Soda-raised sweet white wheatflour cake with golden syrup, butter, brandy, ground ginger and mixed peel. Well known from advertisments since the 1870s and associated with JF Whitley's of Bread Street, Wakefield, the firm first established in 1828 as 'Wilson's'.


Dewsbury Reporter - Saturday 5 October 1878


Original Receipt from J.Salmon cookbook 'Yorkshire Teatime Recipes'.

Wakefield Gingerbread
A gingerbread which contains mixed peel and is combined with golden syrup and brandy.
11 oz self-raising flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
5 oz butter, softened
11/2 oz chopped mixed peel
5 oz caster sugar
4 oz golden syrup
1 dessertspoon brandy

Set oven to 350° F or Mark 4. Grease and line an 8 inch square shallow cake tin or equivalent. Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, ground ginger and mixed peel and stir together. Warm the syrup with the brandy in a pan over a low heat and then add to the mixture in the bowl and work in well to a soft consistency. Spoon into the tin and bake for 172 to 2 hours or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cut into squares when cold.



Wakefield Gingerbread
Image: Alex Bray...