Wiltshire Lardy Cake
Submitted by djrnb
Traditional Wiltshire lardy cake with layers of spiced lard, sultanas, raisins, currants, and candied peel folded into yeasted bread dough. Sticky, sweet, and warm from the oven.
YIELD
1 cakePREP
25 minCOOK
40 minREADY
1 hrsIf you’ve never had a proper lardy cake, you’re in for something special.
This is old English baking at its most honest: a simple bread dough rolled out, layered with diced lard, dried fruits, and a spiced sugar mix of cinnamon and allspice, then folded and rolled like a Swiss roll. Twice.
The result is a sticky, golden slab of layered sweetness with pockets of melted fat, plump raisins, sultanas, currants, and candied peel running through every slice.
Score the top in a diamond pattern, brush with melted lard, and serve it warm, torn into big sticky fingers.
Kitchen Tips
- Use real lard, not shortening. The flavour is the whole point of a lardy cake. Vegetable fat simply won’t give you that rich, savoury-sweet balance.
- Cool it briefly in the tin before turning out. This lets the melted fat get reabsorbed back into the dough so it stays moist rather than greasy.
- Don’t rush the rise. A warm spot and patience give you a light, puffy cake. A cold or rushed rise makes it dense and heavy.
Ingredients
Directions
Using a food-mixer or processor or your hands, mix and knead the dough.
Cover it with oiled polythene and leave to rise until doubled in size; this will take about 1 hour in a warm place.
Knock back the dough, knead it again briefly and roll out to an oblong.
Mix together 1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground allspice and 2 ounces sugar and sprinkle half of this mixture over the dough.
Add half the dried fruits and half the diced lard.
Roll up the dough, like a swiss roll, give it a quarter turn and roll it out to an oblong again.
Sprinkle with sugar and spices, dried fruits and fat exactly as before.
Then roll up and roll out the dough to an oblong once again, but this time make it the right size to fit a shallow baking or roasting tin about 7-inches square.
Grease the tin and put the dough into it, pressing it well into the corners.
Cover and leave to prove (rise) until the dough is light, puffy and well risen.
Score the top of the dough with a diamond pattern, brush with melted lard and sprinkle on 1 ounce of sugar.
Bake until cooked to a golden brown and smelling delicious, 35 to 40 minutes.
Cool the cake briefly in the tin so that the melted fat is re-absorbed, then serve it while still warm, cut into large sticky fingers.
Comments
