Now everyone is over Easter and the glut of ‘Hot Cross Buns’ I thought I would dust off an old chestnut ‘ Does a Yorkshire teacake contain currants?’ I am clear that a breadcake is plain usually flat and useful for lunchtime sarnies. A teacake can also be, sans dried fruit, made into a savoury sandwich but is lighter and more cakey than bready. Many’s the ‘Drip Teacake’ I ate from the Ivegate pork butchers in the 1960’s when I was training.
A currant teacake is just that, a simple teacake with some currants, nothing more nothing less. A fruit teacake can have all manner of bits and pieces including my favourite sultanas. Both make a brilliant toasted teacake with lashings of butter.
A couple of years ago the Dalesman ran a discussion group on the subject and some contributions can be found here.
Some good Yorkshire folk emigrated to Australia and in a book The Art Of Living In Australia”, by Philip E. Muskett. they remembered this old recipe
Yorkshire Tea Cakes
¾ lb. Flour….. 1½d.
1 Egg…… 1d
1½ gills Milk….. 1d.
1 tablespoonful Yeast ½d.
½ tablespoonful Sugar
1 oz. Butter….. 1d.
Total Cost – 5d. Time – One Hour and a Quarter.
Rub the butter and flour together, make a well in the centre, sprinkle in the sugar, and drop in the egg. Mix the yeast and sugar in a basin, make the milk just tepid, and pour it over the yeast. Strain into the flour and egg and work into a light dough, divide into two parts. Rub a little butter over two small tins, and put one cake in each tin. Cover with thin paper, and stand the tins near the stove for an hour, or until they have risen to at least three times their original size; then bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes. Serve either plain, or toasted and buttered.
The tasty picture with Yorkshire butter comes from Oh My Apple Pie!