Cakes

The English cuisine early developed a style in cakes which is quite unlike that found anywhere else in the world. The earliest cakes were really spiced and sweetened breads, with or without the addition of dried fruits, raised by the use of yeast and generally made while the main batches of bread were ‘proving’ and baked in the bread oven. ‘Cakes and ale’ really meant ‘sweet fruit bread and ale’ and in the eighteenth century what we mean by cake was known as ‘sweet cake’.

It was with the introduction and establishment of afternoon tea among the gentry that the English cake reached its full grandeur. Lady de la Warr claimed that afternoon tea originated with the Duchess of Bedford and first took place at Belvoir Castle when she was visiting there. She had brought some tea with her and used to invite the other female guests to drink it with her in her room in the afternoons. When she went back to London she continued to serve tea in the drawing-room of her town house.