Secrets of Success

1. Use nice thick flead and allow it to hang as long as it will keep fresh and sweet.

2. Take plenty of time in making and bang well. ‘My mother used to say,’adds the sender of this recipe,‘that the only time we might lose our tempers was when we were making flead cakes.’

[As a tiny girl of four in 1867 I remember helping my mother to make these cakes, my share being to bang a piece of dough with a wooden hoop stick. It was a pure joy. She was the daughter of a Weald of Kent yeoman who grew hops, but at that time we were living in London within 4 miles of Bow Bells.—ED.]