Tosset Cakes

A couple of month's ago I was contacted by none other than Jamie Oliver's production company Fresh One. Once I had picked myself up off the floor, I had a lovely chat with one of their researchers about the long forgotten Lancashire delicacy of the "Tosset Cake", very similar to the now infamous Goosnargh cake.

          

After a bit of a chat I helped put them in contact with the local womens institute (WI) and also identified a St Oswalds church in the next village to where they where originally looking (having a bit of local knowledge you see !). The research team then came to check out the venue for later filming, so we met up for coffee and a further chat and discussed other local forgotten recipes too, at the same time I also mentioned it on one of my slots on BBC Radio Lancashire to see whether anyone knew more about the cake and its history.

Little did I know a few weeks later the man himself, that's Jamie Oliver is in Lancashire filming !! eek ! very exciting. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I can't make it to the Tosset Fair at Parrox Hall, but I'm sure it will be a great event.

                             

The Tosset cake is supposedly linked to the festival of St Oswald and is said to have been celebrated in Stalmine, the community of Preesall is now claiming ownership to the cake, the recipe for the cake can be found here on the Foods of England website. Unlike the Goosnargh which is just traditionally caraway, the Tosset cake has with both caraway and coriander seeds

The programme is being recorded for later in the year and there is an open invite for the people of Lancashire to attend

Tosset Feast - Wednesday 14th August commencing 2.30 p.m.

Come along to a fun-filled free afternoon at Parrox Hall on Wednesday 14th August at 2.30pm. As part of their new Channel 4 series, Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty are helping to revive the historic Tosset Feast and would like you to take part. They are inviting YOU the people from the villages of ‘Over Wyre’ to come together for this traditional feast to celebrate St Oswald’s Day. There will be food, drinks and plenty of fun activities in keeping with the Tosset Feasts of yester year! Bring along your home-baked Tosset Cakes to add to the original spirit of the feast. So please join in with this great day out and let’s make the Tosset Feast the biggest event on the local calendar, once more. 

N.B. Plenty of space of lots of people to attend but entry will be come on a first come first served basis.

Goosnargh Cakes - Forgotten Food for Slow Food Week 2013

I have a number of recipes on that blog that are traditionally "Lancashire" and a couple of them are very popular, so I was delighted to be contacted by Slow Food UK  to take part in their campaign to  create an ark of Forgotten Foods, this highlights foods which have fallen out of favour, the idea of the campaign is to preserve these traditional foods before its too late and they are lost forever and promote our rich regional culinary history.

One such food is Goosnargh cakes (not really a cake at all more of a biscuit) which is  no longer commercially available reliably and is seldom baked locally,  this caraway flavoured crumbly shortbread style biscuit has really fallen out of favour.

Goosnargh is a village just outside Preston and is now probably more famous as the home of fabulous poultry production. I have had a  recipe for Goosnargh cakes on the blog for a couple of years and its now pretty popular especially since being featured in "Visit Lancashire" year book, most traditional Lancashire recipe books have a recipe for the cakes but since being contacted by Slow Food I have actively been searching them out.

I have been lucky, a neighbour who knows I love cooking and baking recently lent me his hand-written family recipe book and low and behold another Goosnargh cake recipe was contained within, this one using coriander powder and a little baking powder, I estimate this dates from the early 1900's .

Here's the link to the earlier post on the blog for Goosnargh cakes with the original recipe.

In celebration of all things Goosnargh cake, here's the new recipe and also a selection of new photographs to tempt you to bake this "forgotten food". 

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb flour (this will be plain)
• 6 oz butter (or 5 1/2 oz and small tsp of baking powder)
• 2 oz sugar
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder or bun seeds (these will be caraway seeds)

Method

• Rub in and mix to a paste without moisture.
• Roll out to 1/4 inch thick
• Cut with a plain round cutter
• Bake for 15 mins in a moderate oven (top shelf), do not turn them, when cold dust them thickly with castor sugar

I am hoping in some small way that by being involved in the campaign I am doing my bit in ensuring Goosnargh cakes will not be a forgotten food for long. The recipe book is proving a treasure trove of long forgotten delicacies which I will enjoy experimenting with. Slow Food UK have a section on their website called "Cook it or lose it" which is proudly featuring a related post. 

You might also want to consider joining Slow Food UK , follow the link if you want to find out more.

Goosnargh loaf cake with orange buttercream filling and icing

Given that the theme for the latest clandestine cake club was "Lancashire afternoon Tea", I decided to have a go at re inventing the Goosnargh cake as a real cake.

Goosnargh cakes are a traditional Lancashire delicacy which are more like a biscuit than a cake, however there is traditional English cake "The Seed Cake" that shares some similarities. 

The Seed Cake features caraway seeds in much the same way as a Goosnargh cake does so that  was the inspiration for the cake, given that this was cake club I needed to enhance the cake so I decided on a fresh orange buttercream, caraway and orange being a traditional pairing.

I used Nigel Slater's Seed Cake recipe which can be found here, please pay heed to Nigel's advice re the quantity of caraway you use as otherwise your cake will be horrid, I have ignored his advice however when it comes to gilding the lily and plumped for fresh orange buttercream which seem to go down well at cake club.

To make the orange buttercream filling and icing , I used softened butter, icing sugar, juice of 1 fresh squeezed orange and the zest of the said orange, whipped until not grainy in my trusty mixer. A lovely fresh contrast to the caraway in the cake.


I am entering this post into Farmers Girl  Nigel Slater Dish of the Month linky that she runs with Sue over at A Little bit of heaven on a plate.

                                              

Goosnargh Cakes

For my Mum's 80th Birthday tea I was requested to bake amongst other things a batch of  Goosnargh Cakes by my eldest sister, these local cake / biscuits were also know as spell cakes in my childhood household. I can't recall baking them before but my Mum insists she used to bake them regularly as they were a favourite of my Father. 

Goosnargh by the way is a Lancashire village,  pretty much now subsumed by the Greater Preston but which is the home to other famous culinary delights as well as the cakes,  Goosnargh Duck, Goosnargh Chicken to name but two.

Caraway is an acquired taste a metholly aniseed taste, so go carefully with the quantity added to the mixture.

Ingredients

• 3 oz butter
• 2 oz caster sugar
• 6 oz Plain Flour
• 1 dessertspoon caraway seeds

Method

• Sieve your flour and sugar into a bowl, rub in your butter
• Add the caraway seeds and mix well
• Lightly flour a board and press out your mixture to about a 1/4 of an inch thick
• Use a cutter to cut out round to your desired size.
• Place on a greased baking sheet
• Bake in a moderate oven about 160c ish, do not allow to brown
• They are cooked when just firm
• Dust with caster sugar and allow to cool fully before removing from tray.