Black Bun or Clootie Dumpling

In the Highlands and Islands festive dumplings-in-a-cloth cooked in a pot, are more likely to be made for Hogmanay than black-with-spices buns. These are more common in the Lowands, where originally a brick oven was available for baking and they also had easier access to spices. All of which has contributed to the fact that it was the bakers of Edinburgh, and not those in Stornoway, who became known as the masters of the black bun, exporting them in sizes ‘4, 8, 10, 12, 16 and more pounds’ to England, Ireland and Wales in the early 19th century.