Banbury cake

The Banbury cake is a flat, spiced pastry filled with currants, made for centuries in the English town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Its oval shape and resemblance to the Eccles cake place it among the traditional sweets of British baking.

History

Local tradition holds that Banbury cakes have been made to secret recipes since 1586, or earlier, and that Edward Welchman, whose shop stood on Parsons Street, was the first to make them. Documented recipes appeared in the seventeenth century, including one published by Gervase Markham in The English Huswife in 1615. Those early versions differed greatly from today's cake: they were closer to tarts or turnovers, and some included ambergris, musk and rose water, flavourings then common in perfumery.

From the mid-nineteenth century the Banbury cake grew increasingly similar to the Eccles cake, settling into the puff pastry filled with currants, brown sugar, mixed peel, rum and nutmeg known today. For a time it was sent as far as Australia, the East Indies and America, usually in locally made wicker baskets. It was also sold in the refreshment rooms of English railway stations, though those at Swindon had a poor reputation.

Culture

Banbury cakes are traditionally eaten with afternoon tea. The town is also known worldwide through the nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross", an association that gave its name to the journal of the Banbury Historical Society, founded in 1959 and titled Cake and Cockhorse. The cakes are still made in the region, though in smaller quantities than before, and remain closely linked to the town's identity.

Trivia