Baking fit for a Queen

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As much as the media today glamorises bakers, whether you’re a passionate cake-maker or an earnest sourdough crafter, much of our baking day is simply hard, sweaty graft. There have been many celebrated bakers over the last few hundred years, but for most it was a life of labour rather than of heady artistry. Important events were occasions to display talents that remained otherwise hidden, and though there was a degree of huckstering when dishes were created in someone’s honour, pride and skilfulness were also on show.

Having briefly witnessed first-hand the reassurance a royal visit gives to workers who typically see little praise for their work, it seems only natural that some recipes evolved to mark events from which royalty might take pleasure. It’s unlikely that fear or forelock-tugging was involved, because invention is a curiously personal process that requires an unshackled mind at least.

Here are two simple old recipes that were given the Queen’s name to denote the fact they were slightly more elaborate than the usual baking. Made with care and skill, both could arguably be served at a special event.

Queen’s gingerbread

A dark, highly spiced slab gingerbread (what the Elizabethans would have called a sweetmeat) that’s rather firm like panforte, and ever so good cut into small diamonds to serve with brandy after dinner.

450g plain flour
5 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp each ground nutmeg and mace
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
150g runny honey
150g black treacle
75g each mixed peel and chopped dried apricot
75g chopped glacé ginger
100g unskinned almonds

Line the base of a 20cm square cake tin with nonstick paper and heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4. Put the flour, spices and soda in a bowl and rub to remove any small lumps. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then, off the heat, add the sugar, honey and treacle, stirring until gently warmed. Pour into the flour, add the fruit and ginger, and mix to a dough.

Press the dough evenly into the tin, and smooth the top flat by pressing another tin down on to it. Cut the almonds in half lengthways and press into the top. Bake for 25 minutes, until evenly puffed. Leave to cool in the tin, and wrap well once cold, to stop it drying out.

Queen cakes

These were once aerated with “sal volatile”, or ammonium salts. Having tried baking with the stuff, you get an outrageously delicate texture but a kitchen that reeks of ammonia. Baking powder gives a similar but slightly coarser result, so unless the Queen is visiting soon, I doubt anyone one will mind. Best eaten very fresh, like a madeleine.

125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
2 medium eggs
1 tsp baking powder
75ml cold milk
25g ground almonds
250g plain flour
Currants and sugar, to finish
Melted butter and flour for the tins

Get a mini muffin tin tray (or mini metal fluted cake tins); if it’s not nonstick, brush with melted butter and dust with flour. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and zest for three minutes, until very light and soft, then beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth. Dissolve the baking powder in the milk, stir into the mix with the almonds, sift in the flour and gently fold through.

Divide between the muffin moulds, press a layer of currants into the surface of the batter, and bake at 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4 for 12-15 minutes, until risen and set. Carefully prise from the tins with a knife, dredge with extra sugar and leave to cool.

danlepard.com/guardian

baking with Bill & Sheila

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