Banbury cakes

Banbury cakes are very similar to Eccles cakes but are much older. Eccles cakes are round, while Banbury cakes are oval. A Banbury cake is certainly not a cake or a bun, but rather a sweet pastry.

In The Penguin Companion to Food, I found that local archives show that Banbury cakes were sold in 1638 by one Bette White in 12 Parsons Street in the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire. In the early 19th century, Banbury cakes were baked and sold by two sisters, Lizzie and Lottie Brown. Florence White writes in her Good Things in England from 1932 that the best Banbury cakes can be found at E.W. Brown’s ‘The Original Cake Shop’ on 12 Parsons Street, the exact address where they were sold nearly 300 years earlier. Banbury cakes were sold by street vendors from wicker baskets lined with white cloths. For the town of Banbury, this meant that making these special baskets was an additional cottage industry. Eventually cardboard boxes made into the shape of the cake shop took the place of the baskets, and Banbury cakes were sent all over the country with the postal coach.

I travelled to Banbury in 2013, hoping to find Banbury cakes, but I found nothing at 12 Parsons Street, nor did I find one single Banbury cake in Banbury. The last owner, Wilfrid Brown, sold the family bakery to a project developer, who demolished the building in 1968. Although I found at least two Banbury cake shops on old postcards, there is no trace of a bakery in the current street scene. It made me feel sad, as if I were mourning the loss of something I never had. There is beauty in a town that proudly offers their local bake, just like they do in Bakewell, but unfortunately Banbury has lost its baking heritage. I wonder if the bakery would have been allowed to be demolished today.

Fortunately, there is still one last Banbury cake maker, Philip Brown, a distant cousin of Lizzie and Lottie Brown, the sisters who baked Banbury cakes in Banbury in the early 19th century. He does not have a physical store, but delivers his Banbury cakes in and around Banbury. He also descends from ‘The Original Cake Shop’ owner, E.W. Brown, whose bakery I discovered on old postcards from around 1900.

John Kirkland says in his 1907 book, The Modern Baker, Confectioner & Caterer, that Banbury cakes are sold in several places, but in Banbury itself the Banbury cakes are of the best quality. A mincemeat filling is often used, but Kirkland gives a Banbury meat filling that is much more interesting – a filling with currants and cake crumb. I collect cake crumb by freezing pieces of left-over home-made cake in bags. If you never have left-over home-made cake, you can use the Madeira cake recipe here.