Lardy Cake

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •23cm round or 20cm square deep cake tin
• •Rolling pin
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Bench scraper (useful but not essential)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Tip the flour into a wide bowl. Put the yeast on one side, the salt on the other. They don't get on if they meet straight away. Add the caster sugar, the softened butter, the egg, and most of the warm milk. Bring it together with your hand, adding the rest of the milk a splash at a time until you have a soft, slightly tacky dough. Turn it out and knead for ten minutes, or until it's smooth, supple and springs back when you press it with a thumb. Put it back in the bowl, cover, and leave somewhere warm until doubled in size. An hour, maybe a bit more if the kitchen is cool.

   Blood temperature means you can hold a finger in the milk and feel nothing much. Too hot and it kills the yeast. Trust your hand.
2. 2

   Prepare the filling

   While the dough proves, tip the currants, sultanas and chopped peel into a bowl with the mixed spice and a good grating of nutmeg. Stir them through so the spice clings to the fruit. Have the cold cubed lard and the brown sugar ready in separate dishes. The whole point of what's coming is speed and rhythm, so it helps to have everything within arm's reach.

3. 3

   First fold

   Knock the risen dough back gently and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it out into a long rectangle, about a centimetre thick, with a short edge nearest you. Dot the top two-thirds with a third of the lard, scatter over a third of the brown sugar, and a third of the spiced fruit. Fold the bottom third up over the middle, then fold the top third down over that, like a letter going into an envelope. Give it a quarter turn.

4. 4

   Second and third folds

   Roll out again into a long rectangle. The dough will resist a little and the lard will smear; this is fine, it's meant to. Dot with another third of the lard, sugar and fruit. Fold as before, quarter turn, and roll out one last time. Add the final third of lard, sugar and fruit. Fold one more time. By now the dough will look untidy and feel slightly sticky. Don't worry. It knows what it's doing.

5. 5

   Shape and prove

   Grease a 23cm round or 20cm square cake tin generously with lard. Shape the dough roughly to fit the tin and press it in, pushing it gently into the corners. Cover loosely and leave to prove for forty-five minutes to an hour, until the dough has puffed up and feels pillowy when you press it lightly. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan.

6. 6

   Score and bake

   Score the top of the cake in a diamond pattern with a sharp knife, going about half a centimetre deep. Scatter the tablespoon of caster sugar evenly over the top. Slide it into the oven and bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes. You're looking for a deep golden top and, more importantly, a smell that fills the house and makes anyone in it ask what's in the oven. The lard and sugar will be bubbling up at the edges. That's exactly what you want.

   If the top is browning faster than the inside is cooking, lay a piece of foil loosely over it for the last ten minutes. The bottom is doing the real work anyway.
7. 7

   Turn out and rest

   Let the cake sit in the tin for five minutes only, no longer. The molten sugar at the bottom will set hard if you leave it. Run a knife around the edge, then turn the cake out onto a wire rack, sticky-side up. The underside will now be the top: dark, glossy, lacquered with caramel and studded with fruit. Tear or cut into thick slices once it's cool enough to handle, but not properly cold. Lardy cake is at its best when it's still slightly warm and the caramel is just shy of setting.

Chef Tips

• •Source proper leaf lard from a butcher if you possibly can. The stuff in the supermarket will work, but real rendered lard has a clean, almost sweet flavour that turns this cake from good into the kind of thing people remember.
• •Don't skimp on greasing the tin. The molten sugar at the bottom will weld itself to anything it touches if you let it. A generous smear of lard, right into the corners, and you'll turn it out cleanly.
• •Eat it the day you bake it. Lardy cake is best when the caramel is still slightly soft and the bread is still pillowy. It keeps for a day or two in a tin, but the magic is in the first afternoon. Make it for tea on a Sunday and don't expect leftovers.
• •A cup of strong black tea is the only accompaniment that makes sense. Anything else is competing with the cake.

Advance Preparation

• •The basic bread dough can be made the night before and left to prove slowly in the fridge. Bring it back to room temperature for half an hour before rolling out and folding in the lard and fruit.
• •Lardy cake doesn't keep well, but if you must, wrap leftover slices in foil and warm them gently in a low oven the next day to revive the caramel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 195g)