TALES OF TEA-TIME.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18407, 14 August 1931, Page 5

TALES OF TEA-TIME.

HISTORY OF FAVOURITE CAKES. What pretty, fanciful names are given to cakes’. Do you know how dainty Maids of Honour get their i name ? It is said these delicious < heese cakes were so named by George 11. because they were introduced to the | Royal table by some of the Queen’s' Maids of Honour. At one time a report was spread that a reward of £lOOO had been offered for the orlg-' inal recipe. Some say, however, that j the little cakes derive their name from ! the Maids of Honour of Queen Elizabeth, who had a palace at Richmond. Gilt on the Gingerbread. Petticoat Tails are a kind of shortbread, well-known In Scotland, but the ; name is probably a corruption of “pelils gateaux.” or little cakes, from the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, who spent her early life in France, and in- ; lioduced a good many French customs to the grey court at Holyrood. Gingerbread is a real old English [ favourite, and Is said to have been in-! trodueed in the reign of Henry IV. from 1 the Continent. Honey was commonly i used instead of treacle in those days, : but if treacle were used the cake was darker. Since treacle was a cheaper commodity, and considered not so ••genteel.” gilt papers were placed around the dark-hued cakes to disguise them. It is said that this gave rise to the proverb ‘‘to take the gilt off the gingerbread.” Rath Buns and Sally Lunns both originated in Bath, but Sally Lunn was a real person. According to history she was a young baker who cried her wares in the streets, and a musician who noticed the girl, bought her business and made a song about Sally Lunn which he set to music. It became popular—and so did the cakes. Cako for Lent. As for Simnel Cake, which is supposed to be made for the fourth Sunday in Lent, although some say the name Is derived from the Latin “simila”—‘‘fine flour"—the more popular version Is that there were two bakers living at Shrewsbury. Simeon and Nellie by name. When “Mothering Sunday” came, they could not agree as to how the festival cake should be made, one said It should be a fruit cake, the other declared it should be an almond one. writes Mollie Stanley Wrench in mii exchange. A Compromise. Then they started to argue how it ’i mid be cooked. One said it should . boiled, the other said baked. so the -unient ended in compromise. it \ is boiled first and baked afterward. I the rich plum rake had a thick ■ i-de of almond placed around it. 'Ahen it came to naming this new cake y derided on a combination of their :w > names, Sim Nell, and the Shrews bury Simnel r.ike has remained popular iu t.his do