Ash cake

An ash cake (berreen leoh in Gundiagh), also called an ash bun, is a small cake with a rough surface that is popular in an around the nation of Lathadu, where they were first invented. Ash cakes first came about during the infrequent peasant revolts of the eighteenth century, as the scarcity of resources made eggs and sugar harder to come by.

History
Ash cakes have been known in the Thalloorea region since the eighteenth century as a form of cake containing butter and cream. They were traditionally made in a covered pan among the ashes of a peat fire, giving rise to their original name. The widespread destruction and dislocation brought on by the Lathadun peasant revolts following the Articles of Union during the War of Lathadun Independence is widely believed to have brought about the conditions for the cakes to be invented, although some evidence suggests that they may have existed previously in some form. Whatever the cause for their inception, they remained popular through the lean times brought on by the Famine of 1791 and the Silent Years leading up to the foundation of the Republic of Lathadu.

A Lathadun cookbook from 1923 had plain flour, baking powder, butter, and raisins as the ingredients. The book describes ash cakes as a means of using leftover pastry, typically consisting of scraps of shortcrust pastry, sugared, sprinkled with raisins and rolled into thick flat cakes before baking. Whatever their compositions, the cakes do not appear to have been widely known outside Thalloorea prior to the Second Great War, during which the recipe became extremely popular in Lathadu and Ordrey alike due to its economic ingredients.

Recipe
The 1923 cookbook includes two early recipes for ash cakes. One calls for flour, oatmeal, butter, “wetted sugar” (brown sugar), lemon, milk, and baking powder. The other recipe more closely resembles a shortbread, as it uses flour, oatmeal, butter, and raisins but no leavening agent. Traditional recipes bulk them with oatmeal, which was historically more readily available than white flour.

A typical modern recipe for 12 cakes calls for about 200 g of flour, 100g of butter, 50 g of sugar, 1 beaten egg, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 2 tablespoons of milk, 150 g of dried fruit (raisins are a favorite), and a pinch of nutmeg and other mixed spices, when available. Usually, flour and butter are first mixed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs; then, the other ingredients are added to create a stiff dough, which is then roughly formed with two forks into cakes. The cakes (optionally sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon) are baked for about 15 minutes at 200 C, retaining an uneven form and color.

Peggeys
A widely recognized iteration of the ash cake was introduced by Peggey’s Coffeehouse in Ushteyghoo in 1973. The “Peggey”, as it is know, is a plump, fruity cake with a face made from cherries and pecans based on an ash cake recipe. Following its invention, the Peggey quickly became Peggey’s best known and best selling bakery product, selling hundreds of thousands each year.