Takes the cake
From lardy cakes to simple scones, Felicity Cloake celebrates the classic bakes that need no reinvention
I got into a small and pointless argument with a friend recently when she announced that a certain bakery chain (expanding across England with astonishing speed) was the only place in her London neighbourhood where she could buy scones. Surely not, I said. Then I thought about where, if I wasn’t going to make my own (pictured top), I’d find them near my own home, and realised she may have a point. (FYI, fellow N1 folks, Quince Bakery always has them on the counter.)
A few days later, I was asked to go on BBC Radio 4 to comment on the decision by Somerset’s Burns the Bread to stop selling iced buns, which naturally made me desperately crave an iced bun. But were there any to be found near me? No. Thankfully, I’ve since realised you can get an excellent example for just £1.60* at Raabs the Bakers on Essex Road in London. But, before this turns into a food guide to my neighbourhood, may I point you in the direction of Ruby Tandoh’s lemon zest-spiked recipe, or Helen Goh’s strawberry finger buns should you also suddenly have a craving for soft, pillowy dough with a crackly smear of sugar on top. Both would be just as good not jazzed up.
Indeed, I suspect that the relentless human desire to jazz things up is to blame for the disappearance of old favourites, the rare treats of my childhood. I’m thinking of the lardy cake (Tom Hunt has a recipe that makes good use of the riches from your Sunday roast), the bread pudding (Nigel Slater’s rib-sticking number looks suitably dense), or even the classic jam doughnut. I will go to my grave ranting about the joys of a modest helping of strawberry jam before I’m overwhelmed, King Canute-like, by the ever-rising tide of salted caramel custard.
I’m all for innovation (Dubai chocolate week was a good one, even if I’m still finding smears of cocoa on my kitchen cupboards), but trends now travel so fast that we’re in danger of losing many older, defiantly local specialities to a flattened global palate, largely centred around chocolate. The sweet spices and dried fruit that have been popular here for centuries in things such as parkin and eccles cakes are disappearing fast, just as Singapore is losing its sweet potato balls and steamed cakes, or India its candied gourd and garlic kheer to the unceasing march of less labour-intensive, more social media-friendly desserts.
That said, back in the 18th century, Londoners queued around the block for the latest big thing, the Chelsea bun, which presumably displaced older favourites and it is itself now being superseded by the American-style cinnamon roll or the Scandinavian cardamom version. Perhaps there’s nothing new under the sun … but if you have an old favourite, it might be wise to go out and buy one, just in case.
*If you rolled your eyes at London prices from independent bakers (who are paying high-street rents), remember that’s significantly less than a cup of hot water and a teabag at Costa – and consider signing this petition to cut VAT for hospitality; ours is the second-highest in Europe.
What I ate this week
Chips on tour | When you’re on the road, as I am a lot at the moment for The Underdog book tour, you end up spending a few hours in a place, eating at weird times and grabbing something in a rush. This time, happily, it’s involved a lot of fish and chips, not a meal I have very often due to it being hard, though not impossible, to get really good stuff in London (although I did have some epic duck-fat fries at Jackson Boxer’s new Clerkenwell restaurant, Vesper). I particularly enjoyed the haddock and chips at Settle’s The Fisherman, but top prize so far goes to the golden, lacquered fishcakes and crispy scraps at Scarborough’s Lifeboat Fish Bar, where even the mushy peas tasted homemade.
Great British Menu | Though global turmoil continues to highlight the importance of resilient local food systems, food miles seem to have all but dropped off the radar in recent years – 2009’s initial Fife Diet experiment feels very long ago. Artist Joanna Farrow is hoping to draw attention back with her commitment to a year living only on food grown and produced in Britain. (Drinks aside, she tells me: “I really can’t live without coffee, and the thought of digging up and grinding dandelion root is not appealing!”). She’s already feeling better connected to her diet, and finding that cooking from a more limited store cupboard is “strangely liberating”. Follow her progress on Instagram – I’m particularly invested in her quest to find homegrown yeast!
Making a noise in the library | If you happen to be in London this weekend, the British Library’s annual season of food talks and events kicks off on Saturday – I’ll be hosting a guided “audio amble” on Sunday morning, and taking part in a tribute to the legendary African American chef and food writer Edna Lewis in the afternoon, which includes a screening of an Emmy-winning documentary about her and a panel discussion of food writers who have turned to fiction. Other attractions in the packed schedule include an exploration of the Irish Table and an Edible Archive event on Palestinian memory and resistance including the chefs Fadi Kattan and Sami Tamimi.
The joy of texture | I was in Ireland last month for my book tour. Although I travelled by boat and train, which limited how much I wanted to lug home, one of the things I did not regret having to carry was a sachet of spicy peanut furikake from County Down’s Tacacucina, which I have been sprinkling on almost everything savoury ever since. It’s crunchy, savoury and completely addictive.
What to cook
Rachel Roddy’s spaghetti with mussels, parsley and lemon
Theo Randall’s asparagus and rice frittata, and poached chicken salad with anchovy croutons
Ideas for make-ahead vegetarian and vegan finger food
José Pizarro’s recipe for duck legs with cherries and amontillado
Restaurant of the week
Bar Shrimp, Manchester | Run by a trio who met at Dan Barber’s hallowed New York establishment Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Bar Shrimp is, writes Grace Dent, “a dog whistle to 1980s kids such as myself, who grew up seeing New York in the likes of After Hours or Wall Street”. The concept, she notes, is intriguing and risky. “Not quite a restaurant, certainly not a wine bar – and a much more difficult sell. Do shellfish snacks and complex cocktails even go together? And, to be quite honest, isn’t eating in a bar just cheating?”
Nevermind, because from its perfectly executed devilled eggs with brown crab to Morecambe Bay shrimp served in cocktail sauce, this is thoughtful and adept cooking. “I’d go so far as to argue that a seat at the bar with some good, earthy smoked mackerel rillettes with those crisps and a cold glass of pét-nat might even be one of the best seats in Manchester, if not the entire north.” Read the full review.
An extra helping
Should we ditch the idea of three meals a day? Eli Davies makes the case.
The British food scene was booming – so why has it suddenly gone bust? Anita Chaudhuri digs in.
Which supermarket sushi is decidedly fishy and which one should you roll with? Tom Hunt decides.
Refreshing, enlivening and occasionally hangover-clearing, Mina Holland selects the essential sparkling waters.
The classic mince dish keema peas uses cheap cuts of meat, but is endlessly rich in flavour. Follow these step-by-step instructions to make them perfectly.
From the US, Andrew Lawrence surveys the chilling new documentary How to Feed a Dictator, which spotlights five chefs tasked with feeding brutal leaders from Idi Amin to Saddam Hussein.
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I do wish everything didn't have to be salted caramel something. And parkin is divine. Thank you for such a lovely piece.
I just brought crumpets for a friend of mine who didn’t know what they were. I dearly wish that our bakeries and cafes kept some of our delicious traditional baked goods alive. Or’—we can buy stale croissants everywhere, but the poor crumpet, iced bun etc are not so ubiquitous. In NE Scotland there is the wonderful ‘buttery’ which is pretty much a salty croissant, a bit squashed looking, but absolutely delicious. How nice it would be if these lovely things were sold all over. Still, I guess we’ve always been more impressed by food stuffs from abroad.