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but the focus was mainly on bread, buns, cakes, and biscuits. The handbooks provided bakers with tools to get to know their

customers and, depending on who ordered, they chose a rich or economical version of a recipe. In one book there were three

recipes for Bath buns, one more expensive to make than the others.

Oats in the North, Wheat from the South

The recipes in this book also paint a picture of the British landscape. The many bakes made with oats in the North tell the story of a

rougher and wetter climate in the northern areas, where oats and barley were the most important crops because they could withstand

the adverse weather. Here developed a culture for quick breads like soda bread, griddle cakes, oatcakes, and scones, as well as the

paper-thin crispbread called clapcake (see page 150) from Northern England and Scotland, which we usually associate with

Scandinavia. The cakes of the North were usually heavily spiced, containing unrefined sugars and often rum or sherry. The large

trading ports such as Dundee in Scotland and Whitehaven in the north of England traded with the Caribbean and Spain, making

imports of sugar, rum, currants, sherry, and other raw materials possible. The uniqueness of the Dundee cake therefore consists of

these imported goods and it is not surprising that many gingerbreads, cakes, and parkins also originate from these northern areas.

Wheat is the grain “par excellence” in the Centre, South, and South-west because the climate is drier and the summers are longer.

Saffron characterizes the bakes in Cornwall. This southwest peninsula was a trading place for tin that, according to Slow Food UK,

was exchanged for saffron and other goods. To meet the need for this mysteriously fragrant spice, saffron was also grown in Cornwall

and in Essex around the town of Saffron Walden.

Over the centuries, some bakes disappeared from the scene entirely or changed extensively. Others survived because they were the

staple food of workers in certain regions. In Staffordshire’s potteries in the Midlands, the most important food was the Staffordshire

oatcake, a thick pancake made from soured oat flour dough. In the tin mines of Cornwall that staple was the pasty, a hand-held pie

filled with meat and vegetables. In the Highlands of Scotland, the Aberdeen buttery kept the workers fed.

Superstition, religion, and regional customs also influenced British baking traditions. Fairings were biscuits that were sold at the

farmers’ fair or village fairs. There was a time when girls believed that if they bought a gingerbread man at the fair, they would bag

themselves a husband that year. The Twelfth cake, a yeast-leavened cake that has been all but forgotten, was baked for Twelfth

Night, the last day of Christmas, and was accompanied by a role-playing game choosing a “king” and “queen.”

As a symbol of life, bakes were also central to some festivities. The harvest loaf is a large decorative bread in the form of a bunch of

corn, traditionally made from the first grain of the season for the harvest festival of Lammas. According to Florence Marian McNeill

in her 1929 book The Scots Kitchen, a decorated form of shortbread was the wedding cake of rural Scotland. The shortbread was

broken over the bride’s head, on the threshold of her new home.

Dedicated to cake

There are few peoples, not even the French, who dedicate a time of day and a whole etiquette to cakes and tea. I am not fond of

dessert, because I want sweet treats to be the main affair rather than the afterthought in the dessert course. There is much to say

about the afternoon tea ritual and history (page 166) and the importance of toast in British culture (page 178).

This book is not divided into chapters, although the table of contents does provide a guideline for ease of use. We are not going

to put the cakes into boxes because buns and biscuits sometimes bear the name cake, and some biscuits are actually gingerbread

and a gingerbread can also be a parkin. Pies can be savory or sweet, and sometimes they are both.

Much has changed in Britain in recent years, and although the iconic Britishness may have taken a bit of a beating due to recent

political changes, I think there is no better time to gather around the table and get to know each other with a good piece of cake

and a cup of strong English tea.

— Regula Ysewijn