April 2008

Your letters

We asked What was a Yorkshire teacake? Well now we're even more confused…

I lived in Horbury, near Wakefield, until 1957 and my mother used to bake every week what we knew as a fruit teacake (with the addition of dried fruit). When I was child it was baked in a coal oven, part of our black lead fire place. I can remember them laid out on the hearth waiting for their turn for the oven and also to rise.

The white version no fruit was always just known as a teacake, even when purchased from the shop. When I moved to Leicestershire in 1957 and asked in the shop for half a dozen teacakes I was presented with the fruit version and from then on I have had to remember if I want the plain white ones I need to request a bap or cob as they are known in these parts.

Joan Robertshaw, email

I always knew plain and currant teacakes rather than breadcakes from growing up in Farsley and moving to Ilkley on getting married in 1954. I now live in Stanningley and until my local shop changed hands they were still known as such. Now they are breadcakes and currant teacakes. My local Morrisons call them 'fruited' teacakes.

R. Nicholson, Stanningley

My mother was of the family of John Marsh, baker and confectioner, Silver Street, Halifax. So I should know what a teacake is. We consumed many from our shop. A teacake had no currants; a currant teacake had currants. When I moved to Newcastle in the 1950s, I stayed in digs and one day announced that I was off to Headingley to the cricket. “What would you like for your bait (packed lunch)?” asked my landlady. “Cut a teacake across, butter it and fill it with a slice of ham, sliced egg, lettuce and tomato, please.” During the lunch interval, I opened the packet to find the teacake was a currant teacake. Carefully separating the sweet from the savoury, I enjoyed a two-course meal that day. Later my landlady told me, “You should have asked for a stottie cake!” That’s what we called an oven-bottom cake in Halifax.

The Reverend Francis Wood, Newcastle upon Tyne

Nay, nay lad. Dun't tha knaw t' difference a'tween Yorkshire teacakes and breadcakes? Fur better part a'yon fotty-odd years I med em ivvery day…

More or less, being an apprentice baker to John Gilpins, in Leeds, my first task was to the breadmaking part of the business. They were two bakeries, one in Vicar Lane and the other near Gower Street. A Yorkshire teacake is endowed with currants, being a slightly sweet dough baked on sheet tins; a breadcake, to be called one, is made up of a dough with slightly more fat than a bread dough, baked on the oven sole, set with a 'slip' and the oven floor covered with rice cones. Part way through baking they are turned over with the 'slip'.

We did make larger breadcakes, anything up to a pound in weight, baked in the same way, only because of the larger size these would be set with a 'peel', to clarify. A Sally Lunn contains sultanas, currants and in some regions candied peel; larger than a teacake these could be topped with fondant.

Hot Cross buns are a richer dough, containing all of the vine fruits with mixed spice added (must be powdered mixed spice so as to give the finished item its slightly brown speckled finish. Dinner buns would be baked in steam so as to give the required hard crust.

Baps are usually smaller than a breadcake and baked on a sheet tin, sometimes close together so that the baked item has four white sides to them. Batch bread would be more associated with Scotland, with barmcakes, stotties and lardie cakes following th trend for regional products… not in Yorkshire, I hasten to add.

As to the Yorkshire teacake look no further than the grand old man of early TV, Gilbert Harding, who is on record as stating that the 'best Yorkshire teacakes come from Bradford'. I would dispute that, of course, seeing as I am from Leeds, but I bow to a more discerning figure such as Gilbert. He also declared that scones made in Bradford were some of the finest in the country. Once again I must disagree with the great man but hey, we are all Yorkshire born and bred, or is that bread. No matter, I would still call a Yorkshire teacake as one containing only currants.

R Marshall, (Bob the Baker), Scarborough

In my Bradford childhood days during the 1930s, there were three types of Yorkshire teacakes, currant, white and brown. All were to be cut across, buttered and then each half cut into four segments. If not eaten fresh, they could be toasted, but they were better when fresh, in my opinion.

My grandfather who lived in Sowerby Bridge, always sliced his teacakes downwards and delighted me and my sister by offering us the end pieces which he called 'cock-boats'.

Let us not forget, however, the closely related longbun, which although basically similar, had the addition of raisins, candied peel and spices (as well as currants) and was topped with a beautiful glaze.

But with regard to preparation teacakes, Dorothy Hartley in Food in England, in the Finchley Training Manual of 1849, adds what she calls a ‘Yorkshire Recipe’ She says they are a direct descendant of the manchet (handbread) laid for each person on medieval tables.

I have tried to make them myself, but the results were far removed from the teacakes I used to know and love and sadly, as only less attractive raisins are available away from my native county, to which I make only infrequent visits nowadays, I have to rely on my teacake memories which I treasure!

Brenda Holroyd, Ipswich

Yorkshire teacakes - with currants in - are a weekly Friday treat for me, a tradition dating back many years to when I was a youngster in Liversedge. But following in the Yorkshire tradition of having cheese with fruit cake, I also love to have my teacakes with a good slice of cheddar.

Don Barnes, by email

Where I was brought up in the mining village of Altofts, near Normanton in the then West Riding, (1950s) you had to be careful to specify plain or currant teacakes when you bought them. A plain teacake was made from the same enriched dough as a currant teacake, and was the same shape, quite large (tea plate size) and round. As it was sweetened it was usually sliced and spread with butter and perhaps jam, much the same as its currant counterpart.

A breadcake was different, this was made from ordinary dough so was not sweet and could be eaten with a savoury meal or used to make a sandwich. A scuffler was the same as a breadcake as far as the dough went, but was a different shape, being roughly triangular as it was formed from a circular piece of dough cut into four. A scuffler usually had a crisper crust and was traditionally baked from left over bread dough.

Oven bottom cakes were also made from surplus bread dough, usually formed into a large round and marked with a fork so they did not rise too much. It was a treat to eat these warm with plenty of butter, whilst waiting for the loaves to cool. They were cooked near the oven bottom as the loaves were near the top where the heat was hottest.

I still make bread today, although my children have left home they still look forward to a few rolls when I visit them. However, nothing can compare with the crispy crust of bread or teacakes baked in my Mum's coal oven.

Janet Foss, Crewe, Cheshire

I read your article in The Dalesman and it directed me to my grandmother's cookery book. The entry for Yorkshire tea cake, collected in the mid-19th century, as she was born in 1844, reads:

1 oz Yeast; add 1 teaspoonful of sugar;1 of flour; 4 tablespoonfuls of water. Let it rise then with 1 lb Flour add 2 0z butter and make up very thin with warm milk.

I have made it successfully and it has no currants or sultanas in it.

S.F.R. Roome, by email

I lived in Huddersfield until 1966 when I moved to north Nottinghamshire after our farm was taken for the M62. In Huddersfield if I asked for a teacake I was sold a plain breadcake. A currant teacake or a fruit teacake was just that. When we moved to north Notts our nearest town was Bawtry in Yorkshire. There a plain teacake was a muffin, and a currant one just a teacake.

The best toasted teacake I have ever had in my 74 years was the one I had last year on a trip to the Dales. We stopped first in Otley and went to a small cafe for a cuppa - I can't remember the name but it sold Greek food and was near the bus station. My friend was so impressed she congratulated the lady on 'food from Heaven'! Long live the Yorkshire currant teacake, say I.

Joan Morton, Retford

In North Lincolnshire by the Humberside where I was brought up more than seventy years ago, a teacake had currants only in it. A plain teacake was called a breadcake and was used for making sandwiches. When I moved to Wharfedale, a fruit teacake had both currants and raisins. A large teacake that was sliced had currants, raisins and peel and was known as a Yorkshire teacake.

A plain teacake wherever I have lived, now in Lancaster, is knonwn as a breadcake. My husband, from Doncaster, agrees with this. He says that plain teacakes were often buttered and eaten with fish and chips and other savouries. We have only been able to buy large Yorkshire teacakes in west Yorkshire and the Dales. I still make the teacakes from the Dalesman cookbook of many years ago.

Pauline Croxall, Lancaster

‘Yorkshire teacake’: teacake, usually about six inches across, plain or with dried fruit ‘Sad cake’: kind of ‘fatty cake’ (small, round, pastry-like cake) with a centre filled with currants and sugar ‘Gayle bannock’: kind of fatty cake with currants, made at Gayle in Wensleydale, and once the staple food taken to work by local quarrymen.

From the Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore by Arnold Kellett

Despite the belief that dialect words are no longer very widely used, there remains a great deal of lexical diversity in the UK. This is demonstrated, for instance, by the variety of words used for ‘bread roll’ in different parts of the country. If you live in Lancashire you might buy a barm cake, whilst people over the Pennines in Leeds would probably ask for a breadcake. At a baker’s in Derby you might be offered a cob and on a visit to Coventry you might eat a batch, although each of these words refers pretty much to the same item.

‘Observing lexical variation’ on the British Library website.

In Kent a currant teacake is known as a ‘huffkin’, and is flavoured with hops at hop-harvesting time in September.

Freddie Chapman, Gravesend

For more years than I care to remember I was used to eating plain and currant teacakes. Friday was always baking day at my grandmother's. In the morning she baked white bread, brown bread, plain and currant teacakes. She always saved some bread dough to make an oven-bottom cake. This was always as large as a dinner plate and I was allowed to make the hole in the middle of it with my thumb. In the afternoon she then made delicious buns, tarts and two cakes. All this she made in a coal-fired oven. For years there were plain and currant teacakes for sale at the home bakery in Rothwell.

J M Ward, St Ives

Teacakes were something we grew up with in Halifax in the 1980s, often homemade, either plain or with currants. As a small child it was a surprise to be handed a paper bag containing fancy buns when I had asked for teacakes for our holiday tea at the digs in Llandudno. In Bingley, just a short journey from Halifax, I was cut a teacake vertically down the middle vertically then quartered. At the Chapel Women's monthly teas we sat on forms at long tressle tables when teacakes, slice end to end were plain, buttered and some enlivened with potted meat. Next came currant teacakes, also sliced and buttered, and only then were we allowed buns and cakes.

Mum often told me the tale of great great granpa whose wife always made teacakes as part of her marathon weekly bake. He said: "Tha mun mak thi teacake wi a corner, else I don't know where to start eeatin'.

Muriel Wood, Crossflatts, Bingley

When I lived in Hull I became friends with a Leeds girl who worked in the same office. On being asked back to her house for supper my husband and I were asked if we liked salmon sandwiches, then said, "Oh, I haven't much bread, do you mind me using teacakes?"

I was astounded as teacake to me is a sweetened cake with currants and spices. I didn't like to be rude so agreed. She then brought in four of what I called breadcakes – I was so relieved! She had a good laugh when I explained.

Vera Riley, Bedale

When my children were young in the 1950s they asked for nothing better on a Saturday afternoon in Barnsley than a mug of Horlicks and a toasted teacake at Redman's in Eldon Street. They had currants in their teacakes and I have never tasted teacakes than those from Redman's. A toasted teacake without currants is like beef without mustard.

The first time I took homemade currant teacakes to my favourite uncle, then in his 80s, born in the 1890s, he paid me the most wonderful compliment (not being an exceptional cook) by saying they were the first currant teacakes he's ever had that tasted just like those his mother used to make. She was married in 1877.

A teacake without currants was called a plain teacake – not breadcake, as it had more sugar than that of bread.

Norah Jarvis, Rotherham

As a child in Cowling in the 40s and 50s we would ask at the baker's for white teacakes, brown teacakes or currant teacakes. All were the same size and shape and I don't remember them ever being known by any other name. I'll be interested to know how regionalised this is.

Christine Clarke, Manchester

In North Lincolnshire by the Humber, where I was brought up over 70 years ago, a teacake had currants only in it. A plain teacake was called a breadcake and was used for sandwiches. When I moved to Wharfedale, a fruit teacake had both currants and raisins and peel and was known as a Yorkshire teacake. A plain teacake wherever I have lived – now in Lancaster – is known as a breadcake. My husband, who originates from Doncaster agrees with this. He says in Doncaster they were often buttered and eaten with fish and chips and other savouries. We have onl;y been able to buy large Yorkshire teacakes in West Yorkshire and the Dales. I still make the teacakes from the Dalesman cookbook of many years ago.

Pauline Croxall, Lancaster

I grew up in Doncaster and my mother made teacakes with dried fruit and candied peel, but no mixed spice. They had more sugar than bread did and a higher proportion of yeast for a lighter texture. She also made plain teacakes as she called them, without the fruit and extra sugar but still with extra yeast. The local bakers would also understand the term plain teacake but were more likely to call them breadcakes. My mother grew up in Sheffield and so her terms probably originate from there.

When visiting my aunt in Hoyland the bakers called them barmcakes (yeast was also called barm there).

Jean Hopkins, Norwich