Stottie Cakes

Stottie Cakes were recently mentioned in a post by local-kiwi-alien, culinary memories began to stir and I decided to find a recipe for them.

Stotties are  flat round buns of slightly  dense and chewy bread, very popular in the North East.

I had never even heard of Stottie Cakes until I met my husband.   But then again, I hadn't had pease pudding hot or pease pudding cold either.    He is a Geordie, though you would scarcely know it these days.  His accent only comes out when he gets together with his three brothers.

There are lots of recipes out there but the dough I chose to make was this one:

2lbs Strong Flour
3 teaspoons salt
3 oz fat
1 sachet quick action yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
half a pint tepid milk
half a pint tepid water

Mix the salt into the flour, rub in the fat.  Stir in the sachet of yeast and the sugar.   Make a hole in the centre of the flour and pour in the liquid.  Draw it all together and knead until the mixture is smooth and elastic, approx 10 minutes.

Leave to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1-1.5 hours.

Gently knock back, then divide into the number of cakes you want to make.  I made ten out of the dough, but next time I will make them a little smaller.    Either roll them out and cut them or shape them into rounds and flatten them.   Press a wooden spoon handle in the middle, almost all the way through.    Prick the top a few times with a fork and bake for approximately 15 minutes at 220 C.

They don't look anything special, and I haven't eaten enough Stotties to know whether they tasted authentic.      I made Max a ham salad sandwich (alas, no pease pudding) and waited for the verdict.

He loved it and said it was just as he remembered them from boyhood.

To me they taste just like the bread rolls which my mother used to make.   We were both happy.  Some have gone into the freezer for another day, the rest have been enjoyed fresh.

Definitely a dough I will be making again.

Apple Cake and Apple Fudge Cake

I'm exploring the theme of apple cakes, possibly something to do with having a surfeit of cooking apples.

This first apple cake is made to a recipe in a book of Parsonage Recipes, which seems quite appropriate.   

It is very simple to make, just six ingredients....although I used seven.   I added some ground cinnamon to the apple.

Apple Cake

6 oz Self Raising Flour
4 oz butter
3 oz sugar
1 egg
Pinch of salt
1 lb apples


Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg.  Beat well.   Sift in flour and salt and mix to a paste (I found it necessary to add a splash of milk to soften it a little).   Grease a shallow baking tin and line with half the mixture.    Put in a layer of strained, cooked apple.   Cover with remaining mixture.
Bake 1 1/4 hours.  When cold cut into squares and sprinkle with sugar.

No oven temperature was specified, so I baked the cake at 160 C; it was ready after an hour.   Next time I may try it at a slightly lower temperature.


This simple little book is hard back, no dust jacket,   It was published in 1961 in aid of the Lincolnshire Old Churches Trust and is a collection of recipes and hints taken from many of the Rectories and Parsonages within the county.

 The second cake is from Josceline Dimbleby's Complete Cookbook, which was published in 1997.

Max thought it was very moreish, but then he does have an incredibly sweet tooth.

The cake base is topped with melted butter, muscovado sugar and sliced apples.   The resulting pudding/cake is sticky and delicious.

Perfect served with cream, ice cream, or custard - or even a good dollop of thick and creamy Greek yogurt.




I'm looking forward to doing some plain and simple bread next time.



local-kiwi-alien mentioned Stottie Cakes in one of her recent posts. 



It is many years since we had any of those and after baking sweet cakes  the plain simplicity of bread is immensely appealing.    

I'll let you know how I get on as I try feeding them to my resident Geordie.