I didn't think to take a photograph of it, the tent was busy and sometimes you just want to enjoy the moment, but a hotly contested category in the Shetland agricultural shows is best Sultana cake baked by a Gentleman. We hit it lucky and managed to shows in the time we were up north - Cunningsburgh and my local show - Walls (Waas). Dad entered his sultana cake, delicious but unplaced along with a couple of other friends one of whom swiped first prize. I'm not saying dad is bitter about this, but I'm not saying he's not either.
Doug is now determined to get in an entry next year and so I bought Sue Lawrence's 'New Scottish Baking, because if anyone was going to have a really classic, hopefully show winning as well as stopping, sultana cake it's surelySue Lawrence. Her recipe is based on her mother's and she also mentions similarly simple cakes from the 18th century. It's a simple recipe with no fancy tricks, so will rely very much on the baker making a good job of the business. I'm very much looking forward to the results.
It would have been an expensive book for a single recipe for a fairly standard cake so it's lucky there's a whole lot of good interesting sounding things in here, though at times I'm not sure what makes something Scottish. I'm looking at you artichoke heart and thyme bread, and you Pain aux Raisen, and Pecan Pie is getting some side eye too. I made a Pecan Pie with my sister last week so I should probably let it pass and save my questions for the two separate brownie recipes (it feels like one too many to me). It's not that any of these things sounds less than delicious so much as that I do not associate pain aux raisins with Scottish home or cafe cooking.
On the other hand who am I to argue with Sue who knows far more about her subject than I do. I'm on safer ground with Aberdeen butteries (a salty fatty thing that my husband loves and I don't) an excellent range of shortbreads, a particularly intriguing bannock that comes out on the shortbread end of the scale, a lot of scones, oatcakes, and roasted rhubarb, orange and ginger blondies. The concept of the blondie doesn't often appeal, but a rhubarb and ginger version does. It fits the tray bake tradition and the ability of rhubarb to thrive in the highlands and islands. The gentleman who won first prize for his rhubarb at the show told me his patch was well over a hundred years old.
There's a tomato and black pudding (Stornoway of course) tart that's also caught my attention, so altogether I'm delighted with this book and looking forward to making good use of it. I might even see if this pecan pie is a better version than the one I've been using for the last 20 years.
Love this blog Hayley
ReplyDeleteIt made me smile, reading this. Warm and witty :)
ReplyDeleteI mostly miss baking during the summer, when the thought of turning on the oven here is unbearable, so I was happy to read about baking in Scotland, where I imagine it's rarely too hot for the oven. I was unfamiliar with Aberdeen butteries and was surprised that almost every recipe the internet provided called for lard. Perhaps Aberdeen lardies is a less attractive name!
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