I came across a recipe for a cake called teisin lap,; it sounded Chinese to me, but in actual fact it is Welsh and means moist cake. The recipe I came across was quite simple as many good recipes are: beat 3 oz margarine with 2 oz castor sugar, add a few drops of vanilla or lemon essence, beat in 2 eggs, fold in 4 oz plain flour with 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, add 2 oz currants then turn into a 7½inch baking tin and cook for 20 mins at 425°F, 220°C, gas mark 7 for twenty minutes…
A simple recipe but I was intrigued by the name of the cake so looked it up – which is where I discovered that it was Welsh. One recipe I came across said it was a family recipe from a mother in law, and that the mix was always made quite stiff and it would be tipped out onto an enamel plate, not a cake tin, and cooked quickly in the oven to feed the farm labourers at harvest time who would come in for their break and need to get back out to work quickly! This recipe had different ingredients and a different method: 4 oz butter, 8 oz flour and 1 tablespoon of baking powder, 4 oz sugar, 4 oz mixed dried fruit, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, 2 beaten eggs, ¼pint milk. The butter would be rubbed into the flour and then the other dried items would be added, then the eggs and milk would be stirred in to make a stiff mix. It would be turned onto a plate in a great big dollop, not smoothed out at all, and baked at 350°F, 180°C, gas mark 4 for 35 mins. This sounds nice – I like the idea of the nutmeg and the mixed fruit.
This last recipe sounded right until I came across another one, with totally different ingredients: 1 pint sour cream, 3 oz butter, 4 oz sugar, 4 oz sultanas, 1 egg, 3 oz self-raising flour. Mmmm, sour cream, and sultanas… but no spice or flavourings… it was a similar method to the one above with rubbing the butter and the flour together but the amount of liquid made the mixture into a batter. It was cooked in a Dutch oven… which I had to look up… it looks like a big metal casserole with a lid which you could put onto an open fire, but the recipe also says it could be cooked in a low oven, 250°F, 130°C, gas mark ½, or under a grill… really? That sounds strange to me but I’m prepared to give it a try… the only thing missing is how long it should be cooked for, and there is a suggestion from someone who tried it that it might take as much as 3 hours… This cake was traditionally for miners to put in their snap (lunch) tin… I’m sure they enjoyed it!
And finally… a fourth recipe with the rubbed in method has different ingredients again… 8½oz plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, a pinch of salt, a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, 4¼ oz butter, 3 oz castor sugar, 3 oz currants, 2 oz sultanas, 2 eggs, ¼ pint buttermilk…
I think each family would have had their own favourite way of doing it, and with their own preferred ingredients, margarine, butter or lard, mixed fruit, currant or sultanas, milk, sour cream or buttermilk… I think it must all be a matter of taste, and despite the suggestion of a Dutch oven, mots recipes seem to agree that a plate is the right dish to bake it on… I really think I must have a go at it!
Lois Elsden 