A friend was giving lemons away this morning, so it seems like a good time to share this recipe. The filling is a coconut lemon curd and sounds yummy. I also like the idea that you can freeze any leftovers, if there are any that is!!
All I’ve ever known about Eccles cakes is that they are English. So when I found this recipe I thought I’d better find out a bit more about them. Good old Wikipedia tells me that ‘Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles. It is not known who invented the recipe, but James Birch is credited with being the first person to sell Eccles cakes commercially, from his shop in the town centre in 1793″. Any fans of the 1950s Goon Show will also know that Eccles was a character played by Spike Milligan – an amiable, well-meaning man with no wits or understanding, in other words a bit of an idiot. So the humble Eccles Cake has quite a history.
I think this recipe deserves a photo as the jelly topping would look and taste really good. It’s another one from Mum’s bowls club slices recipe book, which sadly has no photos at all. The book would have been put together well before computers and Photoshop. It would have been typed and the cover would have had to have been done at the printers – the good old days……
Long ago Mum gave me the recipe for homemade lemon butter, it was always a favourite when the lemon tree was producing lots of fruit. Nowadays it’s a lot easier to just buy a jar at the supermarket – doesn’t taste as good though. So for this recipe if you’ve got the time, and the lemons, you can use homemade, but if not go with the bought variety.
Recipe five in Scone Week is this much more unusual one. It’s really a cross between a scone and a fruit scroll, unusual but delicious.
Recipe four in Scone Week is an Australian classic. Lady Flo was a politician in her own right and wife of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. He was a controversial leader, but she was a Senator for 12 years who fought for women’s rights and recognition and at the same time didn’t see anything wrong with a politician who could bake pumpkin scones. She published a cookbook and is still going strong at 96 – one of Mum’s generation.
Recipe three in Scone Week – Silvana’s Rough-Topped Scones. The ratios between flour, butter and cream seem a lot higher than in a basic scone. I must admit I’m a bit dubious about the recipe, but obviously they must have worked for Silvana (whoever she may be).
