /><br />To enter, click <a href=" http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/src/imbbritain/Win-a-Chocolate-Gift-Aim_summer01/">here</a> and tell us in 100 words or less why we should surprise your loved one with this luxury gift. It’s time to tug on the heart strings and get out your violin, as the most compelling entry will win! The competition closes on 5 October and entries will appear live on the Hotel Chocolat site.<br /><br />Small Print: No chocolates were paid to Baking for Britain for the running of this competition (more's the pity). Hotel Chocolat are a company based not far from Baking for Britain HQ, so I am pleased to support them as a local business. If you don't have someone special to surprise, please consider me for the position...AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-42927448002246546102007-09-25T11:29:00.000+01:002007-09-25T11:31:18.108+01:00Welsh Harvest Cake / Teisen y Cynhaeaf<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdURCp_TIIQjXkH5d-bcZHHBPOcha6I_gNzdST2B8f4mb1N0EfopqUO5kQfT-eNDvjQZ49XaEk2gdzh1GIhHGSGiquaDlwtExw78HyUzG4GvK4dA5OEw6RF3Div__kGeM2tlX7A/s1600-h/Harvest.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdURCp_TIIQjXkH5d-bcZHHBPOcha6I_gNzdST2B8f4mb1N0EfopqUO5kQfT-eNDvjQZ49XaEk2gdzh1GIhHGSGiquaDlwtExw78HyUzG4GvK4dA5OEw6RF3Div__kGeM2tlX7A/s400/Harvest.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112653088853879090" /></a><br />I have written of <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=dorset+apple>apple cakes</a> <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/12/apple-gingerbread-with-cinnamon-icing.html>before</a>, and have also indulged in a <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=herefordshire+cider+cake>cider cake</a>, but as soon as British apples hit the shops once more then I feel duty bound to honour them with a spot of baking. The start of apple season and the completion of the year's harvest overlap, and a celebratory Harvest Cake using apples seems to me a fine idea. My recipe comes from Julie Duff's book <a href=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cakes-Regional-Traditional-Julie-Duff/dp/1904943195/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/203-1215177-1908738?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190383071&sr=8-1>'Cakes - Regional & Traditional'</a>. <a href=http://www.grubstreet.co.uk/food_%26_wine.htm>Grub Street Publishing</a> very kindly sent me a copy of the book, astonishingly one that I had not previously indulged myself by purchasing. The same book contains a photograph of a coffee cake that my husband claims matches with the ideal coffee cake that he holds in his head - I guess that is a hint that I should unearth the Camp coffee...<br /><br />There are many regional recipes for cakes to be baked at harvest time, with variations aplenty. Some of these cakes were cooked to fuel the workers during the hard manual labour, and some were produced to be enjoyed as part of post-harvesting celebrations. Before industrialisation bringing in the harvest would be muscle-wrenching, dirty, hot and exhausting; our boys and girls in the fields needed all the calories they could get, and traditional harvest foods went some way to providing these. The Harvest Supper (served by the farmer or land-owner after the harvest was completed) was very likely second only to Christmas in terms of what was provided for workers to consume. For the poorest labourers such food was a very welcome change from their usual monotonous diet. In the novel 'Adam Bede' by George Elliot (published 1859), there is a lovely description of a Harvest Supper, hosted by the farmer, Martin Poyser, who regards his workers with a paternal eye:<br /><br /><i>It was a goodly sight - that table, with Martin Poyser’s round good-humoured face and large person at the head of it, helping his servants to the fragrant roast-beef, and pleased when the empty plates came again. Martin, though usually blest with a good appetite, really forgot to finish his own beef to-night – it was so pleasant to him to look on in the intervals of carving, and see how the others enjoyed their supper; for were they not men who, on all the days of the year except Christmas Day and Sundays, ate their cold dinner, in a make-shift manner, under the hedgerows, and drank their beer out of wooden bottles – with relish certainly, but with their mouths toward the zenith, after a fashion more endurable to ducks than to human bipeds. Martin Poyser had some faint conception of the flavour such men must find in hot roast-beef and fresh-drawn ale. He held his head on one side, and screwed up his mouth, as he nudged Bartle Massey, and watched half-witted Tom Tholer, otherwise known as ‘Tom Soft’, receiving his second plateful of beef. A grin of delight broke over Tom’s face as the plate was set down before him, between his knife and fork, which he held erect, as if they had been sacred tapers; but the delight was too strong to continue smouldering in a grin – it burst out the next instant in a long-drawn ‘haw, haw!’ followed by a sudden collapse of gravity, as the knife and fork darted down on the prey.</i><br /><br />Martin Poyser and his wife, also served plum pudding at their supper, but this was brought to the table ahead of the roast beef. Adam Bede, arriving late to the meal, misses out on the pudding. Plum pudding or plum cake (this could mean a pudding or cake of dried vine fruits) was traditional accompaniment to the harvest feast, but I am unsure why the Poysers served theirs ahead of the beef. Any suggestions? Exuberant drinking followed the meal, so perhaps it was to allow the men to enjoy the ale without the delay of serving the ‘afters’. Of course, for those amongst us who are strong believers in puddings, to consume dessert first – and then see if you have any room left for the main course – perhaps makes better sense than operating in the traditional manner.<br /><br />Welsh Harvest Cake / Teisen y Cynhaeaf<br /><br />175g unsalted butter<br />175g soft brown sugar<br />2 large eggs, beaten<br />225g self raising flour<br />1/2 teaspoon mixed spice<br />1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon<br />450g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces (I had 450g weight of fruit post-peeling, coring)<br />50g sultanas<br />50g currants<br />50g flaked almonds<br /><br />1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. (Ours is a fan oven, so I baked at 170C for an hour). Prepare an 18cm/9 inch cake tin.<br />2. In a pan melt together the butter and sugar (the sugar won’t dissolve completely, this is fine, but do stir the mixture). Allow to cool slightly before beating in the eggs. <br />3. Sift flour and spices into a bowl. Add the melted ingredients and beat together gently.<br />4. Put the apples, sultanas, currants and almonds into a second bowl, and mix up. <br />5. Spoon half the cake mixture into the bottom of the prepared tin, and then add the fruit and nuts – at this point I thought that I had created a cake disaster, with a hugely disproportionate amount of apple, and not enough cake ‘body’ to bind the whole together – then finish with the remainder of the cake mix. <br />6. Lightly smooth the surface of the cake, to press down the contents. Place in oven to bake for about an hour, or until firm to touch and a skewer comes out clean (60 minutes worked for me).<br />7. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.<br /><br />Once the cake had gone into the oven I spent a bit of time worrying about how it would turn out. So much fruit had gone into the middle of my ‘sandwich’, that I could only imagine that the result was going to be a formless apple subsidence. I kept on peeking through the oven door, to see if I could determine the outcome , but whilst in the tin and baking the cake looked innocent of bad intent. When the hour was up, the cake exited the oven and then sat patiently for a further half hour whilst I plucked up courage to liberate it. Ta-daa! The finger-crossing paid off, and my cake stayed cake-like. In fact, I hadn’t needed to worry at all. When I cut into the cake I could see that the sponge mixture placed top and bottom had cleverly found a way to unite, and the fruit in the middle was self-supporting. From the outside of the cake was discreetly visible a seam of fruit, but inside the centre was a glorious moist windfall.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYXjSCBLhAx115F7sbs2BlplP3eRRsUgIMcLw5pN9Th9YY0aaaRr1jN7EAUJhz2ljM4oMdNX8diUVEv4G7xJI4zdAszMQ1yAFjzYLAhHzIjJ0nW8x_28zAt9HEPOhqNzHKIeH_w/s1600-h/Harvest2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYXjSCBLhAx115F7sbs2BlplP3eRRsUgIMcLw5pN9Th9YY0aaaRr1jN7EAUJhz2ljM4oMdNX8diUVEv4G7xJI4zdAszMQ1yAFjzYLAhHzIjJ0nW8x_28zAt9HEPOhqNzHKIeH_w/s400/Harvest2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112653097443813714" /></a><br />I served slices of this Welsh Harvest Cake as a pudding, slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream – a well-stacked relative of the Eve’s Pudding. I think warmth enhances the juiciness of the fruit, and the spices are encouraged in their seductiveness. Cold, the cake was good, but warm it was pretty sensational. <br /> <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRoxXVfdjLVaiJr77Gnh6s-swNDv5yFBVlh9P0mGTGho31kTvENe1ZS4LUmMuIWJKY3bRIuho2VlYOO-vqcIeRswRBpwiRV0KVcP1PvS7COhJqGEGXlWkhyVWefKMR2rIUkfMXCQ/s1600-h/Harvest1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRoxXVfdjLVaiJr77Gnh6s-swNDv5yFBVlh9P0mGTGho31kTvENe1ZS4LUmMuIWJKY3bRIuho2VlYOO-vqcIeRswRBpwiRV0KVcP1PvS7COhJqGEGXlWkhyVWefKMR2rIUkfMXCQ/s400/Harvest1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112653093148846402" /></a><br />Just think, the more you eat, the larger the portion of fruit that you are adding to your five-a-day checklist (<i>I recommend this cake as part of a balanced diet</i> – A very learned Dietician and Food Doctor).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5vPGReoNxx8GsNY79_0WgebFeTtacw6U6I4hgK6LhGHhEMuyYRPL8RA7SFkn38lfzXhDN4iVV6CLBlmkrMuwn8ChaaMf43hkIDkD_7nYDOSh2SOBxJQ-jTw5rSXzYbOqn3tpHDw/s1600-h/Harvest4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5vPGReoNxx8GsNY79_0WgebFeTtacw6U6I4hgK6LhGHhEMuyYRPL8RA7SFkn38lfzXhDN4iVV6CLBlmkrMuwn8ChaaMf43hkIDkD_7nYDOSh2SOBxJQ-jTw5rSXzYbOqn3tpHDw/s400/Harvest4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112653101738781026" /></a>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-63818581383030818212007-07-26T11:57:00.000+01:002007-07-26T12:25:42.228+01:00Bloggers For Positive Global Change<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZmrcoxOy6RaStxlFdR9hgrFjUF4z0HfNxEg3ZiGpGrvhpwlM2KLQ1xNRGcxB7QFbU8HX5-I5X7ibTea5bI5vmCKX_1IJxwRa5A4dQx4lKFVNlO31TA4dyCD1k8X81aPyqQwmeg/s1600-h/bpgc_award_white.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZmrcoxOy6RaStxlFdR9hgrFjUF4z0HfNxEg3ZiGpGrvhpwlM2KLQ1xNRGcxB7QFbU8HX5-I5X7ibTea5bI5vmCKX_1IJxwRa5A4dQx4lKFVNlO31TA4dyCD1k8X81aPyqQwmeg/s400/bpgc_award_white.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5091458759859617938" /></a><br /><br />I have been nominated by Amanada of <a href=http://figsoliveswine.blogspot.com/>Figs Olives Wine</a> for a Bloggers for Positive Global Change award. Wow! - what a honour to be so highly rated. Thank-you Amanda for the vote.<br /><br />The award was created by <a href=http://climateofourfuture.org/?page_id=330>Climate of Our Future</a>, a site that aims to be a forum for, and a catalyst to discussion about global climate change. The award is, "not limited to any specific ideologies, religions or philosophies." It is a thumbs-up for any blogger who "puts a premium on human compassion and the desire to make the world a better place for all of us, without exception." <br /><br />If you visit the Climate of Our Future site you will see that the award takes the form of a Meme. I will hold my hands up now and apologise for not continuing this one onwards, as I am very time-poor at the moment. I shall just sneak in a mention for the website <a href=http://www.england-in-particular.info/>England in Particular</a>, a site devoted to campaigning for and celebrating local distinctiveness. The book of the same title, published last year, is a must-have for anyone interested in English traditions (in all their weird and wonderful variations).AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-90228747442786949802007-07-19T15:09:00.000+01:002007-07-20T13:11:16.997+01:00Bath Buns<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DKmoxiRiEdr3ffBm645yhtSWJnrT3rR4UxaOTxrHHKzvZ5vdt0fue-er63L2_s7wBnVzGxzb2IST2ml8WHVm6zBTTV9jCpP6gpJQTT9NOjB29QGOaijU9qEtrDLGkaEXUmRocA/s1600-h/Bath5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DKmoxiRiEdr3ffBm645yhtSWJnrT3rR4UxaOTxrHHKzvZ5vdt0fue-er63L2_s7wBnVzGxzb2IST2ml8WHVm6zBTTV9jCpP6gpJQTT9NOjB29QGOaijU9qEtrDLGkaEXUmRocA/s400/Bath5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5089232650453544178" /></a><br />And so we dance a graceful minuet across the country, to take our places within another of the eighteenth century’s spa pleasure resorts – <a href=http://visitbath.co.uk/>Bath</a>. That’s Bath with a capital B, home to the famous Roman baths, and spa holiday destination to Regency high society. We have the dandyish master of ceremonies, <a href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/england/somerset/article_3.shtml >‘Beau’ Nash</a>, to thank for Bath becoming a beacon for those who came to revive both health and spirits – by taking the waters and pleasure in all forms during the course of the ‘season’. The <a href=http://www.historylink.info/id37.html>season</a> being the period between the opening and closing of Parliament, and the time when the fashionable upper-classes met to show off, swap gossip, carry on affairs, party, net a husband/wife, and escape from fossilization on a dusty country estate. <br /><br />In its hey-day Bath had it all – glorious buildings, a bustling social life, fashionable company, the beauty of its setting in the landscape, and was easily accessible from most parts of the country by coach. Much of its magnificence is still retained, so long as you can see past the swarms of modern visitors. Today’s Bath bun, however, is often a very different fellow from the Bun served in the city during the 1700s, and may shamefacedly appear on the contemporary cake stand as a sorry blimp rather than with proud plumpnesss. <a href=http://visitbath.co.uk/site/eating-and-drinking/a-taste-of-bath/bath-delicacies>Some accounts</a> of the history of the Bath bun suggest that Dr. Oliver, originator of the Bath Oliver biscuit, also knocked up the original of the Bath bun in his Bath bakehouse. I am pretty certain that this is nonsense, not least because the good Doctor as creator of a plain biscuit designed for easy digestion - a salve for overindulged Regency stomachs - was hardly likely Jekyll and Hyde-like to also tempt Bath’s seasonal population with a sugar-topped, butter and egg enriched bun. Other histories attribute the bun to the mythical Sally Lunn – there is a tearoom in Bath of her name –the buns that bear her name are not so different from the Bath bun, both take the form of enriched dough cakes, but they are a separate entity. Laura Mason and Catherine Brown in ‘The Taste of Britain’, trace the origin of the Bath bun to recipes for caraway seed cake. In their book they mention a 1756 recipe given by Bath resident and cook, Martha Bradley, entitled Bath seed cake. Elizabeth Raffald in 1769 follows on with a recipe for Bath cakes, which were yeast-leavened rolls made with butter, cream and caraway seeds (in the form of caraway comfits – sugar coated seeds- some were used to flavour the cakes, and others strewn on top). Over the course of the eighteenth century eggs were added to the mix, as various recipes will attest. A recipe from 1807 reproduced in Andre Simon’s ‘Cereals’ instructs the cook to:<br />Rub 1 lb. of butter into 2 lb. of fine flour; mix in it 1 lb. of caraway comfits, beat well 12 eggs, leaving out six whites, with 6 spoonfuls of new yeast, and the same quantity of cream made warm; mix all together, and set it by the fire to rise; when made up, strew comfits over them.<br />During the next century the caraway seeds gave way to peel, citrus zest or dried fruit, and nibbed sugar became the customary decoration. Of the many modern recipes I have for Bath buns, nearly all contain these elements, and produce a yeast-raised, enriched bun, flavoured with lemon peel, topped with tooth busting sugar nibs, and cosy home to a small gathering of dried fruit.<br /><br />According to the ‘The Taste of Britain’, Mountstevens Ltd. of Bath bake from an adapted version of a 1679 recipe (using mixed spice instead of caraway) – however a browse on the internet reveals that the Mountstevens business stopped trading in 2002 (‘The Taste of Britain’ was first published in its original form in 1999, and revised form in 2006) so whether buns of this historic recipe are still available in the town I do not know. If anyone can let me know, I would appreciate it.<br /><br />Elizabeth David uses Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 Bath bun recipe for ‘English Bread and Yeast Cookery’, although she has slightly altered the recipe, swopping cream for milk and topping the buns with sugar rather than caraway comfits (she gives the original form of the recipe in the book). Elizabeth David felt that the <a href=http://www.expomuseum.com/1851/>Great Exhibition of 1851</a> was responsible for the decline and devaluing of the Bath bun, as such large numbers of the bun were produced during the course of the Exhibition (nearly one million) and standards become sloppy. Commercial production of the buns often saw lard replacing the butter and cream, and cheaper flavourings used. Buns produced outside of Bath were sometimes known as ‘London Bath buns’ or ‘London buns’. Florence White gives two contrasting recipes for Bath buns in ‘Good Things in England’ – one from 1904 with peel, currants and crushed sugar, and one from the early eighteenth century with sack, rosewater and caraway comfits. <br /><br />For my try at Bath buns I used the Elizabeth Raffald recipe as revisited by Elizabeth David. Considering the mixed success I have had previously with yeast-leavened buns and loaves, I was a bit nervous about giving the recipe go. But, with the acquisition of new house, new kitchen and new oven since my last attempt, I at least had a new set of circumstances to blame for any failure…<br /><br />450g white flour (I used strong bread flour - E.D. says, that, or plain will work)<br />1 teaspoon salt<br />2 tablespoons caster sugar<br />225g butter <br />1 tablespoon caraway seeds (E.D. omits these, but I like the flavour and it is a more ‘authentic’ taste for the buns than lemon, peel etc.)<br />15 g yeast (fresh) or 7g (dried)<br />280g warm milk <br /><br />For glazing:<br />1 tablespoon milk<br />2 tablespoons caster sugar<br />Brown sugar granules for coffee, lightly crushed in a mortar<br /><br />1. Add the salt and sugar to the flour, then rub in the butter. Stir through the caraway seeds.<br />2. I used dried yeast so I added this to the butter rubbed flour. If using fresh, first liven it up by adding it to the warm milk.<br />3. Add the milk and mix ‘to a light dough’. Initially the mixture looks very like cake mix – very moist – but don’t be tempted to add more flour.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhYK9mMmHKyFjWld00aSolhBm5wScNLLUVqW6j-me54DBzhOwUgQ-kz6vz_YOQ9O8OpmryIgF8fm_4HhFl-muelYl2AnNBEgpR_koFoREP5J5b6yUd94KeVefNLJLLxVe_qGjDA/s1600-h/Bath.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhYK9mMmHKyFjWld00aSolhBm5wScNLLUVqW6j-me54DBzhOwUgQ-kz6vz_YOQ9O8OpmryIgF8fm_4HhFl-muelYl2AnNBEgpR_koFoREP5J5b6yUd94KeVefNLJLLxVe_qGjDA/s400/Bath.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088910343222750386" /></a><br />Referring to the ‘Leith’s Baking Bible’, the recommended method for hand-kneading soft dough (i.e. with a high butter/fat content), is to take a handful of the dough and pull upwards – then push back down onto the work surface.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg83SmL6T5MqHpZh280K9bbAfGDg4THFaaF-5mHBwu8HdyUVfgSbQNWpZOgOPA5kjqc-IFE_1FgUvw-7BidVo9MIqH6C8gONzCQkNnlyJl_-UVRuFzUga0uCnMv1DQvnh3fbF8pfQ/s1600-h/Bath1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg83SmL6T5MqHpZh280K9bbAfGDg4THFaaF-5mHBwu8HdyUVfgSbQNWpZOgOPA5kjqc-IFE_1FgUvw-7BidVo9MIqH6C8gONzCQkNnlyJl_-UVRuFzUga0uCnMv1DQvnh3fbF8pfQ/s400/Bath1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088910351812684994" /></a><br />You will see from my pictures that although the dough looks quite ‘wet’, it is not sticky and my kneading hand stays pretty clean.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidSmOE1G9P_55wC_GGcqrGSNBzeOFVskDvWvUKr443-wKAiu6JnkekXMmhS5hb4Lg4Q-ryXEILcebCZwc-HjH6IOOX_7FqtixAbJFAecbJqJDB1M11VAtqGZKqDIULiLHmQQ8pUQ/s1600-h/Bath2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidSmOE1G9P_55wC_GGcqrGSNBzeOFVskDvWvUKr443-wKAiu6JnkekXMmhS5hb4Lg4Q-ryXEILcebCZwc-HjH6IOOX_7FqtixAbJFAecbJqJDB1M11VAtqGZKqDIULiLHmQQ8pUQ/s400/Bath2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088910356107652306" /></a><br /><br />4. Once kneaded, cover the bowl and leave to rise. E.D. suggests this takes about one and a half hours, but it took my dough about two and a half hours to double in volume (the consequence of an English summer, I expect...)<br />5. Prepare two baking sheets, and use a tablespoon to scoop out 12 portions of dough. Shape into buns and smooth the top surface using a palette knife (or finger). Cover and leave for quarter of hour to regain spring.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2MIb_skykluasXLrbGoyqRw1lm3XKl0n5BVc05RSRAzZjZuV2qb6HiEev1BkJVbtDERtfXDJEFD8cGvafSoEVkvdnHYFyYJ9leObKF8WUMlDh89w0m9i5ysL62BeSM4qFgw8hw/s1600-h/Bath3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2MIb_skykluasXLrbGoyqRw1lm3XKl0n5BVc05RSRAzZjZuV2qb6HiEev1BkJVbtDERtfXDJEFD8cGvafSoEVkvdnHYFyYJ9leObKF8WUMlDh89w0m9i5ysL62BeSM4qFgw8hw/s400/Bath3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088910360402619618" /></a><br />6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 375F/190C/Gas 5.<br />7. Just before the buns have finished cooking, prepare the glaze. Warm the milk and sugar in a small saucepan. As soon as the buns are baked use a pastry brush to anoint the tops and sprinkle with a little of the crushed sugar.<br /><br />E.D. suggests that if possible eat these buns fresh from the oven. Frankly, it seems quite criminal not to do this, and to waste an opportunity for warm bun savouring. However, if a dozen buns are beyond you in one sitting, then they are good later on split, toasted and spread with a little butter. Eaten fresh they are a bun triumph. The delicate crust has just the right degree of firmness to provide the teeth with the smallest of warm-ups, before sinking into the bun proper. The ‘crumb’ of the bun looks like that of a bread, not cake-like in the way of a brioche - but I think that is down to the strong flour I used, plain flour should result in a more spongey dough. Pre-chemical raising-agents (baking powder etc.) all cakes would have been made using yeast as a leaven, and therefore my Bath buns were a favourable demonstration to me of how such cakes would/could have been, and more successful I felt than the previously baked <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/08/cornish-saffron-cake.html>Saffron cake</a>.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK2rVNlkjeILfiGdgktB0WMmXV1VxRQW08wl20zkSMDdm4QSYyGOVUUyO3dX7Yiil8YzQ27VT6DwhFbcFcCUKFfTU3GBPvJlDBaBtcuHthuELgIXwie_lGONwNV5M49Js3RJpWOg/s1600-h/Bath4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK2rVNlkjeILfiGdgktB0WMmXV1VxRQW08wl20zkSMDdm4QSYyGOVUUyO3dX7Yiil8YzQ27VT6DwhFbcFcCUKFfTU3GBPvJlDBaBtcuHthuELgIXwie_lGONwNV5M49Js3RJpWOg/s400/Bath4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5089236026297838850" /></a><br />The Bath buns were resplendent with buttery richness, and the quantity of caraway seeds just enough to give extra warmth of flavour. I enjoyed also the occasional crunchy sugar ‘hit’, which allowed my tastebuds to find a counterpoint to the butter. Despite my bread-making inhibitions I found that this recipe (with thanks to my new kitchen?) worked a treat, and these buns were really very good. I am keen now to find another yeast-raised cake recipe to try my hand at, which is good, as I have a fair few tucked up my sleeve for later...<br /><br /><a href= http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,547240,00.html#article_continue> Nigel Slater visits Bath</a> and samples Bath buns (amongst other things).AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-36696312877700476112007-06-09T13:26:00.000+01:002007-06-10T22:46:56.064+01:00Tunbridge Wells Wafers (or Romary Biscuits)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXJL8EltfmrPhHj0Zviw6Z7n9CdWl4ep0mkbeoxqa44eFcWvU1ORKkTi4Bk3Ldw5go_-dVtnfiXtPzfqKfqqDnhxu-DPxI_VbwlCI0lS-3yVWIOWNOnYe9T2MKnoIrb6BxE2DKAg/s1600-h/Tunbridge2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXJL8EltfmrPhHj0Zviw6Z7n9CdWl4ep0mkbeoxqa44eFcWvU1ORKkTi4Bk3Ldw5go_-dVtnfiXtPzfqKfqqDnhxu-DPxI_VbwlCI0lS-3yVWIOWNOnYe9T2MKnoIrb6BxE2DKAg/s400/Tunbridge2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071583477909883522" /></a><br />The family bakery of Alfred Romary was responsible for the wafer biscuit exported from the Kent spa town of Tunbridge Wells (<a href=http://www.visittunbridgewells.com/>Royal Tunbridge Wells</a>, if you please) and sent out to Macy’s of New York, food stores in Belgium and Paris, and up to London for sale in Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Morel Bros. Cobbett & Son Ltd., and Jacksons of Piccadilly - all purveyors of fine foods. Queen Victoria visited Alfred’s shop just before Christmas 1876, and liked the wafers so much that she granted the company a <a href=http://www.royalwarrant.org/history.asp>Warrant of Appointment to Her Majesty</a>, and subsequent monarchs continued the custom - high praise indeed. Framed letters proudly displayed on the shop walls were orders for biscuits from the Queens of Yugoslavia, Spain and Romania. Tunbridge Wells Wafers were clearly enjoyed by discerning women of grand quality – do all Queens like a biscuit with a cup of tea?<br /><br />Alfred Romary set up in <a href=http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/kent/tunbridge+wells/photos/tunbridge+wells_T87710k.htm>business</a> in 1862 at <a href=http://87.117.199.26:8003/commercial/pdf/399.pdf>26 Church Road, Tunbridge Wells</a>. Initially he was classified as a ‘Water cake maker’, but it was his wafers that made his name famous around the globe. In 1926 A. Romary & Co. became a limited company when W. A. P. Lane bought it. According to Dorothy Hartley in ‘Good Things in England’ the company was sold onto Freeman’s Norwich Hollow Biscuits prior to 1932, the year her book was published. I could find no corroboration of this in the other material I read, but Romary’s did at some stage start making and selling Freeman’s Norwich Hollow biscuits (a type of rusk). In 1935 Rowntree purchased the company and built a new factory in Tunbridge Wells, although some baking continued to be carried out at Romary’s bakery in Church Road. Rowntree stopped making the Tunbridge Wells Wafers locally in 1957, a result of wartime and post-war rationing. However, in 1963 production restarted at Rowntree’s factory in Glasgow (because the Queen liked the biscuits, apparently), and continued until 1981. A final batch of biscuits was made for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. <a href=http://www.nestle.co.uk/OurBrands/AboutOurBrands/ConfectioneryAndCakes/History+of+Rowntree.htm>Rowntree</a> was acquired by Nestle in 1988, so the Tunbridge Wells Wafers original recipe must lie deep in the archives of this Goliath.<br /><br />What made Tunbridge Wells Wafers so good that they met with royal approval? (Maybe Duchy Originals should pick up the baton and manufacture them now.) Romary’s themselves described the biscuits in a trade advertisement: ‘As thin as lace, of a flavour so delicate as to be indefinable. The clubs serve them with port, but they are also excellent with ices or at afternoon tea. Many people prefer them to sweets and chocolate. In two flavours, Sweet and Ginger.’ ‘Good Things in England’ (1932) says of Romary’s Tunbridge Wells Wafers: ‘There are Ginger wafers, Royal wafers, water biscuits, Old English stone-ground wheaten wafer biscuits, etc., all unique and delicate eating, quite different from the ordinary biscuits however good; and distinctively English.’ Mary Ann Pike writing in ‘Town & Country, Fare & Fable’ (1978) states; ‘The wafers are about 3 inches in diameter, very delicate and lacy, and are good with cheese as well as wine.’ <br /><br />Wafer biscuits can be cooked by heating the raw mixture between two metal plates (think thin waffles), but Romary’s cooked their biscuits on metal trays in ovens. The paste was rolled to wafer thinness by hand, and continued to be so even after Rowntree introduced mechanisation. A spiked roller was used to make the perforations so the biscuits could be made rapidly, and quickly sent to the oven for baking. The booklet I obtained from Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery says that ‘trap ovens’ were used. Does anyone know what a trap oven is?<br /><br />Although Romary’s Tunbridge Wells Wafers were a proprietary recipe, I found on my bookshelves not one, but two possible recipes for the biscuits (and thereby proving the point that, yes, I did need to buy that book). The first is a recipe titled ‘Tunbridge Wells Cakes’, in Dorothy Gladys Spicer’s collection ‘From an English Oven’ (1948). However on closer examination her recipe is for a shortbread type biscuit flavoured with caraway seeds. It looked as if it would produce a biscuit similar to the <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=shrewsbury>Shrewsbury Cakes</a> I have recently posted about, and I was pretty certain that this is not what Romary’s famous wafers would have been like. I subsequently came across another recipe for Tunbridge [Wells] Cakes on the internet - this on a <a href=http://www.printsgeorge.com/Jane_Austen-Historic%20Recipes.htm>site relating to the era of Jane Austen (see no. 29)</a> - the recipe (sourced from one of two cookbooks written between 1749 and 1796) is identical to the one in ‘From an English Oven’, and predates Romary’s Tunbridge Wells Wafers by 100 years. It would be interesting to learn more about this older biscuit – perhaps they were enjoyed by genteel Regency visitors attending the Spa?<br /><br />The second recipe looked closer to the mark, as this was quite different in terms of method and ingredients and I reckoned it would produce a biscuit not too far removed from the <a href=http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=brandy+snap>brandy snap</a> - so definitely a contender for the description ‘delicate and lacey’. This latter recipe is in Section IV (‘Cereals’) of <a href=http://andresimon.co.uk/about_andre.html>Andre Simon’s</a> ‘Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy’ (published by <a href=http://www.iwfs.org/secretariat/about.htm>The Wine and Food Society</a> in 1945), the recipe is ascribed to Doris Lytton Toye, who wrote for Vogue magazine at that time. I decided to go with this recipe, but I would love to hear from anyone with an ‘authentic’ recipe. I baked once, and then had to refine the recipe and instructions as my first batch of biscuits was not a happy one. Ingredients and method are my revised versions:<br /><br />Tunbridge Wells Wafers<br /><br />150g plain flour<br />1 teaspoon ground ginger<br />1/2 teaspoon baking powder<br />55g treacle (I had to decide whether this meant black treacle or golden syrup, as the term ‘treacle’ has in the past been used for both substances. I went with golden syrup as I felt that black treacle biscuits would be more of an acquired taste and golden syrup more of a crowd-pleaser, but please feel freee to try black treacle if that tickles your tastebuds.) <br />55g butter<br />55g caster sugar or soft brown sugar<br /><br />1. Preheat oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2 (D. L. T. suggests cooking in a ‘very moderate oven’, so this is my approximation of that instruction – we have a fan oven).<br />2. Prepare two baking sheets by lining with greaseproof paper.<br />3. In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter, treacle and sugar. Don’t allow the mixture to become too hot - as soon as the ingredients have blended remove from the heat.<br />4. Sift the flour, baking powder and ginger into a bowl. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the warmed mixture, stirring to combine after every spoonful and mix to a paste. D. L. T. recommends that it is easier to handle the paste if it is used while still warm.<br />5. Divide into three portions. On a floured surface roll out each portion as thinly as you can. I found that the best way to work was to roll the dough out directly onto the baking sheet, use my 3 inch metal cutter to mark out the biscuits, and then to remove the surplus dough. This meant that I didn't have to try and move very thin pieces of dough.<br />6. Bake for about 10 minutes.<br />7. Allow to cool for a few minutes only, before transferring to a wire rack.<br /><br />Doris Lytton Toye states that wafers are the ‘thinnest and lightest of biscuits’, but I have to tell you that initially this recipe produced a biscuit with neither of these qualities. The liquid and the dry elements of the dough did not marry well, the mixture appeared too dry and was impossible to form into a smooth paste.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAon1-yReb2uR4GpkodnftBtzDPFpm-XHsYEsyGFRVkeE-FSr8Mf7dtJjyLnO-VKjGp_4TP_kppSEcyP2ap1MrlbMPaFo0uRfe0U-CDhQvXJpK_xrR-8MKhk_NPN-_bU5te2SxRw/s1600-h/Tunbridge3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAon1-yReb2uR4GpkodnftBtzDPFpm-XHsYEsyGFRVkeE-FSr8Mf7dtJjyLnO-VKjGp_4TP_kppSEcyP2ap1MrlbMPaFo0uRfe0U-CDhQvXJpK_xrR-8MKhk_NPN-_bU5te2SxRw/s400/Tunbridge3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071583065593023090" /></a><br />I decided to add a little milk to bind the dough, which helped, but I struggled to roll the dough out as the mix continued to crumble apart. In the end I managed to use my rolling pin to both compress and roll enough of the dough to form a dozen biscuits, but there was no way of rolling to wafer thinness. The resulting ‘wafer’ was crisp to the point of hard, and although the flavour was not bad, it couldn’t make up for the tooth-snapping texture.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglKAFi-K7zD8TBdPOaaT5KpeOKjhWhTJMkvGSG1cSP7kqkx_4NIrNm5vgmDoox6I2YrDjOEzyT6NmnoKUC9x8Fp16fcbvW4fx4Zs-JGceEHwGw2SWlAAWbRi8Dubbgh7C-z_mGLQ/s1600-h/Tunbridge+4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglKAFi-K7zD8TBdPOaaT5KpeOKjhWhTJMkvGSG1cSP7kqkx_4NIrNm5vgmDoox6I2YrDjOEzyT6NmnoKUC9x8Fp16fcbvW4fx4Zs-JGceEHwGw2SWlAAWbRi8Dubbgh7C-z_mGLQ/s400/Tunbridge+4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071583061298055762" /></a><br />Compared to the brandy snap recipe I previously cooked (successfully), that uses a similar method of melting together sugar, syrup and butter, the proportion of flour seemed very high. Was the recipe in error, or was there a flaw in my technique? I had a look at a few brandy snap recipes, and I noticed that they instructed that you add the dry ingredients to the wet, whereas the recipe in 'Cereals' the contrary was the case. By working a spoonful of flour at a time into the warmed butter, treacle and sugar mixture I was able to form a smooth paste, and stop adding flour once the correct consistency had been acheived - this meant I had about 25g of flour left over - the 150g in the ingredient list above is my adjusted amount. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-yp-xMUrxMwCFy34DwkHxb1I-Lg26usTHAnI8wPuT_8w1H78iUM9DQjkhtAF-1WXKOGssccCHmEOYjBtRlf8TZ4zgB9j-QqXLjtkHWstOoXjhOnQo4Svk4IzCoiynyIDLyRtVyg/s1600-h/TunSun.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-yp-xMUrxMwCFy34DwkHxb1I-Lg26usTHAnI8wPuT_8w1H78iUM9DQjkhtAF-1WXKOGssccCHmEOYjBtRlf8TZ4zgB9j-QqXLjtkHWstOoXjhOnQo4Svk4IzCoiynyIDLyRtVyg/s400/TunSun.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074038380238273298" /></a><br />My adjusted recipe produced a far lighter biscuit, which still had a degree of rigidity, but in a thinner biscuit this translated into 'snap', or a delicate brittleness. The biscuits had a good tangy gingeryness. Look at how the light travels through my second wafer, compared to the sunlight neutralising first version. Now which do you think her majesty would prefer - and which would go to the corgis?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lV3IbsBZ5XoVVCwxfFbLPYbIb-wuN2pZ9XBilV5SgJBZsE29pk6wUO8QMTSmvf8hAbRj0spAY9qCJ-wD9dFX75IMfyINxa9F-oNFu5_5BZx0ZBVKfRmqVajfph7Wo2G_XqLGAQ/s1600-h/Tunbridge1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lV3IbsBZ5XoVVCwxfFbLPYbIb-wuN2pZ9XBilV5SgJBZsE29pk6wUO8QMTSmvf8hAbRj0spAY9qCJ-wD9dFX75IMfyINxa9F-oNFu5_5BZx0ZBVKfRmqVajfph7Wo2G_XqLGAQ/s400/Tunbridge1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071583065593023074" /></a><br /><br />With thanks to Ian Beavis at <a href=http://www.tunbridgewellsmuseum.org/>Tunbridge Well’s Museum and Art Gallery</a>, Karen Tayler at <a href=http://kent.gov.uk/LibrariespublicUI/OpeningTimes/LibraryDetails.aspx?id=99>Tunbridge Wells Library</a>, and ‘Anke’ at <a href=http://anke.blogs.com/>www.anke.blogs.com</a>, all of who helped with information. Tunbridge Wells Museum sell a booklet entitled ‘Tunbridge Wells Biscuits – The Story of Romary’s’ – yours for £2.25 – please contact the museum to purchase a copy.AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-17880623055378468952007-05-04T22:07:00.000+01:002007-05-04T22:07:33.218+01:00Shrewsbury Cakes from Shropshire<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitI5MzW0ygFdoVz6RJ7V02tDGSkEMXlw6kmDh5bJ4jNzgXq2ZSruV2Z4oiDV1v1BrprjsyK4CuwIrCxRyWoz1-zBlHyetPxoHxT2xdGGLTIwfAJrYvth5PTvMD2nBS00IsLAXl8A/s1600-h/shrewsbury1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitI5MzW0ygFdoVz6RJ7V02tDGSkEMXlw6kmDh5bJ4jNzgXq2ZSruV2Z4oiDV1v1BrprjsyK4CuwIrCxRyWoz1-zBlHyetPxoHxT2xdGGLTIwfAJrYvth5PTvMD2nBS00IsLAXl8A/s400/shrewsbury1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060805842038712482" /></a><br />Much of my information about <a href=http://www.shrewsburyguide.info/>Shrewsbury</a> cakes/biscuits has come from <a href=http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=5253187 >‘The Taste of Britain’</a>, by Laura Mason and Catherine Brown. For anyone with an interest in British foods and ingredients I recommend this book. The contents cover the produce of each region – vegetables, fruit, livestock and dairy products; and also documents traditional dishes, describing their ingredients (although no recipes are supplied), physical appearance (colour, size, weight) and their history. Brown and Mason originally drew together all of this information for an Europe-wide project that aimed to record traditional ingredients and dishes that are still grown, farmed or in production. It is therefore not an exhaustive list of traditional foods, but the book is incredibly impressive in both its breadth and its scholarship. It is also extremely readable and inspiring, making one want to go on a nationwide tasting spree. <br /><br />According to Mason & Brown, Shrewsbury cakes (or biscuits) were first documented in the 1500s. The ingredients used at this time are unknown, but the cakes were renowned for their texture, being crisp and brittle. A couple of centuries later the Restoration playwright William Congreve used Shrewsbury cakes as a metaphor (“as short as a Shrewsbury cake”) within his play of 1700, <a href=http://www.online-literature.com/congreve/way-of-the-world/35/>‘The Way of the World’</a>. Another writer helped to popularise the cakes in the 19th century, . Richard Harris Barham writing as Thomas Ingoldsby penned a tale of <a href=http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/bloudie_jacke.html>‘Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie. The Shropshire Bluebeard - A Legend of the Proud Salopians’</a> (Salop is an abbreviation for the county of Shropshire). In this 1840 poem Shrewsbury cakes are attributed to Mr Pailin (“Oh, Pailin! Prince of cake-compounders! the mouth liquefies at thy very name”). If Mr. Pailin was a real person or not has not has as far I can tell been established, although a <a href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/food/2002/10/shrewsbury_biscuits.shtml>plaque</a> on an <a href=http://www.darwincountry.org/explore/020067.html?sid=741817a9373c910d2c3e89ec895dedb8>old shop</a> near to Shrewsbury Castle states that "This shop occupies the site of a building where Palin first made the unique Shrewsbury cakes to his original recipe in the year 1760” (alongside a quote from ‘Thomas Ingoldsby’ of 1840), and Mason and Brown write that a Miss Hill, daughter to a confectioner of the town, may have married a Mr. Palin(Pailin). Whether he was fact or fiction, Mr. Pailin's name was taken by a manufacturer, Thomas Plimmer & Sons in the town, who registered as a trademark the name <a href=http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.darwincountry.org/assets/userfiles/medium/sy0556.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.darwincountry.org/explore/006824.html%3Fsid%3D8c41b445eab307082a39ed4b4ee318cd&h=315&w=400&sz=25&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=taPbQa_vINni1M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2Bshrewsbury%2Bcakes%2B%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DG>‘Pailin’s Original Shrewsbury Cakes’</a>. Production up until the Second World War was by Phillip’s Stores Limited. Sadly, due to the rationing of key ingredients, in particular butter, the manufacture of the biscuits then finished. If anyone knows of a commercial manufacturer in the town today, please let me know.<br /><br />According to ‘The Taste of Britain” the earliest written recipe for the cakes is in Eliza Smith’s ‘The Compleat Housewife’ in 1728. Ms. Smith’s recipe is for a sweet biscuit with nutmeg and cinnamon. However, my internet rummaging came up with an earlier recipe, and Florence White’s ‘Good Things in England’ (1932) has a recipe that may also predate Eliza Smith’s book. The recipe in ‘Good Things…’ come from a Colonel Plomer of Shrewsbury, and he supplied it from a family receipt (recipe) book kept from 1630 to 1750. The Plomer family recipe flavours the biscuits with caraway seeds, nutmeg, sack (or sherry) and rosewater.<br /><br />The <a href=http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=114985&pageno=25>second, older, recipe</a> I found is in Hannah Woolley’s ‘The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet’, published in 1672. She flavoured her biscuits with cinnamon and rosewater only. <br /><br />I am going to follow Colonel Plomer’s recipe, and not only because he has a fine name. I do like the flavour of both caraway seeds and rosewater, so I am happy to try them out in combination in one biscuit. The Colonel’s recipe works with one pound each of flour, butter and sugar. This must make up a rather large quantity of mixture, so I shall halve the recipe.<br /><br />225g plain flour<br />225g caster sugar<br />225g unsalted butter<br />5g caraway seeds<br />1/2 tsp ground nutmeg<br />1 egg, beaten<br />1 and 1/2 tbsp sherry (I only used the measure of rosewater as the mix was so wet)<br />1 and 1/2 tbsp rosewater<br /><br />1. Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Prepare two large baking sheets.<br />2. Rub the butter into the flour. <br />3. Add the spices to the sugar and then tip the whole into the flour and butter mixture.<br />4. Add the beaten egg, and also the rosewater. I did this ahead of adding sherry, and found the mixture already to be too wet for rolling out successfully. I had to add more flour and omit the sherry altogether. I then chilled the mixture, covered, in the fridge. I left mine overnight, as I had to return to my little man, but 30 minutes would probably do it.<br />5. Roll out the mixture on a floured work surface. This still might take a bit of doing as the mixture is still a little sticky. Using circular fluted cutters to press out your biscuits and pop onto baking sheets. <br />6. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, but keep an eye on them. With all that butter and sugar disaster could quickly strike should one go off for a nice cup of tea.<br />7. Leave biscuits to cool for a few minutes before sliding them onto a wire cooling rack.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyPNb1yroBWw7Nati_7sRIBQxoGLaNpBrN0ylV33xk_BnxRQxnBr0OWo5NfY1XlEd_uDQzN6-7VPnLIqt4jzK-TCPpoyHCfPdV5yYKzAmIpjAvcCW8bYI57n1rufSfbKqvCv4tvA/s1600-h/shrewsbury2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyPNb1yroBWw7Nati_7sRIBQxoGLaNpBrN0ylV33xk_BnxRQxnBr0OWo5NfY1XlEd_uDQzN6-7VPnLIqt4jzK-TCPpoyHCfPdV5yYKzAmIpjAvcCW8bYI57n1rufSfbKqvCv4tvA/s400/shrewsbury2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060806426154264770" /></a><br />The biscuits were very sweet and buttery, as you might well expect considering the proportions of ingredients. The rosewater added to this sweetness, but for me the nutmeg was completely lost. Caraway seeds have a distinctive flavour and they did manage to stand up to the rest of the biscuit, and retain a voice of their own. The biscuits had a rather nice denseness and the promised brittleness manifested itself in a good clean ‘snap’. That all said, I would next time round look at reducing the amount of butter (made the mixture difficult to work) and the sugar (I like my own teeth), perhaps adapting a more standard shortbread recipe as these biscuits are a form of shortbread.<br /><br />I’ve had a request for an up-to-date picture of Ellis. Just the one, but I only need to be asked once. Thank-you for indulging me my proud mumness! Here he is – 9 1/2 weeks young.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzV5ITUJLutyG5LGePaf87EtzIHysoQSLPTjiirdZxJp43lK6fytYXHij3Oz-FZTp3asD58IfZBi0yumtW8brfG60xqZEqYYJcyCeAcMVDDsiXuo6w2sFnfRdugzZPpSk1XnNNCA/s1600-h/shrewsbury3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzV5ITUJLutyG5LGePaf87EtzIHysoQSLPTjiirdZxJp43lK6fytYXHij3Oz-FZTp3asD58IfZBi0yumtW8brfG60xqZEqYYJcyCeAcMVDDsiXuo6w2sFnfRdugzZPpSk1XnNNCA/s400/shrewsbury3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060805476966492306" /></a>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-44710427145235745702007-04-11T15:24:00.000+01:002007-04-11T21:52:36.381+01:00Easter Treat<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFawM59PE-92fqsXh6cooJ2Q0tbM87jGkcCGGXH2u9c8hyphenhyphenqL1AB7x_PfdbDq2SuVNNiqHEJpV3ZE10Uc7d4QQtYu_-517CPD3hfwKWWzkT4XdmY1C8CRaYk_3s2YuJQ4kruRi_9w/s1600-h/eegg1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFawM59PE-92fqsXh6cooJ2Q0tbM87jGkcCGGXH2u9c8hyphenhyphenqL1AB7x_PfdbDq2SuVNNiqHEJpV3ZE10Uc7d4QQtYu_-517CPD3hfwKWWzkT4XdmY1C8CRaYk_3s2YuJQ4kruRi_9w/s400/eegg1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5051827738728096962" /></a><br />For my first posting after my young man’s arrival, I am going to keep things fairly simple. I am also writing under a tut-tutting of disapproval from my husband, not due to neglection of the little ‘un, but because I have accepted a commercial freebie in the form of a chocolate Easter egg from <a href="http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/default.asp?src=cj">Hotel Chocolat</a>. Now I was quite flattered to have a company contact me and offer to send me a luxurious Easter egg gratis, in return for my reviewing said item on my blog. Mainly because it suggested that somebody believed the readership of my site extends beyond me, and my mum and dad. I couldn’t see too large a dilemma, or too fatal a blow to my integrity (do let me know if you disagree!), after all I might try the egg and promptly demand it be scrambled. Hotel Chocolat presumably banked on my taste buds coinciding with their own taste values, but a review can go either way, and an Easter egg is a sweet of two halves…<br /><br />I knew of Hotel Chocolat, but had never before eaten any of their goodies. Their leaflets fall from the Sunday papers from time to time, and I have previously got as far as going for a drool on their website. I once idly thought about buying myself a subscription to their Chocolate Tasting Club – such a fabulous idea, to receive regular supplies of top-notch chocs by post. Just as one polishes off one box, there goes the doorbell with the postman bearing a new box. Fab. There were two reasons why I didn’t sign up. 1. The idea of buying oneself a chocolate subscription just seemed a little too self-indulgent, even for me. It would be a fabulous gift. 2. I would have had to share the chocolates with my husband, unless I could come up with a subterfuge that would result in the chocolates being delivered to a neutral third party (work would have been too risky). Not that I don’t like to share with my husband, but when it comes to chocolate sometimes a firm line needs to be drawn.<br /><br />So, to the egg. I should say at this point that I have made chocolate eggs in the past, so perhaps I do have some ‘expert’ knowledge that I can call upon for this important egg assessment. One year I made small solid chocolate eggs, by emptying the contents of a hen’s egg, and using the shell as a mould. Nice and simple. Then last Spring I went on a chocolate workshop at Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. During this day I learnt how to: 1. make a terrible sticky mess using chocolate and as many utensils as I could lay my hands on; 2. make some delicious truffles which resembled other brown objects not generally perceived as delicacies; 3. how to temper chocolate and create an Easter egg using a mould of two halves, and using a brush and melted chocolate to build up the shell. I recreated the moulded egg at home for my husband (you see, I can be generous sometimes), and ended up with an egg that needed a JCB to crack it open. The Hotel Chocolat egg claimed to have an extra thick shell, so I looked forward to seeing if it could compete with the bad boy I made.<br /><br />I had been sent a <a href="http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/src/cj/Easter-Chocolate-Egg-P450003/">British Classics</a> egg. A 72% dark chocolate shell embedded with small fragments of cinder toffee, and filled with a selection of chocolate sweets chosen to be nostalgic but in a sophisticated way (a chocolate fondant mouse was included rather than a sugar one). The egg was carefully packaged in a very grown-up, although rather understated (I prefer a bit more campness) looking, black box, and this box travelled within another to arrive safely unbroken at my home. Each half of the egg is wrapped separately in foil and the chocolate goodies are in small bags within each half. A visit to the Hotel Chocolat website reassures me that the plastic element of their packaging will soon be replaced by a biodegradable alternative. However, the part that disappeared first in my home was the edible mouse. Cheeky devil - one minute on the table, the next nowhere to be seen. Chomp chomp.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioxTP77jHrkY8cG-cprIhpY_rdkPSlEoPIVUXUfJUjt2AzAl2xMiN5oCiOPlHe-4axdUAotzFGJ3zH8VIv7ilbcEozc7v8vy2pgXc-CAyqdDOZNxZO7EjEmLL23T_uLKAp9AKOVg/s1600-h/eegg2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioxTP77jHrkY8cG-cprIhpY_rdkPSlEoPIVUXUfJUjt2AzAl2xMiN5oCiOPlHe-4axdUAotzFGJ3zH8VIv7ilbcEozc7v8vy2pgXc-CAyqdDOZNxZO7EjEmLL23T_uLKAp9AKOVg/s400/eegg2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5051831071622718674" /></a><br />I sampled first the sweets. Large discs of stem ginger encased in chocolate. Chocolate covered cinder toffee (think v.posh Crunchie bars, but don't tell that to Hotel Chocolat). Dipped brazil nuts (brazil nuts are so GOOD for one, aren't they?). Marzipan with orange in a chocolate overcoat - very nice, but I could have readily munched the marzipan naked as I love the stuff (take that how you will). Sorry, don't know what happened to the mouse, but it was milk chocolate and filled with smooth creamy praline. As to the the egg. Well, I was impressed to discover that this egg did exactly what it said on the box. It did indeed have a extra thick shell, almost immodestly so. If the egg had been served up whole instead of in two pieces, I think it would have taken some serious heavy tools to force entry. Instead I gave my hands and teeth a good work-out.<br /><br />So if I wasn't enjoying a free treat, would I be prepared to pay £18 for the egg? Do you know, I believe I would. It is definitely an egg to eat slowly and enjoy, rather than one that you end up bolting down in the time it takes to boil a you-know-what (don't tell me I'm the only one capable of such naughty gluttony?). For me dark chocolate is more of an after-dinner taste, perhaps with a chilled glass of something sweet (and we're not talking chocolate milk). This egg should last me at least a week of after-dinners, and that may also allow for sharing! <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGZg48XNRhZLxqJdOtFEEWSRLNckIFj9LLRRVU1GXjD9U9TVkBIw3ZsQw85FCUyrZtJOwtx4nIsxCSOSHUqKpUicwstTP2VTpXTyA0y4pwYn1IHTqSOe9401qR_PFpbakY9Dh2OQ/s1600-h/eegg3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGZg48XNRhZLxqJdOtFEEWSRLNckIFj9LLRRVU1GXjD9U9TVkBIw3ZsQw85FCUyrZtJOwtx4nIsxCSOSHUqKpUicwstTP2VTpXTyA0y4pwYn1IHTqSOe9401qR_PFpbakY9Dh2OQ/s400/eegg3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5051831075917685986" /></a><br />P.S. I had high hopes to make an Easter egg offering of my own to conclude this post with. I had decided to make some marzipan, form an egg, and then present it beautifully coloured and gilded. Unfortunately the result looked more like an Easter potato, and not half as appetising as a painted golden spud. It is better therefore that I sign off with an image of one of my little solid chocolate eggs (prepared earlier), so that I can continue to hold my head up high and wish you (a belated) Happy Easter.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwub6EVe1utnFQbD7JTYEZZfP4eFL55_iUqqNrfnA0JPfqQzMqNAiZ6ITpCW_f3zFdmBXxwrn1zN0MaG4rIvsWx_aUBWF_LbuK1Nf35QuPJZYVQ9XOcdOPiENIRUKmh1EPE78R-w/s1600-h/Eegg4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwub6EVe1utnFQbD7JTYEZZfP4eFL55_iUqqNrfnA0JPfqQzMqNAiZ6ITpCW_f3zFdmBXxwrn1zN0MaG4rIvsWx_aUBWF_LbuK1Nf35QuPJZYVQ9XOcdOPiENIRUKmh1EPE78R-w/s400/Eegg4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5052174200854963442" /></a>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-79351470206830513072007-03-17T15:18:00.000+00:002007-03-17T15:42:45.202+00:00Truly Scrumptious<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQIq8__hrAB4xWLcPR_DAupfolBwvAF8mrw4PnJ-YstNq5AXw8LFssMyo1ELvd9jrAi5XZ2EcuRmJlJD2pqzn8l_ThWyamI8wYd9KGsE6JCXBw2sxdutqlAOSuZM0qU5EMoolVqQ/s1600-h/02+Ellis+Sleeping+01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQIq8__hrAB4xWLcPR_DAupfolBwvAF8mrw4PnJ-YstNq5AXw8LFssMyo1ELvd9jrAi5XZ2EcuRmJlJD2pqzn8l_ThWyamI8wYd9KGsE6JCXBw2sxdutqlAOSuZM0qU5EMoolVqQ/s400/02+Ellis+Sleeping+01.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5042913813633119650" /></a><br />I have had a busy old time of it since my last posting. At the end of the second week of February, we at last were able to move to our new home in Hitchin. Two weeks after that, on the 25th of February, the really important event we had been looking forward to happened and we had a lovely little boy - Ellis Lloyd Graham. More delicious than the most delicious kitchen creation. <br /><br />Thank you to everyone who has left comments on my site over the last month and a half. I have only just been able to log on and view them. Thanks to the efficiency of BT we have been without an internet connection since the beginning of February, until the middle of last week. I am hoping that in between topping up Master Ellis' fliud intake, and catching up on the odd bit of shut-eye, I will be able to continue on my baking quest (and maintain the yummy as well as the mummy).AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-12851283662568784232007-01-31T13:42:00.000+00:002007-02-02T09:23:11.534+00:00Honey Tea Bread<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKGIN-lW9KRLmdKAfLgzTnqiYtStwirxu_CuDdAco78CT5lWRCa56eZjSfN2g7-XrWL1Hxqiy0qvStmWeS80zmWrr_4KlwTU0LaRyyq6oEWceQhrkdckB0zyNUmQ1JstKqy7ILBg/s1600-h/Teabread.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKGIN-lW9KRLmdKAfLgzTnqiYtStwirxu_CuDdAco78CT5lWRCa56eZjSfN2g7-XrWL1Hxqiy0qvStmWeS80zmWrr_4KlwTU0LaRyyq6oEWceQhrkdckB0zyNUmQ1JstKqy7ILBg/s400/Teabread.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026152863019019138" /></a><br />Motherhood shortly pending, last Friday was my final day at work. I am lucky enough to be able to take twelve months' maternity leave, and although currently the year stretches out ahead of me in a seemingly endless way, I expect that come the big arrival time will start to fly.<br /><br />I was given a lovely send-off by my work friends, some of whom I have only had the pleasure of working with for a short time, but we had all bonded over coffee/tea and cake of a morning. Coffee and cake for one is never as fun (although it does mean more cake for me), so this posting I would like to write as a thank-you to the team and as a virtual coffee/tea-break for them to share in.<br /><br />One of the presents I was given was a cup and saucer set, designed by someone who obviously also enjoys the finer, simple pleasures of life. The saucer has space on it for a slice of cake to accompany whatever warm beverage you are most partial to. What a work of genius. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoI-7wWU2v7p2xvDsfEEQS6-BiROpuy6QopggsF9mtMV-3INCE7Ub2orybezsAyGDlDjpRECWJc3CXsfAiwMe6IjHEtcs9VyaI1CPkLkRElFKZ_x5MCmEoG04tIkE0TgoqEoZ2Tw/s1600-h/Teaplates2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoI-7wWU2v7p2xvDsfEEQS6-BiROpuy6QopggsF9mtMV-3INCE7Ub2orybezsAyGDlDjpRECWJc3CXsfAiwMe6IjHEtcs9VyaI1CPkLkRElFKZ_x5MCmEoG04tIkE0TgoqEoZ2Tw/s400/Teaplates2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026157003367492530" /></a><br />I was also given a rather fine and cleverly designed mixing bowl. This is ergonomically shaped so that it sits both into the crook of the arm, and securely on the worktop by means of an angled base. Gary Rhodes has put his name to the range, and it is nice to think of Gary waking in the middle of the night with the idea fresh in his head, but possibly someone else did the night-time inspiration on his behalf. We shall never know…<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4H5-3aYPovg84IruxdSfTwUSiYniRqrNZ-X1Ewz3_hdePsDKd6aWMsnASMLR4DHf5uXXJ5AHNL1Bh_ebAUXDxr0Q9i89Mdpt7O6_UABxt6GPQES8dZO7h62zBYv7M9OnKbwUyFg/s1600-h/Bowl.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4H5-3aYPovg84IruxdSfTwUSiYniRqrNZ-X1Ewz3_hdePsDKd6aWMsnASMLR4DHf5uXXJ5AHNL1Bh_ebAUXDxr0Q9i89Mdpt7O6_UABxt6GPQES8dZO7h62zBYv7M9OnKbwUyFg/s400/Bowl.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026157007662459858" /></a><br />So taking the lead from these two gifts, and also the long-standing tradition of mid-morning and mid-afternoon social refuelling, I have baked a suitable cake to accompany a pot of tea; or if you need a shot of something stronger pre-lunch, then a pot of coffee. <br /><br />Across Britain home-bakers have created a wide gamut of cakes and breads well suited to accompany a nice cup of tea. I say tea, because historically we are a nation of tea drinkers. Coffee had its heyday here in the late 17th century, mainly amongst the wealthy and intellectual; but once tax on tea was reduced the coffee pot was drained and rarely refilled. Coffee remained a European preference and not an English taste, until we saw the introduction here of Italian-style coffee bars and then the emergence of the American coffee chain that I need not name; but this has been a slow percolation over the last fifty years or so. Tea is the drink of the people, a social activity as much as a refreshment. What would this country be without tea and cake; tea rooms; tea breaks; tea stops; flasks of tea; tea shops; tea and biscuits; tea dances; tea and sympathy; High Tea and Afternoon Tea? One can drink it by oneself, but a pot of tea is so much nicer placed in the middle of a table surrounded by other folk.<br /><br />Tea breads come in as many different forms as there are ways of taking tea. Sweetened breads are the pre-raising agent equivalent of cakes, and the older forms of tea bread are yeast-raised doughs – think of such treats as <a href="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/04/good-eating-on-good-friday-hot-cross.html">Hot Cross buns</a>, <a href="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2005/09/chelsea-buns-of-london.html">Chelsea buns</a> and <a href="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/08/cornish-saffron-cake.html">Saffron cake</a>. With the introduction of baking powders in the mid-19th century, tea breads and cakes could take a different form, and could become as light as a <a href="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/search?q=victoria">Victoria sponge cake</a>, or dense and delicious like <a href="http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2005/10/madeira-cake-with-glass-of-madeira.html">Madeira cake</a>. From these examples you will see that there are few cakes not suited to accompany a nice cuppa. <br /><br />Jane Grigson gives a recipe for Fruit Tea Loaf in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140273247/qid=1145032032/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl/202-5187347-8763865">English Food</a>. Ms. Grigson states that such cakes were particularly popular in Yorkshire and the North of England, where they were served at High Tea and at post-funeral get-togethers (wakes). High Tea is a Northern/Scottish meal, served early Sunday evening prior to church. It is a proper family sit-down, with copious amounts of tea and home-baked goodies. Jane also mentions that tea loaves are all the better for a few days keeping before eating – something I usually struggle with in my greed, but that I did manage to achieve this time (a big pat on the back to me).<br /><br />My recipe is another take on the tea bread idea, for it makes use of tea as an ingredient – a key element in fact – the tea both rehydrates the dried fruits in the cake, and adds a depth of flavour. The <a href="http://www.honeyassociation.com/bread.htm">recipe</a> comes from the website of the <a href="http://www.honeyassociation.com">Honey Association</a>. I thought I would get a plug in for them ahead of National Honey Week, which runs from the 12th to the 18th of February. The recipe uses honey instead of refined sugar. As honey has a more distinct flavour than sugar, I was interested to see if I could still taste it in the finished cake – or would the tea flavour dominate?<br /><br />I used <a href="http://www.twinings.co.uk/SpecialityTea/Classics/TraditionalAfternoon.html">Twinings Afternoon Tea</a> in my cake. This may cause a shudder amongst tea-drinkers of a sensitive disposition, but I do have to confess that I used tea bags. We are coffee drinkers at home, so I swiped a few bags from the cupboard at work (tea tastes are far classier there). Twinings Afternoon Tea is a blend of Kenyan, Assam and Ceylon teas. It is described as having a character being 'bright and refreshing'. Well, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance.<br /><br />The honey also has a link with my recently departed from company. An ex-fellow worker’s father has his own bees, and the honey I used in the cake is from him. The honey was produced by busy bees in Frome, Somerset. Which by coincidence is also the county where the butter I used for slice spreading was produced. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpxN_4MDducl7Cs3l43pqG4zaIRh-eGSL2yL7gGI0p_cfBIN6GoA1qDlq2w-TXKD_0HNuoO3JOv-NbNZtc2cY-kxiY8rPOr6IepDB0PAuzviAy-LSlAs9Nh1Ysm4jYSCmiPs8Hg/s1600-h/Teabread1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpxN_4MDducl7Cs3l43pqG4zaIRh-eGSL2yL7gGI0p_cfBIN6GoA1qDlq2w-TXKD_0HNuoO3JOv-NbNZtc2cY-kxiY8rPOr6IepDB0PAuzviAy-LSlAs9Nh1Ysm4jYSCmiPs8Hg/s400/Teabread1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026157003367492546" /></a><br />So I soaked my fruit, made my cake and then left it to its own devices for a few days, tightly swaddled in kitchen foil. The grand unwrapping came when I had the pleasure of having my mum here for the day, and we were able to sit down and enjoy tea and cake together. The cake was lovely and moist, and after some ladylike sniffing, we judged that there seemed to be a hint of honey scent to the cake. I couldn’t really determine a flavour of honey, nor of tea, but it was pleasant enough taste-wise, although I think it could have benefited from having a little more definite flavour. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkZws15itfsqrY6uRbpTbhhVqGYsXZHBkluGww59SSlCk5uYgk4_muHbNiAnbKH02D8YywNgNtTqGuQEeesQxE30sLmcvUygr-z_9-G9VNGHmi4lKq77hUP-EPiw1qxu0DYn2CmQ/s1600-h/Teaplates1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkZws15itfsqrY6uRbpTbhhVqGYsXZHBkluGww59SSlCk5uYgk4_muHbNiAnbKH02D8YywNgNtTqGuQEeesQxE30sLmcvUygr-z_9-G9VNGHmi4lKq77hUP-EPiw1qxu0DYn2CmQ/s400/Teaplates1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026154443566984098" /></a><br />My mum brought with her a box of homemade flapjacks, so I can now look forward to several morning-coffee ‘breaks’ with a flapjack at the side of my cup. It is a tough job not working.AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-1168780495218609812007-01-14T19:48:00.000+00:002007-01-14T19:50:09.816+00:00Coventry Godcakes<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/1600/613940/godcakes.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/400/819365/godcakes.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Godcakes seem to be peculiar to Coventry, although similar pastries known as God's Kitchels (or Kichels) have an association with the Suffolk area (according to <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1903155002/qid=1145034116/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/202-5187347-8763865">Florence White</a>). Both Godcakes and God's Kitchels were handed out at the beginning of the year (or Easter), by godparents to godchildren. The idea was that when a godchild approached their godparent to request a blessing, they would come away with a double-whammy - a blessing and a cake. A fair deal for the godchild, I think. Many internet sources claim that Chaucer mentioned Godcakes, but from a speed through online transcriptions it appears that it is Godde's Kichels that are referred to - see <a href="http://www.medievaltravel.co.uk/canterbury/canterbury-tales-the-sompnours-tale1.html">The Sompnour's Tale</a> (set in Holderness, Yorkshire). <br /><br />From a glance at the photo at the head of this posting, many pastry fans will see that Godcakes bear more than a passing resemblance to jam puffs; and to be fair, aside from the filling they are identical. Jam puffs are known apparently known in the bakery trade as 'Coventrys', by reason of their descent from the Coventry Godcake. Godcakes are filled with mincemeat rather than fruit/jam.<br /><br />Historically, Godcakes ranged in size and price, depending on the pocket and generosity of the godparent. The triangular shape, along with the three slashes in the top of the pastry, has led to speculation that the cakes were representative of the Trinity, but this is an assumption rather than a fact. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316852058/qid=1145033978/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/202-5187347-8763865">Dorothy Hartley</a> mentions this association with the Trinity, but says 'the origin is obscure'.<br /><br />Godcakes are very easy for the heavily pregnant and time-poor cook to assemble. They are also a good way of using up any leftover Christmas mincemeat. Some recipes call for an addition of rum to the mincemeat; and if you fancy slipping a measure in, then please do so. If you purchase a pack of puff-pastry, then this recipe couldn't be simpler. Recipes and methods vary very little between sources - both Florence White and Dorothy Hartley carry recipes, but see also <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0715377205/qid%3D1145033458/202-5187347-8763865">Town & Country Fare & Fable</a>, and <a href="http://www.countrybookshop.co.uk/books/?whatfor=1898435677">English Teatime Recipes</a>.<br /><br />Puff pastry <br />Mincemeat<br />Dash of rum (optional)<br />1 egg white and some caster sugar to finish<br /><br />1. Preheat oven to 220C/425F/Gas mark 7.<br />2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface.<br />3. Methods divulge at this point, so you can either cut out squares (4 inches per side), and then cut the squares into triangles; or leave the squares uncut. It depends whether you want to make your Godcake using two triangles pressed together, or using a square folded diagonally. I tried both ways to see what worked/looked best.<br />4. Place a teaspoonful of mincemeat in the middle of your pastry shape. Don't be too generous, otherwise the mincemeat will squidge out when you press the pastry together. I found that if the quantity looked a little mean in my eyes, then it was sufficient. <br />5. Moisten the edges of the pastry with a little water, and press either the second pastry triangle on top, or fold the other half of the square over to form a triangle. Press the edges of the triangle to form a seal/eject mincemeat all over the worktop.<br />6. Cut three slashes in the top of your Godcakes. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.<br />7. Bake for approx. 15 minutes, or until golden and well puffed up.<br />8. Cool on wire rack.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/1600/67730/godcake1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/400/540210/godcake1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The two triangles method produced a very neat looking cake - should this matter to you.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/1600/693072/godcake2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/400/336969/godcake2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The folded square method produced a cake that distorted a little in the baking, but I rather like the way that the puffed pastry has an emphatic fold - like a big pastry duvet...<br /><br />Needless to say, regardless of method, both sets of cakes were consumed very quickly, without either consulting godparents or considering the needs of those requiring blessings. Bless us.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/1600/36653/godcake3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/400/450939/godcake3.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />One last thought on Godcakes. For Christmas my brother gave me a fantastic book called <a href="http://www.england-in-particular.info/particular/e-book.html">'England in Particular'</a>, that is filled to the rafters with interesting lore and history on all aspects of England. Godcakes, according to this book, have a second meaning. A god cake (or jam puff) is a Warwickshire name for the triangle of grass at a road junction - created as the road splits to go left and right. I thought that this was probably a lost expression, but when researching Godcakes on google, I was extremely heartened to come across a note in July 2004 <a href="http://www.balsallcom.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=113">Parish Council minutes for Balsall, Warwickshire</a> (not far outside Coventry), that read:<br /><br />15.8 The Footpaths and Highways Committee will consider the request to re-plant the Godcake in Oldwich Lane. <br /><br />Please no-one write and tell me that this doesn't refer to a large jam puff at a crossroads.AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16479026.post-1165143300261262232006-12-03T13:01:00.000+00:002006-12-03T12:57:48.593+00:00Apple Gingerbread with Cinnamon Icing<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/1600/223024/cinnnamon2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/400/652514/cinnnamon2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Well, I'm afraid it has been a little while since my last post. Of late it has been difficult to find a weekend with enough time free to research, write, bake and photograph, but I am aware that my opportunities for doing so may decrease further in the near future. Many weekends recently have been taken up with house-selling and house-purchasing activities; or we have been out and about test driving pushchairs or cot viewing. We are expecting our first baby in February, and all spare time seems to be focused on him/her, and relocating to Hertfordshire ahead of the big event (and possibly before Christmas). But today, I am making cake whilst the sun shines, and I have been inspired by the new county that I hope to be living in soon.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.england-in-particular.info/orchards/o-herts-i.html#hertsoi">Hertfordshire</a> is one of southern England's apple growing counties. The first commerical plantings of Cox's Orange Pippins were established there in the 1860s. The crisp, sweet and sharp, russetted dessert apple became one of the most popular varieties and is widely available today. I had bought a quantity of Cox's and Bramley apples with which to make some mincemeat, and having spent a morning in the kitchen inhaling the fug of warm spices, cider and the rich sweetness of cooked apples, I felt ready to bake a little something for immediate consumption (don't you think that 'fug' is the perfect word for cider related activities?).<br /><br />My recipe is from the book <a href="http://www.countrybookshop.co.uk/books/?whatfor=1851524223">'Farmhouse Fare'</a> by Countrywise Books. First published in 1973, it is a collection of country recipes gathered by the readers of 'Farmers Weekly' magazine. The recipes had been collected by the magazine since its launch in 1934; generally from the wives and daughters of farmers - those stalwart ladies at the heart of rural communities, who make good use of locally available ingredients, and produce from their own fields and livestock. My particular recipe was sent in by a Miss Mary MacDonald of Inverness-shire (Scotland), but it struck me as being the perfect recipe to capture something of the combination of apples, sweetness and spice that I had scented the house with whilst simmering my apple mincemeat.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/1600/659868/apple.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/320/501818/apple.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />225g cooking apples (or strong flavoured dessert apples, such as Cox's Orange Pippins)<br />75g Demerara sugar<br />112g golden syrup<br />75g butter<br />175g self-raising flour<br />1 teaspoon ground ginger<br />1/4 teaspoon ground cloves<br />1 egg<br /><br />For the icing:<br />175g icing sugar<br />2-3 dessertspoons of warm water<br />1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon<br /><br />1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.<br />2. Grease and line an square or oblong cake tin (I used a loaf tin).<br />3. Peel and slice the apples, and put into a pan with 1 dessertspoon of sugar, and enough water to stop them from burning.<br />4. Stew gently until tender. Mash up and leave to cool.<br />5. Put the golden syrup, butter and the remainder of the sugar, into a pan and warm over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool.<br />6. Sift the flour and the spices into a large basin.<br />7. Whisk the egg in a smaller bowl, add the cooled syrup mixture and continue to whisk until well mixed.<br />8. Add to the flour, along with the apple pulp. Stir well and then turn into prepared tin.<br />9. Bake for about half an hour.<br />10. Allow to cool a little before turning out of the tin. When fully cooled, prepare icing.<br />11. Sieve icing sugar and cinnamon into a bowl. <br />12. Mix with enough water to form a thick coating consistency. <br />13. Spread over the top of the cake and leave to set.<br /><br />The gingerbread was a pale sponge, rippled with the flesh of the cooked apples. Lovely and moist. I was concerned that the quantity of cinnamon in the icing might be too tongue numbing, but it was perfect. Icing sugar is so saccharine, that the cinnamon had to fight hard to match the sweetness. The spiced icing complemented the cake extremely well, and added an extra flavour to the whole. This could be a nice alternative to the heavy fruit cakes served at Christmas time, perhaps with the addition of a handful of raisins. Plastic Santa is optional.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/1600/752612/cinnamon3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3929/1565/400/212081/cinnamon3.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>AnnaWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16851796353544414026noreply@blogger.com21