Don’t worry, Pepper Cake is not made of the black or white savoury pepper we know today. The ‘pepper’ takes its name from the allspice, or ‘Jamaican Pepper’ it was made with in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pepper Cake was traditionally served at Christmas, particularly to carol singers who came a-knocking, sometimes with the following in their repertoire:
“A little bit of pepper-cake
A little bit of cheese
A little drink of water,
And a penny, if you please.”
It’s probably more like, ‘And a pound, if you please’ these days! Although this recipe spans the centuries and would please your modern carol singers, too.
This is a Pepper Cake recipe from West Yorkshire that can be traced back to the mid 19th century. Curiously though – although this might be my over-active imagination – there is indeed a sweet ‘peppery’ or warming taste to the cake from the ground cloves. It’s certainly a most pleasant taste and the cake keeps well in a tin.
Ingredients
- 1½ lb (700g) plain flour
- 8 oz (225 g) butter
- 8 oz (225g) dark brown sugar
- 1 oz (28g) ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1½ lb (700g) black treacle
- 4 large eggs
- A little milk
Method
- Rub the butter into the flour and stir in the ground cloves and the sugar
- Add the warmed treacle and the well-beaten eggs
- Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in about half a teacup of milk and add this to the mix
- Stir well, adding a little more milk if necessary.
- Put the mix into a greased and lined round cake tin
- Bake in a moderate oven (180C/350F/gas mark 4) for around 90 minutes. Test it with a skewer to see if it comes out clean. If it does, it’s teatime!
- This can also be cooked in a flat baking tin (for around 60 minutes) and cut into squares when cold.
Source: Theodora Fitzgibbon (1979) A Taste of Yorkshire. Pan Books.
