Cakes & Bakes: Fat rascals

We were in Ilkley today – collecting items from auction and having a mooch around the charity shops.

We wandered passed Betty’s Tea Rooms, but didn’t go in – the breads and cakes in the window certainly looked good though.

Fat rascals are a famous offering from this establishment – and I decided to rustle up a batch when we got home. They’re quick and easy, so a perfect bake if you’re pushed for time (which I was if I wanted to get my Thursday recipe made, baked, photographed and written up in a couple of hours before posting in the evening.

I used a traditional fat rascals recipe from Old Yorkshire Recipes by Joan Poulson (which you can get on Amazon for a penny!). It contained very sketchy instructions, so I checked some of my other recipe books. I found the exact recipe, with the exact, same instructions in Mary Hanson Moore’s A Yorkshire Cookbook. Even though Betty’s and Taylors of Harrogate trademarked the name ‘Fat Rascal’ in the 1980s, the pastries have actually been in existence since the 18th century at the latest.

We love this humble little bake – a little bit soft biscuit, a little bit rock cake, a little bit scone. The Betty’s version is bigger and fancier with its cherry and almond decoration. My fat rascals have a simple sprinkle of sugar.

They’re absolutely perfect with a cup of tea – we found that eating them just very slightly warm with cold butter was our absolute favourite, but all manner of preserves would work well too.

Click here to save the fat rascals recipe to Pinterest for later!

Fat rascals

2018-07-23 16:26:23

Yields 24

Cook Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Ingredients

300g/10½oz plain flour
150g/5¼oz butter, chilled
75g/2⅔oz currants
37g/1⅓oz brown sugar
pinch of salt
100ml/3½ fl oz milk

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6
In a large mixing bowl, rub the butter into the flour
Add the currants, sugar and salt
Mix in the milk, enough to make a slack dough
Roll out to ½" thick, cut into rounds and dust with icing sugar (I think caster sugar worked better)
Put on to the greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned

Notes

Gorgeous served still warm topped with butter and fruit jam!

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Out & About… Bingley

Last Sunday we went Out & About in Bingley, West Yorkshire. The walk was organised by Natalie on behalf of Turtle Mat. It brought together various bloggers from the Yorkshire area.

Bingley is a town we’ve always wanted to see a bit more of; we’ve driven through it a couple of times, but have always been on our way somewhere and couldn’t stop.

Our guide for the day was Cedric – originally from France, but a firm Yorkshire fan and indeed, Bingley resident. We can say straight away that from first impressions it’s a lovely little place.

We all met up at the train station and, from our brief view of the town centre, we could see that there were lots of beautiful buildings & interesting corners to save for later visits. A river & canal run through its centre and there seems to be real history all around. By the looks of things, there’s no shortage of shops, pubs & cafés too.

Within a few short minutes of setting off, we’d found ourselves in an attractive open park, then passed some charming & well-tended allotments – then into pretty countryside and the grounds of St Ives Estate.

We stopped to take in the view on rocks overlooking the valley and Ilkley Moor beyond.

From here, we dropped back down into town to have our lunch at the Brown Cow pub. We started with a well-deserved pint from a good range on offer. Adelle chose bubble & squeak with poached egg and watercress sauce.

Justin opted for traditional fish & chips – Fudge was hungry too and was hoping for a dropped chip!

Despite not having much space left, we couldn’t resist dessert to finish. Treacle tart with raspberry coulis for Adelle…

…and waffles and ice cream for Justin.

We were each given a Turtle Mat to take home… perfect for post-walk muddy boots and dirty paws.

On the day of the walk we enjoyed beautiful warm sunshine, so no mud to speak of that day. We’ve had plenty of opportunity to test out the mat since though – well, we live in the Pennines after all!

It’s found the perfect home by the front door and it really does work wonders. Our carpets and rugs might now stand a chance of staying clean!!

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Cakes & Bakes: Yorkshire tea loaf

This week’s Cakes & Bakes features a traditional Yorkshire tea loaf – packed with fruit. We often sit down for a break at about four in the afternoon – and absolutely love this kind of thing as an accompaniment to our brew. Sweet, sticky and full of good things to give you a mid-afternoon energy boost.

There’s a very simple list of ingredients.

It’s vital that you soak the dried fruit in tea overnight – it makes a big difference to the end result, so don’t be tempted to skip this stage!

It’s everything in one bowl method.

Preparation is easy, so you can’t go wrong!

The loaf keeps well for up to 2 weeks, but it probably won’t hang around that long though.

It’s delicious served on its own or with a thin scrape of butter (thick scrape in Justin’s case).

Even just looking at it in pictures, we’re tempted to get the kettle on!!

Click here to pin the recipe for later!

Yorkshire tea loaf

Clandestine Cake Club

The perfect accompaniment to a cup of afternoon tea!

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Course Tea

Cuisine British

Ingredients

350 g mixed dried fruit currants, sultanas, raisins, mixed peel. Try adding a tbsp of crystallised ginger
350 ml strong tea brewed for 3-4 mins
2 eggs
200 g brown soft sugar
270 g self raising flour

Instructions

Brew a large, strong mug of tea (we usually use loose Yorkshire tea... of course! But any strong breakfast or afternoon tea will do!)
Put the mixed dried fruit into a medium mixing bowl
Allow the tea to brew and cool slightly before pouring it into the mixing bowl (it should just about cover all the fruit
Cover with cling film/Saran wrap for a few hours, ideally overnight, to allow the tea to plump up the fruit
In the morning, preheat the oven to 170ºC/340ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease 2 x 450g/1lb loaf tins (or 1 x 900g/2lb loaf tin)
In a measuring jug, lightly beat the eggs before adding them to the mixed fruit and any un-soaked liquid
Add the sugar and combine well
Pour evenly into the loaf tins and bake for 40-50 mins or until an inserted skewer comes away clean. If you're using a 900g tin, baking will take about 60-75 mins
Leave the loaves in their tins to cool completely before turning them out
They'll keep for a couple of weeks if wrapped in baking parchment and kept in a cool, airtight container

Keyword fruitcake, loaf cake, tea loaf

Charity Vintage: A Little Taste of Yorkshire

(ends 22 Mar, 2015 17:00:11 GMT)

Every so often we feature something in our weekly Charity Vintage series that doesn’t strictly belong in the ‘vintage’ category. This post is one of those times. We’ve chosen it because it features two things close to our hearts – food and Yorkshire.

A Little Taste of Yorkshire is a cookbook produced as part of the The Prince’s Trust Million Makers* nationwide challenge. The team behind the cookbook, from Hallmark Cards based in Bradford, aims to raise £10,000 or more with 100% of the proceeds from the sales being donated to The Prince’s Trust.

The book contains over 45 recipes, including ones from Michelin-starred restaurants The Pipe and Glass Inn in Beverley and The Old Vicarage near Sheffield. I didn’t know until today that Yorkshire has the most Michelin-starred restaurants outside of London!

The book showcases some of the eateries themselves – from the famous fish & chip shop, the Magpie Café in Whitby to Primo’s Hot Dogs in Leeds to Forster’s Bistro and Deli in Bradford… and lots of others in-between.

*The Prince’s Trust Million Makers competition is an entrepreneurial fund-raising challenge which sees talented teams from companies across the country competing to outdo each other, all in the name of charity.