Spooner’s Brummie Bacon & Cheese Cake

Hi everyone I hope you are all well and a big thank you for dropping in to read our blog, by the way its BBC2 here. Now, those of you who have visited the blog before will know about our good friend and self appointed chief taster Liz. What you might not know is that she is originally from the west midlands, Birmingham, before moving to Cornwall.

I tell you this because for a few weeks I was watching a baking program on television (Britain’s Best Bakery – ITV) when a young brother and sister from the midlands (Birmingham) made Brummie Bacon Cheese Cake and it looked very interesting and although it is called a cake it’s more like a bread. But like most television programmes it was short on the details of how to make it, so when Liz came for lunch I thought she would be able to give me the lowdown on this old traditional Brummie food, but she’d never heard of it! However, BBC1 came to the rescue and looked it up on the tinter net.

I have made it a few times now and change the recipe a bit and as Liz was coming for lunch BBC1 and I planned the menu to include the Brummie Bacon cake. BBC1 said he would be making a pasta dish with lots of sauce to mop up with the cake, which he called Any Port In A Storm, it was so tasty! I know he will post the recipe later, oh and I also made a Steamed Chocolate and Malteser Pudding, which I have already posted. So without further ado I give you my take on an old recipe, which I have renamed in honour of our “chief-taster”!

Ingredients:

100g/4oz streaky bacon
225g/8oz self raising flour
25g/1oz cold unsalted butter diced
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon onion salt
50g/2oz cheddar cheese grated
25g/1oz parmesan cheese finely grated
1 heaped tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 good dash Worcestershire sauce
150ml/5fl oz milk and a little extra for glazing

Method:

Grill or fry the bacon until crisp, then pat with kitchen towel to remove any fat and cut into small pieces. Sieve the flour, salt and onion salt into a bowl and rub in the cold butter with your finger tips until you have fine breadcrumbs, now using a butter knife (round nosed) mix in the bacon and the parmesan cheese.

In another bowl, mIx the Worcestershire sauce with the tomato ketchup then add the milk a little at a time until it is all incorporated. Now make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and using the knife slowly add the milk mixture until it forms a soft dough, turnout onto a lightly floured surface and gently flatten the dough with your hand and pat it into a 18cm/7 inch circle, then carefully slide it on to a greased baking sheet.

Using a sharp knife score the dough into 8 wedges, don’t cut all the way through to the base. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle over the remaining cheddar cheese and bake in a preheat oven (200c/190c fan) for 30 minutes, serve warm.

It goes well with soup or any dish that has a sauce, I popped a couple of wedges in the oven to warm through a few days after I’d made it for me and BBC1 to have with minestrone soup for lunch, I must say this is an easy and quick to make, I look forward to your feedback and comments.

BBC1: Apparently the original recipe for this bread/cake first appeared in the Birmingham Women’s Institute recipe book many years ago. It is a tasty savoury dish that will go well with many soups or ‘saucy’ dishes!