{"id":3909,"date":"2018-10-28T12:10:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T12:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reed-ne.webspace.durham.ac.uk\/?page_id=3909"},"modified":"2019-05-07T19:21:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T19:21:34","slug":"soul-cake-technical-challenge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/reed-ne.webspace.durham.ac.uk\/?page_id=3909","title":{"rendered":"Soul Cake Technical Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just like the Great British Bake Off technical challenge, historic soul cake recipes<\/a> sometimes only give a bare outline! This early recipe comes from Oxfordshire; it survives in a household book compiled by Lady Elinor Fettiplace around 1604. It involves \u2018ale barm\u2019 (a fermenting agent, ale froth), and sack (dry white wine from Spain, possibly sherry):<\/p>\n

Take flower & sugar & nutmeg & cloves & mace & sweet butter & sack & a little ale barm, beat your spice & put in your butter & your sack, cold, then work it well all together & make it in little cakes & so bake them, if you will you may put in some saffron into them or fruit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With no weights or measures for the ingredients, or instructions for baking, it\u2019s not clear whether this should rise like a bun or bake like a shortbread. Can you experiment and share what you think it should be like…or what goes wrong!<\/p>\n

If you find this too tricky, you can try a simple modern recipe<\/a>, or take inspiration from some of the ‘soul stoppers<\/a>‘ – reimagined recipes tried and tested by bakers during our 2018 competition.<\/p>\n

Your Technical Challenge Submissions<\/h2>\n