DUNDEELIEVABLE! SNP seeks EU protection so legendary fruitcake can only be made in home city

FOR generations it’s been a Scottish treat, perfect anywhere with a cup of tea. But now the humble Dundee cake has become a matter of fierce contention between the Scottish Government and its fans south of the Border.

Scotland has launched a bid to give the cake the same status under European law as Stilton cheese, Whitstable oysters and Cornish pasties, products that can only be given the name if they are produced in those regions.

If the cake were granted a Protected Geographical Indicator (PGI), it would mean that only bakers within and around Dundee could use the name. The city’s bakers want recognition because the cake’s original recipe was developed there in the kitchens of marmalade inventor Janet Keiller in the late 1700s.

A Scottish Government spokesman confirmed: ‘We are currently considering the application to grant Dundee Cake PGI status.’ But now British bakers and even Women’s Institute cooks have hit back in an attempt to reclaim the treat for the whole of Britain.

Mike Holling, executive director of the Craft Bakers’ Association, which has members on high streets across Britain, said: ‘A lot of British products benefit from this European cachet and I unde understand the case for products such as the Melton Mowbray pork pie. But for Dundee cake, this really is a fruit and nut case. We don’t have it for Bakewell tart, or Eccles or Chorley cakes, because it would not work, and it won’t work for Dundee cake.

‘It’s not going to stop bakers around the country making it.’

A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said: ‘We do not believe that the vast majority of customers associate the name Dundee cake specifically with the location.’

The BRC has written to the Scottish Government saying most Dundee cake is made outside the city and has been for many years.

And Joanne Croxford, founder of Cambridge Blue Belles WI, said: ‘Dundee cake is made by everyone all over the country. It’s all about the cake, not the city.’ Even some Scottish bakers outside the Dundee area are up in arms, as they would have to rename their fruit cakes and pay for new labels. Scottish Bakers, which represents 338 bakeries north of the Border, has offered a possible compromise.

One option is for the Dundee-made cakes to be called and labelled ‘Traditional Dundee Cake’.