A Recipe for Black Bun

Black Bun Recipe (The Two Cake Recipe)

This is one of my childhood memories of Christmas, making Black Bun with my Granny. We always made two and if I’m honest they rarely lasted to the New Year!

The black bun is a Scottish speciality that has changed in shape and constitution through the years but is today a type of fruit cake baked in a loaf tin lined with shortcrust pastry. It is then covered with more pastry, egg washed and baked. The black bun type of cake in its modern usage dates from the early nineteenth century. Previously called Scotch bun and Scotch Christmas bun, the term "black bun" was first recorded in 1898. In The Practice of Cookery (1791) a Mrs Frazer gives the first recipe where the bun has an outer casing.

This one is an old family recipe taken from a cutting in a scrap book – who knows the origins, I do know it is tasty!

PASTRY

400g plain flour

350g cold butter, chopped

1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water

FILLING

1 kg (6 cups) raisins, coarsely chopped

1kg currants

250g blanched almonds, finely chopped

250g (1 ½ cups) mixed peel

300ml whisky (although our favourite tipple is an Islay malt, just use a blend for this recipe)

500g (3 ½ cups) plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

125g brown sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup buttermilk

¼ cup treacle, warmed slightly

INSTRUCTIONS

Place flour in a large bowl and, using fingertips, rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add 3-4 tablespoons ice cold water and mix with a fork until the dough forms. Knead dough briefly, then wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

For filling, combine raisins, currants, almonds, peel and whisky in a large bowl and mix well, cover with plastic wrap and stand at room temperature for two hours or overnight.

Sift together flour, soda and spices and stir into fruit mixture, then add sugar, egg, buttermilk and treacle and, using your hands, mix until well combined.

Halve pastry. Working with one half, cut off about one third and set aside, then, on a well floured surface, roll out two thirds of pastry into a 35cm circle. Line a buttered 18cm (or thereabouts) cake tin with pastry, brush edge with egg mixture, then pack half the cake mixture into the pastry, smoothing the top. (The key here is to make sure you pack it firmly as this will keep the integrity of the structure of the cake). Roll out reserved third of pastry on a floured surface into a thin, 21cm circle, place over fruit mixture, press edges to seal pastry and trim any excess. Rush top with egg mixture and prick with a sharp knife several times. (Repeat the process if you are making the second cake).

Bake cake at 180c for one hour, covering top with foil if they brown to quickly, then reduce heat to 150c and cook for another 1 ½ hours or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool cake in pan and then wrap in foil.

Serve with your favourite whisky.

Cake will keep in an airtight container, stored in a cool, dark place, for up to one month (in the unlikely event that last this long).

Desperately exercise for the rest of the year to work it off - then repeat.