I had three makes an attempt at totally different lardy cake recipes till I acquired it proper. I needed a lardy cake that may style like those from my childhood, bought from bakeries that now not exist. The primary lardy cake I made was a 2-3 day affair utilizing a Justin Gellatly recipe, it was a bit missing in flavour and didn’t have the pleasure that you just get from a very indulgent lardy cake.
The second try was this actual recipe, however the proving instances and cooking instances have been just a little out. The recipe got here from one in all my Mum’s baking books from the Seventies. It was featured in a Sainsburys cookbook and it made two 6″ lardy desserts. The oven temperatures have been a lot greater than I anticipated and the fruit on the floor burnt final time and the centre was nonetheless a bit uncooked – not tasty.
So this third try, accomplished late on a Saturday night time (nicely what else is there to do in the intervening time?) was successful. To have fun we munched it for breakfast on Sunday morning with mugs of tea earlier than an extended canine stroll. I gave the second cake away, as a result of though you possibly can by no means have an excessive amount of lardy cake, the waistband of my denims didn’t essentially agree with that evaluation.
I do know that it doesn’t have probably the most engaging title and I additionally know that lots of people may be humorous concerning the thought of baking with lard, however it actually does produce a scrumptious cake. While you possibly can’t actually style the lard, it provides a terrific texture and retains the cake actually mild. Apparently lardy cake is served on the Buckingham Palace summer season events, so if it’s ok for Lizzie…
Lardy Cake
- 500 g Sturdy White Bread Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 150 g Lard
- 300 ml Heat Milk
- 25 g Contemporary Yeast
- 250 g Currants
- 125 g Sultanas
- 125 g Gentle Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Floor Blended Spice
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Sift the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer and add the salt and 25g of the lard reduce into small cubes. Connect the paddle attachment and blend till it resembles breadcrumbs. This could solely take 5 minutes.
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In one other bowl or jug combine the granulated sugar, milk and yeast collectively after which add this to the flour.
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Change the attachment on the mixer from a paddle to a dough hook and blend the dough till it comes collectively. Knead on a medium velocity for round 10 minutes, till it comes collectively and the dough is clean and elastic.
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Cowl the bowl with cling-film and depart it someplace heat for 30 minutes to rise.
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Take this time to organize your tins, grease the perimeters and bottoms of your 6 inch cake tins and line the bottom with baking parchment. I used loose-bottomed cake tins, should you use the identical, I like to recommend standing them on a baking tray as you’ll lose some lard when cooking.
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Take the currants and sultanas and add these to the bowl and utilizing the dough hook knead the dough once more to combine within the fruit. Combine till the fruit is evenly distributed, it’s possible you’ll have to take the dough of the hook at instances or get your fingers in there.
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Cowl the dough with cling-film once more and put the dough to at least one aspect for 10 minutes.
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place the dough on a floured floor and roll it to a rectangle that’s 45cm x 15cm. Take the remaining 125g lard and unfold it evenly on the highest two thirds of the dough. Sprinkle the brown sugar and spice everywhere in the lard after which take the underside third of the dough and fold it up, then take the highest third and fold it down over the underside third of dough.
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Flip the dough 90 levels after which roll it out once more to 45cm by 15cm. Then roll it up like a swiss roll, in order that it is 15cm large. Then taking a pointy knife reduce it down the center so that you’ve got two lardy desserts and place them within the ready tins, reduce aspect up.
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Cowl the desserts loosely with cling-film and place them someplace heat to rise. They’re going to want no less than an hour, you need them to virtually fill the cake tin, they will not actually rise above the highest of the tin, however they need to fill it and virtually contact the perimeters. It was a bit chilly after I made this so it took nearer 1.5 hours.
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Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan and as quickly as you set the lardy desserts within the oven drop the temperature to 200C/180C Fan and prepare dinner for 45 minutes, 20 minutes into the cooking time examine the desserts and if the fruit appears like it’s going to burn cowl them with a layer of baking parchment to guard them. For the final 10 minutes cut back the temperature to 190C/170C Fan. You need a good golden color, however you do not need the fruit to burn or the the centre to be uncooked.
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Go away the desserts to chill of their tins for 10 minutes after which when they’re nonetheless heat, however cool sufficient to the touch, place a cake rack on a baking tray and take the desserts out of their tins and peel off the greaseproof paper and permit them to chill on the cake rack in order that they keep crispy and do not go soggy.
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These style nice nonetheless heat, however they do hold nicely for a few days. You may all the time heat it within the oven earlier than consuming, it ought to keep moist if wrapped in cling-film or saved in an hermetic container.
Thanks for studying.
Angela
