Lancashire Cake Recipes

Steps:

• For short pastry, mix dry ingredients together.
• Cut in lard and work until very fine (like pea-meal) Make a well in the centre. Add about a teaspoon of salt.
• Beat egg and vinegar in measuring cup.
• Fill to one cup mark with cold water.
• Mix with dry ingredients.
• Add more water if required.
• Knead lightly on a floured board til smooth.
• Divide into two balls of pastry.
• Roll each into rectangles on a floured board (about 1/4 inch thick).
• Butter one half.
• Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Add raisins leaving a rim around the edge of the half rectangle.
• Brush edges with water.
• Fold over other half of unbuttered pastry.
• Seal edges of pastry.
• Place on a flat greased cookie sheet. Roll slightly with rolling pin until the raisins appear opaque through the pastry.
• Brush with egg-wash and sprinkle top with sugar.
• Repeat with the other ball of dough.
• Bake 350F for approx 25-30 mins until golden brown.
• Cut in squares.
• Store in tightly covered container. Freezes well.

Steps:

• For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9- by 13-inch cake pan.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
• Separate the eggs. Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup of the sugar on high speed until the yolks are pale yellow. Stir in the milk and vanilla. Pour the egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
• Beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Fold the egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Spoon into the prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
• Bake until the cake is done, 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan, and then turn out (upside down) onto a rimmed platter.
• For the tres leches: Combine the heavy cream, evaporated milk and condensed milk in a small pitcher. Pierce the surface of the cake with a fork several times. Drizzle the milk mixture over the top and allow the cake to sit and absorb the milk mixture. Don't worry about totally soaking the cake! That's what you want.
• For the icing: Whip the cream with the sugar. Spread it evenly over the top and sides of the soaked cake and decorate with maraschino cherries.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve. Several hours is fine. The cooler the cake, the better!

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Butter a deep 22cm square cake tin and line with baking parchment. Beat the egg and milk together with a fork.
• Gently melt the syrup, treacle, sugar and butter together in a large pan until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Mix together the oatmeal, flour and ginger and stir into the syrup mixture, followed by the egg and milk.
• Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 50 mins - 1 hr until the cake feels firm and a little crusty on top. Cool in the tin then wrap in more parchment and foil. Keep for up to five days before eating if you can - it'll become softer and stickier the longer you leave it, up to two weeks.

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit.
• 2. Sift together cake flour, salt, baking powder and soda. Set aside.
• 3. In a large separate bowl, beat butter until very fluffy (approx. 5 minuets) then add 2 cups of sugar. Continue to beat until light and fluffy (approx. 2 more minutes).
• 4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, making sure that each egg is thoroughly blended before adding the next egg.
• 5. Mix in sour cream and vanilla extract.
• 6. Blend in some of the dry ingredients followed by some of the buttermilk in alternates. This is a way to ensure that the ingredients are being thoroughly blended together -- For example; add dry mixture followed by buttermilk, dry mixture, buttermilk dry mixture -- so on and so forth -- DO NOT OVER BEAT OTHERWISE CAKE WILL BECOME HARD AS A BRICK ONCE FINISHED BAKING!
• 7. Grease a bundt cake pan. I used a non stick angle food spring formed tube pan. If you do not have a non stick pan, be sure to grease your pan and dust with flour! Add in 1/4 cup of sugar to the bottom of pan and about 3 inches up the sides, tapping the pan to ensure even distribution. Leave excess sugar in pan. Sprinkle coconut flakes to the bottom of the pan. Scrape batter into the bundt pan and spread evenly.
• 8. Bake for about 50 minutes to an hour or until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean (if it comes out wet, bake another 10 minutes or so, if it comes out crumbly, you over baked the cake).
• 9. Let cake cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove from pan, making sure that the sugary coconut side is faced upward. Use a knife to scrape the sides if cake becomes stuck. (this step is very important otherwise your cake will continue to bake and will become very dry and completely stuck in the pan).
• 10. Drizzle glaze over the crunchy top portion of cake. Please use my Vanilla Almond Glaze recipe to complete this cake!

Steps:

• To make the pastry, dice the butter and put it in the freezer to go really hard. Tip flour into the bowl of a food processor with half the butter and pulse to the texture of breadcrumbs. Pour in the lemon juice and 100ml iced water, and pulse to a dough. Tip in the rest of the butter and pulse a few times until the dough is heavily flecked with butter. It is important that you don't overdo this as the flecks of butter are what makes the pastry flaky.
• On a floured surface roll the pastry out to a neat rectangle about 20 x 30cm. Fold the two ends of the pastry into the middle (See picture 1), then fold in half (pic 2). Roll the pastry out again and refold the same way 3 more times resting the pastry for at least 15 mins each time between roll and fold, then leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins before using.
• To make the filling, melt the butter in a large saucepan. Take it off the heat and stir in all the other ingredients until completely mixed, then set aside.
• To make the cakes, roll the pastry out until it's just a little thicker than a £1 coin and cut out 8 rounds about 12cm across. Re-roll the trimming if needed. Place a good heaped tablespoon of mixture in the middle of each round, brush the edges of the rounds with water, then gather the pastry around the filling and squeeze it together (pic 3). Flip them over so the smooth top is upwards and pat them into a smooth round. Flatten each round with a rolling pin to an oval until the fruit just starts to poke through, then place on a baking tray. Cut 2 little slits in each Eccles cakes, brush generously with egg white and sprinkle with the sugar (pic 4).
• Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 8. Bake the Eccles cakes for 15-20 mins until just past golden brown and sticky. Leave to cool on a rack and enjoy while still warm or cold with a cup of tea. If you prefer, Eccles cakes also go really well served with a wedge of hard, tangy British cheese such as Lancashire or cheddar.