A lot of Hoo-ha over lemon drizzle

FORGET the row over Prince Harry’s role in the military, or Captain Tom being branded a ‘white supremacist cult’ by some half-deranged Church of England clergyman – the real controversy of the week was cake.

Specifically, whether Ralph Fiennes, in the role of amateur archaeologist Basil Brown in The Dig, would have been found enjoying a slice of the lemon drizzle variety in 1939.

For according to aficionados, it wasn’t until fully 28 years after the excavation of Sutton Hoo that the first recipe for it appeared in the Jewish Chronicle. And yet I swear I can remember seeing it as a child in my grandmother’s ancient copy of Mrs Beeton’s, which was first published in 1861.

Have I just imagined that? Can any readers enlighten me?