Well I hope you all had a lovely weekend, we had a very busy Saturday as the lovely dresser in the photo above was delivered, this is Hubby & Mine’s Valentines present to each other this year. Every year for Valentines and on our Wedding Anniversary we buy something beautiful or special to celebrate our relationship and our home together. I spent a very lovely morning sorting through our stuff and placing it on the dresser, we are so pleased with it.

Sunday we had a lazy day and I actually found some time to bake! I love Lardy Cake, why its called a cake I will never know, to me its a bread, buy hey, I digress! I have researched recipes in the past, even brought the lard to bake with and have just never got round to actually baking it.

Whilst watching a few minutes of Sunday Brunch on TV in bed I noticed they were making Lardy Cake, this is a far more simple recipe than I have found before, so thought that I would give it a go. The results were fantastic and I will be making this time and time again.

I was worried that being so simple it may lack in taste, but no, it is gorgeous and hits the spot & competes with the Lardy Cake of my memories that I use to buy in a bakery in Petworth.

Buon appetito

225g white bread flour
150ml warm water
1 tsp dried yeast
150g lard, cut into small pieces
50g currants
50g golden raisins
50g chopped mixed peel
50g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Put the flour, water, yeast and 10g of melted lard into a bowl and mix well. Cover and leave for 1 hour to double in size.

Toss the fruit, peel, sugar and cinnamon together.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes on a floured surface, then roll into a 1cm thick rectangle.

Spoon half the fruit mix and half the lard on to the surface of the dough.

Roll up from the short side to form a sausage shape. Then roll out again and repeat the process with the remaining fruit and peel.

Finally roll the dough into a 20cm square and put into a greased lined tin. Prove the dough for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 and bake for 35 minutes.

Serve slices of the cake warm.