Talk:Heavy cake

Image
Those look like Welsh cakes to me. The ingredients may be the same - but ostensibly this article is primarily about a single cake, about 1/2" thick, not a batch of separate cakes cut from the rolled dough. We are not given cooking method here. And where are the distinctive criss-cross marks on the top? Martinevans123 (talk) 20:21, 18 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Agreed. "Heavy cake" is a widespread term nationally for this type of griddle-cooked cake using lard. The Cornish version is distinctive, and it's not the same as Welshcakes. Andy Dingley (talk) 10:43, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes, these are definitely Welsh cakes. I don't know how to do it, but is there anyone out there who could put up the correct image? I would also like to add that it seems very unlikely that the huers rushed home to bake heavy cake so that it would be ready by the time the fishermen returned home. The huers had to stay in position on the cliff and guide the boats to the shoals of fish by use of various signalling devices. Once the boats returned to port, every available person, including women and children, would have set to to get the fish landed and stored; this, depending on the size of the catch, would have taken many hours. I don't think that making and eating cake would have been anyone's priority at this time. (Maryjane22 (talk) 12:16, 4 March 2014 (UTC))
 * Well, that whole paragraph has no supporting source, so it might very well be an old (fish)wives tale. Are there are any images of heavy cake in the images at Commons? It's easily changed if there are. Martinevans123 (talk) 12:27, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Can't see any at Commons (apart from a cassava one). This type of thing looks more like it: - with a video too, apparently! Martinevans123 (talk) 12:35, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes that's more like it. The recipe is a bit different from the one I use, but that's definitely heavy cake as we know it! (____) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maryjane22 (talk • contribs) 15:49, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Unfortuately, as far as I can tell, that image is not a free one. And the process of getting the image owner to provide it, via Commons is, in my experience, an incredibly fraught and arduous one. My sincere advice is: the next time you bake one of these - take a picture if it and upload it to Commons (very easy)! Martinevans123 (talk) 16:02, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Thank you, I'll see what I can do! (Maryjane22 (talk) 09:40, 5 March 2014 (UTC))

Added an image from Wikimedia. Does this look right? --FPTI (talk) 21:27, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Heavy not hevva
I must dispute the theory that 'heavy' is a corruption of 'hevva'. I have never found any authentic contemporary reference to this assertion and I note that there is none in this article either. It has always been my understanding that the cake is called 'heavy' because that's what it is. Basic recipes contain only flour, fat (dripping, suet or lard), a small amount of sugar and a handful of currants; flour and fat rubbed together, sugar and currants added and all mixed together with water. This produces a heavy pastry which is rolled out not too thinly and baked in one piece. You will see recipes which substitute butter or even clotted cream for the lard and sometimes an egg can be added; this does produce better results. If the dough is rolled out once, allowed to rest and then rolled out again, the resulting cake will be lighter, more like puff pastry. The cake is marked into squares or diamonds before it is baked so that it can be more easily cut into pieces after cooking. The idea that the marking is meant to represent a fishing net is, I believe, just modern whimsy. Several recipes for heavy cake are given in a little book entitled 'Cornish Recipes - Ancient and Modern' collected by Edith Martin from members of Cornish Women's Institutes and first published in 1929. The recipes range from the most basic to those using cream and butter, but not one of them mentions 'hevva' or fishing nets. In fact, heavy cake is called in the Cornish language 'fuggan', though traditionally, fuggan did not contain sugar and was just flour, lard and currants made up in the simple method described above. (Primrosewoods (talk) 10:23, 16 March 2014 (UTC))

Original Reliable References Please!

The three recently added references in the article are not reliable or authentic sources; they are merely repeating the recent whimsical nonsense about the criss-cross markings and how heavy cake got its name. Furthermore, one shows that same old picture of Welsh cakes, stating that they are "heavy cakes made in Wales", thus managing to insult two culinary cultures in one sentence. As yet, no-one has produced a reliable and authentic reference with regard to the origins of heavy cake. If, as we know, heavy cake was originally called 'fuggan', why would people also have needed to call it 'hevva cake'? I'm tired of the current habit of attaching unauthenticated whimsy to long established practices. If anyone can find a genuine original reference to huers' baking habits and fishing net markings, I'll believe it, but enough of this silly fabrication of 'theories' which are then presented as gospel. Cornish traditions and culture are already interesting and unique; it is not necessary to invent fanciful add-ons. And don't get me started on the rubbish spouted about the pasty! Redcamellia (talk) 12:52, 22 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The claim about the name originating in the "pilchard industry in Cornwall prior to the 20th century" has now been unsourced for (at least) four years. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:46, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

"Heva became hevva"
. . . but a couple of sentences earlier, hevva is given as the original form. I think this whole etymology needs checking in the OED and maybe in Etymonline. (OK, I suppose I should try and get round to doing that. But I'll be very happy for someone else to get there first. And I'll mention in passing that a library card from a local library that subscribes is sufficient to log you in to see full OED entries.) Musiconeologist (talk) 20:04, 14 March 2024 (UTC)