Old fashioned cakes and other bakery items.

[PamperMoose]

I love cakes but I find a lot of cakes now are crammed full of other sweet items like biscuits or covered in them. It’s a bit much for me.

It made me wonder what old fashioned cakes, pastries and savoury bakery items that are hard to find now.

I miss really good gingerbread men. I know that they’re still available if not so readily, but they aren’t as gingery as they used to be. And what’s happened to cream horns.

My Mother used to love something called Paris buns. They’re rather like a scone scattering with sugar nibs. Are those still around?

What old fashioned bakery items do you miss?

I love fairy cakes. You can eat them in one mouthful😳

Unlike cupcakes.

I used to love those little sponge cakes with proper buttercream.

Sheffield, Southwell, and Derby still have decent ones, although I know at least a couple of the bakeries where I got them are probably due to close.

I am a displaced Yorkshirewoman but I can't get excited about Betty's....you want the bakeries that sell out and are cleaning up by 1.12pm!

@mum2jakie We have a bakery at the top of the hill where I live, that sells Russian Slice! Huge pieces, heavy and very rummy! One slice lasts me 3 goes, it's so rich! And I'm a piglet when it comes to buns just can't manage that in one go!!!

I do a belting school cake, my mates recipe, it's so light and soft. Doesn't last long in this house!

I miss coffee choux buns, very rarely see them now!

There was a bakers near my grandmas, she used it all the time. They did an iced bun, like a Bloomer shape but smaller. It had fruit and mixed peel in it, white icing on the top and a layer of almond paste through the middle. They were called Bismarcks and they were divine! Sliced up with butter on and a nice strong pot of tea! Happy memories! ❤

Bet I’d manage it all in one go!

What name should it be changed to?

This was the one sweet treat we had in school and when I didn't have school dinners I was envious of. I had school dinners for the last 2 years of primary school and loved all the desserts!

We used to have I think Coughlans and other bakeries when I was a child. Can't remember all we had as it was mostly iced buns etc. But we had lots of independent bakeries (sadly long gone most of them). I'm sure we had another bakery beginning with C or something - all SE London area.

This is reminding me slightly of when I went to Ireland when I was 11 for the first time and we had duck loaf, Irish apple and tea cakes. We may have had more but I forget now.

I'm sure the Gypsy Tart I recall had a darker brown topping? Or is this something different?

Sounds perfect! Whereabouts in the UK are you? We haven't booked any holidays yet - will travel, LOL!

I love Eccles cakes but haven’t seen any for ages.

I loathe e.g. doughnuts with icing and sprinkles, and cupcakes with mountains of sickly-looking, garish icing.

AFAIK M&S still do ‘plain’ iced buns.

Just a proper old sugar ring doughnut. So many either have icing or 'glaze' or filled with jam or salted caramel etc. You can buy them in the supermarkets but they're not the same as a good proper sugar ring from an old fashioned bakery. Everything seems to be some bastardised version of something else now.

Sheffield is doable for me if you have any recommendations?

I don't know. Didn't grow up in Kent and have never had it to my knowledge.

What we did have, and I can't remember now whether we bought them or my Mum made them, or both, is Gypsy Creams, which were oaty biscuits sandwiched together with a similar filling to Custard Creams. Here we are. https://scottishscran.com/gypsy-creams-biscuit-recipe/

@mum2jakie we need to do some kind of a tour brochure - like the town treasure hunts but only concerned with baked goods!
Like the 'Extra Mile' or 'Near the Motorways' collaborative books.
I'm half serious!

Gypsy tart is made with condensed milk and dark sugar I think, maybe with evaporated milk too.

@NoddyTheNodule
Thomases bakery I think, and a place in Hope (only sketchily Sheffield but a lovely summer trip). It's The Woodbine. Probably worth enquiring of either if they've got them if you are making a trip!
I am also sure I've got them in Mosborough before, as I had family there. Just in a corner shop that does sandwiches and a few sweet things but all very good. But don't rely on that as it's probably from an unspecified long time ago.

My 80-something year old mum has baked a sponge cake and a Bakewell tart every week for as long as I can remember, so there's always something in the cake tin....

Our bakery treat order when I was little (Spinks the bakers) was:

Elephants foot cream bun for me (huge cube shaped choux bun with coffee icing and amazing slightly caramelly cream inside)

Vanilla slice for my mum

Custard tart for my sister

Possibly a danish or something raisinny for my dad. Chelsea bun perhaps.

@magicstar1 and @BonzoGates
Looks as though I should be planning a trip to the fair city of Dublin, one of my favourite places!

@mum2jakie I live on the outskirts of Leeds, but we are gateway to The Dales!!! 😁😁😁

There were no lemon buns left today. Sad times.

@NoddyTheNodule Cooplands was the place for curd tarts when I lived in Sheffield but we are talking nearly 30 years ago. They're still around though.

I live very close to a Reeves. Have put on half a stone since we moved here!

Rock Cakes

Thanks😋