The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Bakers step up campaign to get Dundee Cake protected status
Baker Trade of Dundee is trying to stop producers from outwith the city claiming the name and yesterday launched a taste test
Campaigners took to the streets to collect evidence to back protected designation status for Dundee Cake.
A bid has been ongoing for several years by the Baker Trade of Dundee to stop producers from outside the city making the cake.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is examining the case and asked them to collect more evidence to back up the bid, which will go to the European Union.
Visitors to Discovery Point were asked to try three different cakes – one of which was Dundee Cake from the city, one from England and one from Scotland, but not Dundee.
They had to say which they liked best and which they thought was the Dundee Cake from the city.
Martin Goodfellow, a director of bakers Goodfellow & Steven, helped host the event yesterday.
He said: “We don’t want people to be able to make any old fruit cake and then slap a Dundee Cake label on it. We want our cake back.
“The rich butteriness of a real Dundee cake, combined with the subtle blended flavours of bitter orange, sherry soaked sultanas and almonds are what distinguishes our cakes from pretenders made elsewhere.
“We, along with other Dundee bakers, have been trying for a number of years to get protected designation status on the product.
“The problem is that different cakes claiming to be Dundee Cake can come in many different standards of quality.
“We have spent a lot of time going through the process with the Scottish Government and now with Defra.
“We were asked to provide more data for Defra and so we are doing this.”
He added that if Brexit ever happened he hoped something similar to protected designation status would be brought in by the UK Government to continue to cover products.
He said that Dundee City Council had been very helpful in supporting the group’s bid regarding Dundee Cake.
Jenny Viger, 32, of France, who was visiting the city, tried the cake test.
He said: “The real Dundee Cake was very nice and very light. I am not normally a dessert person but I would have this.”
A lot of other products have gained protected designation status including Arbroath smokies, Stornoway black pudding, Cornish pasties and Melton Mowbray pies.
The problem is that different cakes claiming to be Dundee Cake can come in many different standards of quality.
You may wonder what the connection is between Arbroath smokies, Melton Mowbray pies and Champagne. The answer is they all enjoy protected designated status, meaning they cannot be produced outwith the region from which they originated.
Dundee Cake has long been a favourite in the city which bears its name. But it has no such designation.
A campaign is ongoing to change that and ensure Dundee Cake has its rightful place in the nation’s larder.