THE GREAT SCOTTISH BAKE-OFFS
Regula takes a look at some of the traditional dishes we all know and love
DUNDEE CAKE
According to legend, Mary, Queen of Scots, didn’t like glace cherries and a lighter version of fruit cake, the Dundee cake, was developed for her. The real story is that the cake was invented by Janet Keiller, the inventor of marmalade as we know it today, at the end of the 18th Century. Her business passed from generation to generation and the Dundee cake continued to be made commercially to use their surplus of orange peel.
BLACK BUN
Over the last century, it has been linked to Hogmanay. In the past, a bread dough was made and part of it kept for the crust around it, then all the ingredients for the black bun were added to the rest of the dough. The modern version is a fruit cake with a layer of shortcrust dough on top of and underneath, often wrapped all the way around.
DIGESTIVES
Developed in the 1830s with the aim of creating a biscuit that could improve digestion. The original patent was entitled Making Malted Bread. Cassell’s Universal Cookery Book from 1894 provides a recipe for malt biscuits and the author suggests ground caraway seeds as a suitable aromatic for people suffering from flatulence.
OAT CAKES
I think they’re the perfect partner for haggis – spread the haggis on to the oatcakes like a pate, and wash it down with a wee dram. I personally like any kind of oatcake and my larder is always stocked with them. They’re my favourite thing to take with me for those little bursts of hunger during long and busy days. When you have oatcakes, you have a meal.
TATTIE SCONES
My favourite combination is a tattie scone, a slice of haggis and a fried egg, washed down with a cup of builder’s tea. Potato flatbreads like these are also part of the food culture in Iceland and Norway, where it is eaten with fermented trout. Although they are excellent for breakfast, I also like tattie scones as a side with a salad or to mop up a curry.
SHORTBREAD
A decorated form of shortbread, infar-cake, was the wedding cake of rural Scotland and was broken over the bride’s head on the threshold of her new home. The textbook shortbread is one part sugar for two parts butter, three parts flour. My version contains less sugar and a little more butter. I was looking for the taste and texture of my favourite shortbread fingers.