Baked in Britain
REGIONAL BAKING HAS A RICH HISTORY OF FLAVOURS AND TRADITIONS, SAYS REGULA YSEWIJN, AS SHE CELEBRATES THE BRITISH BUN
For me, British baking is cosiness and warmth. Cakes, biscuits, pies and pastries are entwined with the identity of the inhabitants of the lush, green British Isles. Ever since I was little, I’ve been fascinated by Britain. My mother and I made trips to the only English store in Belgium, bought shortbread, placed it on an English china plate and ate it while watching historical dramas and documentaries on the BBC.
From the age of nine we started to spend all our family holidays in Britain and I looked forward to them all year. On our travels through England, Scotland and Wales, I was constantly looking for regional bakes. I was surprised that British bakeries were so small – they usually only had one window in what looked like an ordinary village house. I’d press my nose to the window to see which buns and cakes were on offer. I still vividly remember my first muffin: dense and moist, stained with blueberries and almost the size of my head, I bought it on a foggy summer’s day in a small bakery near the port of Ullapool in the Highlands of Scotland. At that moment I realised I loved cake and, when I got home, I began baking.
Regional recipes help paint a picture of the British landscape. In the North, cakes were usually heavily spiced, containing unrefined sugars and often rum or sherry due to their trading connections with the Caribbean and Spain, while wheat is the grain ‘par excellence’ in the midlands and the south because the climate is drier. Over the centuries, once popular bakes have disappeared or changed, while others survived as the staple food of regional workers – just think of Staffordshire oatcakes or Cornish pasties. Superstition, religion and regional customs also influenced British baking. There was a time when girls believed that if they bought a gingerbread man at the fair, they’d bag themselves a husband that year. These four bakes, inspired by my collection of historical cookbooks, can’t promise that, but they do give a flavour of some of England’s rich baking traditions.
Much has changed in recent years, but there’s still nothing like enjoying a good piece of cake and a cup of tea.