Spending a bit of time again in Scotland, and it allowed me to find another delicacy that would go well with a nice cup of tea – Ecclefechan Tart.

The tart was traditionally made right across the south of Scotland, and I am wondering where it was hiding while I was walking the Southern Upland Way, however it is named after the town of Ecclefechan situated midway between Lockerbie and Annan in Dumfries and Galloway.

Ecclefechan Tart gained national recognition in late 2007 when Sainsbury’s promoted it as an alternative to mince pies for Christmas. The tarts proved to be very popular with over 50,000 packs sold in November alone, and I can quite understand why.  The tart has a texture reminiscent of pecan pie but is spiced with cinnamon and lemon peel and studded with raisins.

Delicious!

Or more specifically, Botham’s of Whitby original Whitby Gingerbread.

It is exactly what it says on the tin wrapper:

Gingerbread has been made in Whitby for the seafaring community since time immemorial, its good keeping qualities making it ideal for taking to sea. In 1865 when Elizabeth Botham began baking, gingerbread was naturally one of her first products.
It is not a sticky cake but a firm loaf with a texture between a bread and a biscuit. Today we enjoy it thinly sliced, buttered and served with a while farmhouse cheese, lemon curd, honey or preserves.

I was intrigued to find Whitby Gingerbread while walking the Pennine Way, as I was nowhere near Whitby. I thought it might well go well with a cup of tea, and being of a firm texture I suspected it might also travel well in a rucksack – and it did. So I investigated further…

The gingerbread is not particularly sweet, and as such is able to take both sweet and savoury accompaniments particularly well. Its firm texture also allows it to be easily buttered, even with butter which is relatively unyielding. It may well also be possible to lightly toast the gingerbread, though out on top of a fell I was without a toaster and unable to test this theory.

Whitby Gingerbread has a long history, and I for one hope it has a long future.

While walking the Pennine Way I was in need of sustenance to keep me going through the day. While I found some good biscuits, cake is less prone to disintegrating (or at least more easily squished back together). Having spent quite a while wandering along the route through Yorkshire I was pleased to find a supply of Parkin, a cake with strong local connections.

Parkin is generally a moist, and even sometimes sticky, gingercake – and is readily distinguishable from other (lesser) gingercakes by the high proportion of oatmeal and treacle used in its making.

It is also said to keep well, though why you would want to do this with such a delicious cake I am unsure – however it is said that ‘connoisseurs often prefer to eat it slightly aged’.

Parkin is also strongly associated with Bonfire Night, but after consuming the cake pictured above during mid May I am able to confirm that it can also be enjoyed at any other times of year.

Welshcakes can be traced back in time to one of the earliest forms of baking, where a flatstone would be placed onto an open fire and small flat cakes would be griddled on top of the hot stone.

It is a shame that they are not more widely available outside of their native Wales as they make a fine accompaniment to a nice cup of tea.

Welshcakes are made from the simplest of ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and currants, and are roughly circular, a couple of inches in diameter and about half an inch thick. The cakes can be eaten hot or cold, with or without butter and/or jam, but are seldom split in half like their scone cousins.

With so many variations, and just one packet of cakes, I was unable to test all the permutations for which I apologise (I promise to do better next time).  However, and without doubt, I can already confirm that these little cakes from Wales are worthy of a place beside a nice cup of tea.

Cornwall is one of the few places in the UK where saffron is used to make cakes and buns, though similar delicacies can be found in a few places around the world.

Saffron cake is a rich yeast dough cake that is flavoured with saffron and contains currants. With the delicate saffron flavour also comes the rich and distinctive yellow colour to the cake.

Traditionally saffron cakes were only made at Easter time, though thankfully they are now available to enjoy all year round with a cup of tea!

While not a traditional ‘cake’ this post could be equally at home in the A nice cup of tea and… series, though I feel further testing is required before I put a seal on the best Kendal Mint Cake and perhaps had a chance to visit the various establishments in Kendal (there are currently three companies that produce mint cake).

Kendal Mint Cake is the best combination of sugar, water and peppermint oil to be found, and can only be bettered when the chocolate coated variety is at hand mouth. Due to its high energy content it makes for a very good emergency ration.

It was first discovered in 1869 by Joseph Wiper, who began producing it in his small Kendal factory. It is thought that the production was a mistake, and that he was trying to make clear “glacier” mints.

Apart from mine, there have been various notable uses of Kendal Mint Cake through the ages:

• Edmund Hillary took Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake with him on the first successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953.
• Mint cake was taken on the Endurance Expedition of 1914-1917, which was famously led by Ernest Shackleton.
• In the ‘Amber Spyglass’ Phillip Pullman created angels of immense spiritual purity – who happen to like Kendal Mint Cake.

Melton Hunt Cake is a rich, moist fruit cake first created by Joseph Morris in 1854 for members of the local hunt. The cake is still made using the original recipe and method, combining the finest ingredients: sultanas, currants, muscovado sugar, butter, fresh eggs, cherries and almonds all enhanced with Caribbean Rum.

It is indeed a very fine cake, and hunting is not a requirement for its enjoyment. Its enhancement of rum ensures it is deliciously moist – almost to the extent that tea is not required to help “wash it down”. Having said that, of course the flavours and texture is enhanced even further with a good hot cup of tea.

If only it was more widely available, though it can be ordered online at Dickinson & Morris. Those photographed here are “individual” pieces, thankfully whole cakes can also be purchased.

Before we delve into the paper bag to retrieve the 2 cakes, a little bit of history is in order as these original cakes have quite a pedigree…

The first Richmond Maids Of Honour shop can be traced back to the early 18th century and the cakes soon became a feature of taking tea in fashionable Richmond. The (tradition) of selling and making Maids Of Honour moved to Kew in 1860 where the shop can still be found to this day with the fifth generation of The Newens Family continue to serve the long standing speciality “Maids Of Honour”.

Original Maids Of Honour are sweet curd cheese pastries, and make a perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea. The advice is to eat them warm, though they are still delicious when cold. With rigorous testing over the last 10 years or so, it seems that each pastry is lovingly handmade with each disc of puff pastry varying slightly, along with the dollop of sweet curd filling.

The recipe is said to be secret, though several websites purport to have it. Failing making them at home the only other place Maids Of Honour can be located is at the shop in Kew.