Which is the tastiest Protestant traybake?

[FiddleFaddleDingDong]

NI Protestants are famed for their tray bakes but which is the best traybake of all?

I’m thinking something crunchy and chocolatey, a tiffin like thing. But are there unchocolatey traybakes that I just haven’t been exposed to? Are they keeping all the best recipes to themselves, strictly to be eaten behind closed doors?

And does it get a bit competitive? Does Annie cast aspersions on Doris’ traybaking abilities?

Also, by law it must be pronounced "pavalova"

Omg! I just said that our loud and realised it’s true! I know how it’s spelled, but I didn’t actually realise that I pronounce it that way until I said it out loud. I’m going to try to drop the subject of pavlova into conversations now, to see how others pronounce it.

They can take our pavlovas, but you’ll never our pavalovas!

You can take our pavlovas, but you’ll never take our pavalovas. 😳

NI prod here, I thought EVERY house had a WI cookbook.

Nah, Catholics had the Milkman's Cookbook.

If you listen carefully you'll hear my granny spinnng in her grave.

youllhavehadyourtea

fresh is an important distinction in NI, as I have learned the hard way

Orange juice = fresh orange because otherwise you get squash
Butter = fresh butter because otherwise you get marge

No ones mentioned cricket teas yet, the lady in charge of the food at my dad's old club used to bake for the Culloden. Her pavlovas were legendary. The food all round was amazing, better than garden centers.

PILs- formerly closed, now slightly more open Brethren, are v big on pavlova. Compulsory for any fancy meal. I loathe it but dh, who otherwise eats nothing sweet, adores it.

Is that you dsil?

My family are Plymouth Brethren and i’d Like to cite them as the master of baking.

I will say the best thing I’ve eaten in years is Nadiya Hussein’s apple and cinnamon rocky road.... it’s made with squishy dried apples and lotus biscuits.

See pavlova was distinctly middle class about 30 years ago. My gran spoke in awe of people who could make them. She was a wonderful baker, she just had put them on a pedestal for some bizarre reason.
She used to make a lovely soft sponge in a large square tin. Cover it in cream and tinned oranges and crumbled a flake over it.
It was the nicest thing ever but nobody else in the family can figure out the recipe for the sponge. It was in her head and neither my mum or aunt ever made it.
Now I'll never taste it again

My MIL used to make a cherry cake, the closest I've come to finding a recipe is this one, although she used all whiskey instead of kirsch: www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/cherry-bakewell-magic-cake

@Cocolepew when my mum makes the aforementioned tinned mandarin and fresh cream sponge, she makes a fatless sponge with no butter or marge. It makes it very soft and light, I think it’s also known as an angel food cake? I’ll see if I can get the recipe

Catmack my mum has that book!

When my dear mum is no longer here and we are dividing up her worldly goods, I foresee a three way fight, with hair pulling and eye gouging as my sisters and I claim ownership of the cookbook collection.

@Cocolepew is it a really light spongey sponge? Could it be egg whites whisked, no butter and the eggs and flour and sugar folded in? That's how my mum always made it.

Yes! It was very light. I asked a woman I used to work with who was a great baker but she didn't know.
The receipe eould be great.

I had never heard of this whole subculture, but it does explain the food preferences of a couple of people I used to know and the need for one of them to have a little something every time a hot drink was consumed.

The ones with rice crispies, marshmallows and hundreds and thousands were pretty awesome
Also love a tiffin, especially if there's lots of goodies in it like marshmallows and glacé cherries. Mmmm

This thread has made me very homesick....

@Splodgetastic
My husband is English and I a, Northern Irish. When he first came to Ireland with me on holidays he didn't realise that if he was offered a cup of tea, it wasn't just a cup of tea! All tea comes with a range of traybakes/ biscuits/ scones!

Now before we go to Ireland he tries to loose 5lbs so he can be ready for the influx of food!

chicken and tinned nectarine segment sandwiches

The ladies from the church made these and mars bar and apple and cheese and grape for my daddy's wake in the church hall.

My granny also made a very light, airy sponge. There was definitely no butter or marg in it. It was so light it was almost pure air. She served it with whipped cream and fruit, either tinned mandarins, grapes or strawberries.

What a brilliant thread. Has it been nominated for classics yet? I'd like to work through loads of these

I’m off down to my mothers to get my hands on her WI cookbook then off I go to Tescos (Stewart’s/Crazy Prices).

This thread has reminded me of so many GB displays in Presbyterian church halls and my grannie. I miss her.

cocolepew it'll almost certainly be a whisked sponge... 1 egg, 1oz plain flour, 1oz caster sugar and maybe a tablespoon of melted butter (scale up if large tin) ...and you'd want one of those flan tins with the slightly raised middle so you get a dip to keep the mandarins under control

I keep coming back to this and seeing stuff I used to make when I had a temporary job in a coffee shop kitchen.

They'd buy in digestives by the boxfull and it seemed no other bugger than me would crumb up a job lot...they'd all leave the crumb container empty and claim they ran out of time ...bastards.

That Gur Cake looks a bit like Bridal Slice or maybe Blackbun

and there was another similar ish thing called Border tart...that was a pastry base, and then a very loose not quite sponge mix...butter sugar, too many eggs, not enough flour, currant, flaked almonds and cherries??? Not certain about the cherries.

Used to make tonnes of marsbar slices and Millionaires Shortbread with shortbread base, but I do prefer a Caramel slice with a pressed crumb base.

Also sometimes Peppermint Slice, but that was not as popular.

oh, and NE Scotland, not NI!!

@Cocolepew this is the type of cake you are after, I think