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?

Cream horns can be found in Tesco in the chiller.
Gingerbread men - McVities have recently started doing bags of mini ones in the biscuit aisle. They're yummy.

They're not vegan. I bought some thinking they were and had to give them away

Rum truffles - a big ball of very dense chocolatey cake rolled in vermicelli and
sponge fingers - two lovely light sponge fingers that were crisp in the outside sandwiches together with cream and jam
yum
very nostalgic

We need recipes!!!

I know Google is a wonderful thing but if some of you have some 'old school/mum/grandma' recipes then there should be a thread where they can all be shared so they don't get lost over time.

Ooh. We used to get doughnuts like that at school. Spherical, a little smaller than a tennis ball. Very raspberry inside, but the main thing was the densely thick crunchy granulated sugar all over it.

We used to try to eat them without licking our lips. It was almost impossible. You’d be nearly there then bam, you’d just auto lick the sugar off the side!

Jam dots, school cake (you can get it with custard too) and cornflake tart at my local shop

When I was fifteen, my mother got me a job in the cake shop across the road! It was a 'Leopolds', superior to its rival whose name I have forgotten.

Imagine the joy (though I hated the job, and was rubbish at it) of being surrounded all day by huge steel trays of gorgeous cakes. Iced buns so soft and fresh they were almost warm, with exactly the right ratio of icing to bun. The smell of sweet sugar. Doughnuts that were fresh and crisp on the outside (very rare now.) Lardy cakes, with that one wonderful corner with a butterscotchy glaze. Russian slices with cherries (oh, I was glad to see someone mention those! mouthwatering darlings.)

Lovely thread, and a nice surprise, as on MN most posters seem to say 'pudding is always fruit or yogurt with berries'.

And proper Chelsea buns

Oh god, Reeve's Danish pastries. I could eat three in a row quite happily.

I've struggled to find tiffin recently - the one in Waitrose is covered in other bits of chocolate bar, smarties etc but I just want tiffin. The Costa one is good but £££. I knew it as chocolate fridge cake growing up.

Did they used to have crunchy bits of sugar on top?
Had one recently and was disappointed.

Rock cakes
Pineapple upside down cake
Chunky shortbread
Flapjack

I live in Ireland and miss gypsy tart and treacle tart - when I'm in the UK visiting family I put on about half a stone cos I have to have my fix.
I have made them myself but putting on half a stone every time I did this is kind of not a good thing so I don't 🤣

I've not seen pineapple tarts pin a bakery for donkeys years, used to love them when I was a kid.

Pastry case, with a layer of pineapple jam, a layer of some kind of fake cream and then bright yellow icing on top.

I buy my Dad (92) the twin pack of London Cheesecakes & Belgian Buns from Aldi - he loves them - I also buy him a twin pack of Eccles cakes from M& S which are also well received.

Wenzels also sell london cheesecakes, which us lucky for me as our local aldi doesn't

Had one today!

We used to have these from a bakery in Oakham, but they called them Bompers, with an o. I often think about those and wonder if they still make them.
Also Russian cake! Oh I loved that and still think about those too (Wiltshire)

I'm amazed the name Gypsy Tart has been allowed to stand but I've never had it and now wish I'd ordered more sweet pastry cases so I can make one along with the Butterscotch Tart.

Are Stricklands even still there?

I don't think it's the same one, alas! The vegetable slice they used to do was potatoes, onions, and some other vegetables, very salty and savoury. No cheese. It was my favourite quick snack when running around in the centre.

Unfortunately Stricklands went some years ago now. I think it's a Caffe Nero (or similar) nowadays.

@AdaColeman

Oooh Gypsy Tart!

My friend told me years ago that Morrisons had them in their Brentford store. I didn't believe her but we went. Could not see them and she asked a store member who got some for us. Bliss....

Yep. Huge crystals of (slightly brown?) sugar

Not sure I've ever had gypsy tart, but it looks incredibly easy to make, especially if you buy the pie case or use ready-made pastry. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/03/the-perfect-gypsy-tart-recipe-dessert-felicity-cloake

That picture below looks a bit fancy for a school dinner staple!

I want lots of those little sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

When dcs were little and many parents accompanied their children to their birthday parties, I used to make mountains of these, and 90% were scoffed by the parents!

I still make fairy cakes for the Gdcs’ parties, chocolate ones with just a little chocolate butter icing - and a Smartie on top. They invariably go.