Good Food Blog

How you eat yours - retro cakes

Posted at 12:02PM, 26 July 2011 by Rejina Sabur-Cross - Food writer

Cake pops, whoopie cakes, churros and of course cup cakes - it can sometimes feel like we're barely able to move for the saccharine tsunami of deliciousness that's flooded these shores from foreign climes. However, among these exotic treatlets, and quite possibly because of them, a bigger renaissance seems to be happening in our collective guts and minds. We're talking Fat Rascals, Black Buns and Gypsy Tart; that's right, we're talking about the return of the retro cake.

Open quotationIt could be down to the recession and the consequent yearning for rose-tinted comforts...Close quotation

It could be down to the recession and the consequent yearning for rose-tinted comforts from an easier age or perhaps as Tim Hayward puts it, simply 'because the food in the UK is so damned good - even if it's taken us a while to realise the fact'.

He and his wife Alison are the proud owners of Fitzbillies in Cambridge where the famed Chelsea buns are once again rising in the ovens.

'One of our key hirings has been Gill, the original head baker who holds hundreds of old Fitzbillies' recipes in her head,' he tells me. 'I've been working with her on the Chelseas' and I can safely say that the secrets are fascinating. We'll be bringing back many of the old recipes and updating some where necessary but we won't mess with the buns.'

Over at Yorkshire institution Betty's Fat Rascals have become their biggest seller. A cross between a scone and a rock cake, these originated from the turf-griddled leftovers that were combined at the end of a day's baking. Product developer, Lesley Norris believes they're definitely seeing an upturn in the number of people treating themselves to these affordable delicacies.

So what about cup cakes? 'They're very easy for relatively unskilled people to make and sell as a premium item, says Scottish baker Alex Dalgetty. But it seems many of us would prefer a more traditional treat.

Every day Alex is up at 5am and in his baker's whites trying to contend with the demand for classic delicacies like Clootie Dumplings, Shortbreads , Black Buns and Selkirk Bannock.

Dating back from the 1800s, the Selkirk Bannock is a fruity loaf (invented on the Scottish borders by adding sugar, butter and sultanas to leftover dough) which Alex still makes using the recipe passed down through his family. He reckons the secret to making a proper one is in the lengthy (eight or nine hours) fermentation process.

So how do you feel about the Great British cake revival? And what's your favourite old school cake?

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Comments

  • Binder photo mooingzelda
    27 July 2011, 1:05PM

    mooingzelda

    Open QuoteI've always preferred traditional cakes to the newer fads - they just taste so much better. My favourite is madeira cake, but I also love Victoria sponge and good old fruit cake. I've never taken to cupcakes - all the ones I've had have just been a bland spongy base topped with far too much overly sweet icing.

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  • Binder photo andtiggertoo
    27 July 2011, 1:06PM

    andtiggertoo

    Open QuoteI've never been a cup cake fan. Yukky icing. Bleurgh. I love sticky cakes, so parkin, chocolate fudge cake and lemon drizzle from more modern classics. From my childhood, I loved my mum's Magic Moments, Battenburg (although I only liked the marzipan and the white bits ;-)), proper Cornish saffron cake and shortbread made with a bit of ground rice. Mmmmm.

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  • Binder photo Maxine
    27 July 2011, 1:06PM

    Maxine

    Open QuoteI often make shortbread and Apple pie, I prefer older recipes with more natural ingredients.

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  • Binder photo Maxine
    27 July 2011, 1:08PM

    Maxine

    Open QuoteI see that the Chelsea bun recipe is not the original, does anyone have an original Chelsea bun recipe I could have?

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  • Binder photo Elomelop
    27 July 2011, 1:23PM

    Elomelop

    Open QuoteAs a child I got to choose the type of cake my mum made for my birthday. I always chose Coffee Cake. Still love it to this day and now my 11-year old niece makes a mean Coffee Cake.

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  • Binder photo Laney
    27 July 2011, 1:26PM

    Laney

    Open QuoteSeed cake and coffee and walnut cake. Cup cakes have been around for years - they were called buns or fairy cakes when I was a kid or butterfly cakes if you took a cone out of the top filled it with something and put the top back on as 'wings'.

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  • Binder photo Debs
    27 July 2011, 1:45PM

    Debs

    Open QuoteNothing beats a custard tart!

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  • Binder photo Jo W
    27 July 2011, 2:34PM

    Jo W

    Open QuoteI hate the synthetic overly sweet icing that comes with most cup cakes and sometimes find myself playing hunt the cake! Why is the ratio of cake to icing so ridiculously unbalanced? Having said that I'm a sucker for a bit of edible glitter, which is why I keep wasting my money in certain big name coffee houses in the hope that one day the cake's taste might match its appearance. I'm a school canteen ginger cake fan myself- it cost 16p when I was at school and was smothered in a thin layer of buttercream. The piece de resistance was the doggy choc drop that was placed on top. Yum!

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  • Binder photo Clare Comrie
    27 July 2011, 3:11PM

    Clare Comrie

    Open QuoteI have a fab recipe for "Tuck box Cake" which lasts ages & has dates & glacé cherries in, GF ultimate Lemon Drizzle is top of guests choice as is my adaptation on the Rasberry & Almond cake, I use raspberry jam - (lots!) & almond essence as opposed to vanilla. A firm fave!

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  • Binder photo rozmorgan
    28 July 2011, 7:24PM

    rozmorgan

    Open QuoteParkin! My boyfriend and I invited a fantastic one with some left over pumpkin purée I had from making pumpkin pies. Pumpkin parkin, our own recipe, is delicious. Also firm favourite is carrot cake.

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  • Binder photo jenny
    29 July 2011, 2:52PM

    jenny

    Open QuoteDoes Bread Pudding count as Retro - i'd rather have a slab of Bread pudding from my local Artisan bakery (nowhere else compares) than a cupcake or slice of chocolate cake anyday!

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  • Binder photo SUE
    30 July 2011, 8:34AM

    SUE

    Open QuoteMy Mum made a smashing Coffee Walnut cake (with Camp coffee of course) and she was the only one of the family that didn't like it!

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  • Binder photo chrisc
    30 July 2011, 1:35PM

    chrisc

    Open QuoteDoes honey buns count as retro?. They taste better than the so called cakes that the shops pass off today. chrisc

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  • Binder photo Odelle
    31 July 2011, 6:49AM

    Odelle

    Open QuoteI always loved the pale, thick biscuits from school days that used to be served up with milk puddings. My mums curd tarts, ground almond cakes, cream slices, mince pies, scones, butterfly cakes, shortbread, bread & butter pudding with lots of nutmeg on top, custard tarts...all made on Sunday morning before lunch for a minimum of 14!

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  • Binder photo Babs
    1 August 2011, 9:07PM

    Babs

    Open QuoteWhat counts as retro? I've been making carrot cake for 25 years but I must admit it took a while to find the perfect carrot cake cupcake recipe though I only use half the ingredients for the topping, I mean why so much topping on cupcakes? I made fairy cakes for my Grandaughters birthday party using an old recipe from many years ago all they had was a bit of icing and a chocolate chip on top and everyone loved them. Odelle your house was obviously the place to be!!

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  • Binder photo Sara
    3 August 2011, 6:50PM

    Sara

    Open QuoteWhere can you get lardy cake these days???? Local tesco used to do it but not for years now. Seems to have totally vanished in the SE.

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  • Binder photo tweetiepie
    3 August 2011, 11:22PM

    tweetiepie

    Open QuoteMmmm carrot cake has to be hard to beat if you ask me!! Rocky road too! Sara, have you tried getting lardy cake from a bakery? I got some recently but can't remember where from....somewhere like Greggs may sell it?

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  • Binder photo Jen
    4 August 2011, 4:27PM

    Jen

    Open QuoteYou cannot beat proper gingerbread.

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