Fat Rascal cakes set

Famed Bettys Tea Rooms in Harrogate and inset, their version of Yorkshire Fat Rascals served on an appropriately designed plate A TINY seaside cafe has been threatened with the full force of the law for calling popular teatime cakes it sells “Fat Rascals”.

The row began when the threetable Sandgate Cafe in the seaside resort of Whitby in Yorkshire began serving the fruity scone-like treat using the name.

Owners Helen Matos and Mark Whittaker were shocked to find that the name Fat Rascals is trademarked by world-famous Bettys Tea Rooms in Harrogate, on the other side of the county.

Mark learned to make them at his mother’s knee as a child and had always called them Yorkshire Fat Rascals.

But Bettys swiftly moved to protect its brand with a threat of legal action if the cafe did not stop using the product name.

The couple, who established the cafe when Mark was made redundant from the local potash mine two years ago, were confronted in person by Bettys company secretary Sheila Huntridge.

She ordered the removal of references to Fat Rascals immediately and followed up her visit with two legal letters.

Mark, 53, said he had always used the name for the treat. He said: “It’s somewhere near a scone and a rock cake, but it’s neither. It’s a simple recipe, a fat, a flour and fruit, and I learnt by watching my mum, Joyce, and my Auntie Doreen.” Helen, 52, said: “We were absolutely flabbergasted that they would target our tiny little cafe, which they clearly see as some kind of threat.

“And for them to trademark the Fat Rascal name is preposterous. They have been made since the 1800s and the first one on record was made over a peat fire on the edge of Whitby in 1855. If anyone has a right to sell them surely it’s a cafe in the town where they were invented?”

Mrs Huntridge however sent a letter to the Sandgate Cafe pointing out that Bettys were not merely a chain of tearooms but also operate a cookery school, craft bakery and sell branded tea, coffee and cakes online and need to protect its reputation.

The firm’s letter says: “Our company has been using the name Fat Rascal for 30 years and we own UK registered trademarks for Fat Rascal, Yorkshire Fat Rascal, Little Rascal and a registered design.” It requested use of the Fat Rascal name cease