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?

Laughing at the confusion of those not from NI, DioneTheDiabolist, who are having a completely different image of what we would call a pancake. 😁 Also! No beans? FFS is your da trying to starve you?

Truffles

*S1naidSucks

Also! No beans? FFS is your da trying to starve you?*

Oh now. Beans on a fry or not. That’s a whole other thread. 🙈

Just come across this recipe:

‘Honeymoon salad: JUST LETTUCE ALONE’

Oh now. Beans on a fry or not. That’s a whole other thread. 🙈

I thought Brexit was causing divisions, but this might just pip it! 😁

There are definitely coffee mornings in England!

Was thinking that. They’re maybe more cake based than traybake? Blinkin good cakes!

No beans or chips on a fry.

England calls buns cakes

In my local town we had Crazy prices and Wellworths. Mum shopped at Wellworths.

When Sainsbury's came to NI that was a huge, huge deal. Now Sainsbury's seems pathetically small now we have flagship Tesco and Asda.

@crosstalk ...i assumed it was just the cylindrical tin that some whiskys are packaged in
Or should that be whiskey if we are crossing borders?? :o

dh likes to try to keep them and I have to sneak them out to the bin, we are going minimalist ffs (hahahah)

England calls buns cakes

And baps buns

Disclaimer: there are regional variations such as cob.

Was Stewart's the one on the site of what is now Forestside? I do remember the epic moment that was the opening of the first Sainsbury's.

Was Stewart's the one on the site of what is now Forestside?

Wasn't that Supermac?

Supermac!!!! Yes!

When I first heard an English person talking about a burger in a bun I was like WTF!

A local delicacy is a mince roll (a ladle of mince in a bread roll)

Re. tablet - my mum’s recipe for fudge (from the Penguin cookbook) actually comes out like tablet - when the mix has reached the soft ball stage, you take it off the heat and beat it until it starts to go grainy before putting it into the tray - and you get that sugary grainy texture of tablet. It is definitely labelled as fudge in the recipe book, which baffles me - though I struggle past the bafflement to make it, because it is utterly delicious.

My mum also used to make a lemon fudge traybake - a baked shortbread-ish base, with a soft lemon fudge topping - made with fresh lemon juice so a lovely balance between sweet and citrus. She is a Humanist, and it had never occurred to me until this thread to consider whether her religious choices have a bearing on her baking. She is a good baker, though, even if she won’t go to heaven.

She also used to make a cutting cake (ie. a round cake to be cut in slices) that was three layers of biscuit - something skin to the biscuit for Empire biscuits, but a bit shortbread-y too, layered together with raspberry jam and topped with water icing. I would love to make that cake - I wonder if she still has the recipe? In fact, I wonder if she still has her recipe book - the one all our mum’s had, hand written recipes, and ones cut out from magazines etc, plus those leaflets. I would love to get my hands on it, if she has.

England calls buns cakes

Do we? I call a bun a bun and a cake a cake.

I've never heard a wee bun called anything but a cake, are you absolutely sure you're English?

This is a fab thread! I was born in NI to Northern Irish protestant parents, but have lived most of my life in England. I've had a quick google and come across this WI cookbook which looks like it might have a few good recipes in it... www.wini.org.uk/wi-cook-book/ I hope that link works...

I've never spent Christmas at anyone's house except my parents, and my Dad always has Shloer on offer. I never knew it was a 'thing'!

While there are so many Northern Irish folks in one place, can I ask about scones. Any half decent Northern Irish cafe has a truly astounding selection of huge, delicious scones of flavours the English would never dream of concocting. Does anyone know why?! One of my personal favourites is the Mars bar scone...!

And yes, please can this thread go in Classics!

Yes, I call buns buns too (although I do call soft bread rolls barm cakes...).

I can't claim to be a good traybaker, but my much-admired mocha buttercream recipe comes directly from the "St Chad's Ladies' Parish Magazine, Autumn 1959".

I don't know about the buns/cake thing, but when I was small we'd make teacakes.

Only now in England teacakes are fruit buns, and what I called teacakes are apparently fairy cakes.

It's a minefield.

A bun could be a number of different things in England (including a fairy cake) in different contexts

There are lots of different things on offer at coffee mornings in England but not having seen a NI Protestant one I wouldn’t be able to compare! Based on this thread there would probably be more large cakes (Victoria sandwich, lemon drizzle, fruit cake) plus butterfly buns or fairy cakes