In this post, we enjoy a slice of a traditional British favourite, albeit one that might make modern health food fanatics faint. Give a cheer for lardy cake!
Lardy cake is an enriched yeasted cake, made by taking bread dough and layering it with lard, spices, and dried fruit. Its origins are somewhat vague. An online search found some sources who swear it is a traditional Welsh cake, others who insist it is from the north of England, and yet others who argue it is from the southern counties. Suffice to say some form of this pops up in most regions of the mainland UK. If making this at home, you could use butter instead of lard but then you won’t be eating a proper lardy cake. And for those concerned about saturated fats, lard actually contains much less than butter.
Lardy Cake Recipe
The recipes that you can find online for lardy cake are all pretty standard. Basically, you are making a bread dough, and then adding some extras before baking. The following is adapted from Elizabeth David’s recipe.
- 500g good quality bread flour (Trust me, using better quality flour will yield better results.)
- 14g instant yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 150g sugar
- 230ml milk
- 110g butter
- 110g lard
- 240g dried fruit (currants, sultanas)
- 1 tsp mixed spice (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg)
Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Use your hands to rub 30g of the lard into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs. Pour the milk into the bowl and mix to form a soft dough. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Put the kneaded dough in a bowl, cover, and leave to rise somewhere warm for 1 to 2 hours until it has doubled in size.
Put the dough on a floured surface and roll out to a rectangle. Dot one third of the lard and butter over the dough, as well as one third of the fruit and the sugar. Sprinkle with some of the mixed spice. Now fold the dough over, top third over the middle and then the bottom third. Roll out into a rectangle again and repeat with the lard, butter, sugar, fruit, and spices. Do one more time until all of the fats and fruit are rolled into the layers of dough.
Use a small amount of lard to grease a round or square baking tin. Shape the dough to fit into whatever tin you use. Cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 200C/425F/Gas Mark 7. Bake the dough for 35 minutes. Allow to cool before turning onto a wire rack.
