Image: Alex Bray...
Known only from this one receipt in the, usually reliable, Vine's Shop Goods. Balderstone is roughly half-way between Whitehaven, with its tradition of dried fruits and spices, and the other Lancashire towns of Chorley and Eccles with their similar spiced-fruit pastries.
Original Receipt from 'Saleable Shop Goods for Counter-Tray and Window:' by Frederick T Vine (Vine 1907)No. 78.- Balderstone Cakes.
I lb. flour; ½ lb. sugar.
6 ozs. butter; ½ oz. baking-powder (No 2).
I egg. Milk.
Mode. - Sieve the baking-powder into the flour; rub butter and sugar into the flour on the board; make a bay, break in the egg, add milk, and make into dough. Roll down in a sheet, and cut with ordinary shortbread cutter; thin out a little, lay a spoonful of mincemeat in the centre, fold over turnover fashion, wash over with milk, turn on to dust loaf sugar, place on to greased tins, and bake in a warm oven.