Cakes and Shortbreads

‘In the beginning, the professional baker in the towns may possibly have borrowed his methods from the French. At any rate, being patronized chiefly by the nobles and the wealthier burghers, he was accustomed to use the very best materials, and he rejoiced in every encouragement to devote himself to the perfection of his methods. To beat the Edinburgh baker, you must go—not to London, but—to Paris or Vienna.’

—T. F. Henderson: Old-World Scotland.

In the old Edinburgh records we find various references to the ‘Caik-baxteris’. In 1503, for instance, they were ordered to make cakes weighing eight ounces for a penny, and in the same year they were convicted of making cakes that were underweight and were threatened with penalties. It is almost certainly to them that we owe such good things as shortbread, almond flory and black bun. Sukkermen (sugarmen or confectioners) are also mentioned, but in Scotland the functions were never completely separated, as were those of the bäcker and konditor of Germany, or the boulanger and pâtissier of France.