Cornish Heavy Cake

Ingredients

• 1 lb self raising flour
• 3 oz butter
• 3 oz lard
• 4 oz caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• 8 oz sultanas

Rubbing in method, put the dry ingredients without the sultanas in a bowl and rub in the fat. Add the sultanas. Mix to a dough with milk. Roll out to about ½ inch thick. Mark with a criss- cross pattern and brush with milk. Bake at 200ºC for about 20 minutes.

Heavy cake is said to be named from hevva, the cry of the Huer (who was the look-out man) who shouted when he saw a shoal of pilchards. Heavy cake was taken by the fisherman as part of their croust (packed lunch) and is always marked with a net pattern.

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