The charm of this channel lies in the easy chat, the reflection on the recipe, the weighing up of possibilities as to how to probably change/improve it. But my personal favourite is the “it’ll be alright” attitude, so familiar to cooks who substitute and improvise. As always, fun and informative, thanks Glen and Julie
Robin cake was popular in the north of England, particularly Yorkshire. I've read the origin of the name may have come from it being referred to as "rubbing in" cake which morphed into the name Robin cake.
Hi Glen. I know this as the mixture for rock cakes. Only difference in my book there is an egg is added mixed into the milk. My grandma would put spoonfuls (dessert spoon size) dolloped on a baking sheet. Would cook in an oven that was already hot after the midday meal ready for tea time (high tea rather than afternoon tea) or put in the tupperware box for a picnic ready to eat with tea from the thermos flask on an afternoon drive often out into the lake district from Bolton (Lancashire). My book for this is new economy cookery book- 1500 recipes (success economy cookery book 6d) the adverts place it mid 1930s and was the result of book 1 and 2 which each had 700 recipes from the 1920s being amalgamated
I am British and was Project Manager on the refurbishment of the building 1970- 1973. As you say in your video Battersea Polytechnic became the University of Surrey and they later vacated the building and moved to Surrey. The vacant building was then taken over by the London Education Authority and in 1970 was refurbished for Westminster Technical College. This included the catering college where a number of top British chefs were taught. So cooking was very much part of the building history. The building has since been converted into luxury apartments.
Hi Glen and Julie! So “Rough Robin” also appears in my copy of a 1915 New York published book “The Pure Food Cook Book, Good Housekeeping Recipes”: “Six cupfuls of flour, two cupfuls of rice flour, one cupful of lard or butter, one cupful of sugar, three cupfuls of currants, three cupfuls of Sultana raisins, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one teaspoonful of ground caraway seeds, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Rub the butter or lard into the flour and rice flour, add the sugar, baking powder, salt, spices, and fruit. Mix with buttermilk to make a stiff batter. Turn into a large buttered and floured cake tin. Bake slowly for two hours.”
It's because it's such a conglomeration of various languages and heritages. I once read that English has more words for the same thing (i.e., synonyms) than any other language. Don't know if it's true, but it feels like it is.
When I was at school in the late 1980s in Northern Ireland we had a cook book for the things we would make in Home Economics class. It included making a sandwich, toast and tea and heating up a tin of soup, we could bring in whichever soup we wanted. It did progress to more complicated and difficult things including a Christmas cake with marzipan and royal icing that had been fed with whiskey by the teacher. It started us off slowly and taught us how to follow recipes and read instructions plus what the cookery terms meant and we would get to take home our weird and wonderful concoctions for them to be eaten or chucked out as they were inedible!
I remember the 1980s Home Economics classes in Canada! It would be fascinating to see how much we share in common! I was born in Newfoundland and of Irish descent, as like much of the Island. Many parts have various accents that sound and are from Ireland originally. Centuries later, and many linguists and historians from Ireland and Newfoundland discovered there was little linguistic change, and their accent is definitely one of them! Cheers!🇨🇦😊🇮🇪
Its of the school of rock cakes, fat rascals, scones, welsh cakes, lardy cake ect. Made from flour, fat and sugar, and began by rubbing the fat into the flour
This seems something like a cross between a scone and a biscuit. I love these kind of cakes. They are meant for dipping in tea or coffee. They get more flavor from spreads like butter, perhaps a compound butter of sugar, spice and extract. Even something like cream cheese, sweetened yogurt or clotted cream if you have it. These cakes can be dry although yours looked moist. I love sweet tender cakes but I also like these hybrid biscuit type cakes also. This could have all kinds of add ins. Chocolate chunks, nuts and dried cherries comes to mind. I pick my videos based on what sounds interesting to me. 9/10 it's always the old cookbook show. Never stop this series please:)
I love that you don't research the old cookbook recipes before you make them, and engage with your viewers on any history of the recipe they know. I look forward to learning more about this one!
@@tomimar2001 I like both, as I enjoy history immensely! Yet, I like Glen’s “free style”, as many professional chefs are artists with a flare for creative expression, and he practiced under a well known chef.
Glen, I love your "it'll be fine" approach. That's the right way to approach any cooking task; do what seems most sensible, trust your instincts, use ingredients you know you like, and indeed, it will be fine. Even if the results aren't optimum, your family will enjoy it, providing you haven't made some wildly stupid move. It makes me think of the comforting phrase often used by the presenter of my favourite sewing channel, "lives aren't at stake here." If in the end you don't like what you've made, cheerfully toss it out and count it as a valuable lesson learned.
In the early 80s an Uncle and Aunt, French Canadians in a small village of Essex County (near Windsor, Ont) served us muskrat, and also an apple pie in which, to save money, they used fat from a pork roast. Why spend money on lard when it was free after baking a roast. You would have to remember not to use herbs and spices on the roast so that the piecrust didn't taste like meat. I enjoy your shows and it's like watching a friend cooking. Thanks for the fun.
Hi Mary Ann ~ I was born in Newfoundland, and like French Canadians pork fat rules! There is a famous recipe that my mom loves…called a “bang belly”…in which they use tiny square pieces of fat in the batter, and rub on the sides of the pan to prevent sticking. Surprisingly, the fat produces a very tender and soft product. I’ve never tried it, but my mother and relatives assure me it’s heavenly. I have a friend in Newfoundland who has her own TH-cam channel and catering business…she makes 2 versions of this recipe - both using pork fat or “fat pork” - as Newfoundlanders call it. Thanks for sharing your French Canadian family history!❤
" Step 2. Stone the raisins, cut in two." What the heck?? What were raisins like back in the day? And what kind of stone did they have?! I've never heard of such a thing before. So interesting. Love the history lessons you give along with the recipes, Glenn. Having more context adds so much to the enjoyment. Thanks!
@@redwingblackjackI’m 64 and remember cutting raisins and removing the stones to help mum in the kitchen when I was young, especially when she was making plum pudding. Raisins were so much bigger then. I often wonder why they must have chosen a different variety.
Well, I Googled "Rough Robin Cake" and found only all your videos, etc. So good luck finding out its origin. I was glad you mentioned last night's Brown Butter cake I watched you make and you confirmed how filling (heavy) it was which I surmised in a comment (and hoped you wouldn't be insulted.) This Rough Robin cake you described as light and fluffy, the antithesis of the Brown Butter cake. I'm actually surprised it is "light" with all the dried fruit you added, making it seem like it could have been like a very heavy fruit cake. Anyway, always enjoy your presentations! Thank you so much, Glen. - Marilyn
The return of the bagged milk!!!! Been waiting for this for a bit. Love it! Despite our last exchange, I do love watching your channel. Keep 'em coming!
I think that I might try that batter in a muffin tin and eat the results warm or toasted with a scraping of butter. Not a flat tin, yes, but I like edges.
As soon as you cut into it, it looked like my scones that I pat into a circle and cut into 6 pie shapes. And my scones start with the all the dry ingredients, then butter rubbed in, then milk. No egg. Sometimes currants or raisins. British background but learned how to make them on the internet😉
So, so good to hear and watch you, Glen and Julie, after a rather tense absence. And the wealth of cookbooks awaiting you and us is fantastic. I appreciate this video very much. It's always enlightening and inspiring to reap the rewards of your research, your vast knowledge, your erudite conversation. The University of Glen is back. Thrilled here!
Regarding not have the "right" equipment back then, even if it came out not so great it would have been eaten. Waste not, Want not. Heck, my poor father ate all my disasters when I was young and learning to cook and bake and always told me it tasted great. ♥️
You're lucky. All my father would have done is complain & been nasty about it. I know it would have happened because he did that all the time about Mom's cooking. Thereby my decision NOT to learn how to cook. Anything I learned I did by just watching my Mom or home ec class. I did learn how to bake cakes as I loved chocolate cake & Mom couldn't make one to save her life. So between home ec & a wonderfully simple recipe on the Hershey's cocoa can I learned baking. 😆😉
Never ceases to amaze me how Julie will come in and take a serious bite not matter what it is. No little taste or hesitation and statement about not eating that. She's an excellent sport. Exactly the perfect spouse to a chef that likes to experiment.
I guess the reason why there’s no temperature is that most kitchens would’ve had an aga / range type of oven…and those don’t have adjustable temperature control
This cake may have fallen to the wayside as its basically identical to the recipe for a rock cake (especially an Australian rock cake), right down to the currants and peel. And they're just more convenient to make.
When I first moved into my first apartment, many years ago, I got a James Beard Cookbook. It starts with a recipe for boiling water, on the premise that many people would never have been in a kitchen before.
I watched this video this afternoon (Jan 16/25) and a memory was rattling all around in my head with no where to land. So I went through my grandmother's recipes and sure enough, that is where it was - except they were called rough robin cookies, not cake . You just spooned the batter out onto the cookie sheet and left it in that shape. She had candied citron, raisins, sultanas and currants as the add-ins. My guess is that the batter was a little drier - more like a cookie but it still turned out more like a biscuit than a cookie. Well done!!
I live in England and have never heard of this cake, though i am looking forward to trying it. Thank you for sharing the recipe, you have taught me something.
British and never heard of it at all! I was hoping you tell me! it reminds me of my grandfathers hand written recipe book - he was a cook in the RAF in WWII and it has all these odd things like Buller pudding in vat sized amounts though I doubt these are the same it gives me that feeling
So, after your show I just had to find out more about the Rough Robin Cake...and found only one source for information on it. You! Now I'm even more curious. 😄
Found a "Robin Cake" recipe that is similar in some ways -- lard, creaming method -- but with eggs and without rice flour or fruit. Author claims it's from around Huddersfield (gave me a jolt since, even though I'm American, my BIL is from Huddersfield). TH-cam doesn't allow me to put in a link but it's a blog by SaturdayWalks in Wordpress, dated 8/8/2019.
My grandmother lived near Huddersfield and made it for my grandfather to eat regularly on medical advice, because he had a hernia. As i remember it, his was also plain.
Looks and sounds like a tea scone in a pan. I have a Readers Digest hardcover cookbook my mom sent me in 1977 that has a shortbread recipe with rice flour. 🎉
this would be easily adapted to be gluten free for me. thinking i would use dried cranberries for the raisins and yes, a bit of orange extract. perhaps served warm with a little butter to go with my coffee (or tea for some of y'all). yum-e!
My door neighbor has a severe gluten allergy along with other food allergies.I apparently tested positive for Celiac disease myself but eat everything and suffer and 😂Im def going to make this for him modified as well so he can have something with his morning coffee ❤
I just made a comment about replacing the wheat with potato flakes. If you try it or another let us know! One of my foster sisters has the her vegetarian husband doing most of the cooking due to her Parkinsons. It has been an adventure.
Good idea. Maybe I also should try to make it with gluten free flour. I'm also allergic to dairy, eggs and citrus. It already has no eggs, and I can use plant based milk or cream. Maybe raspberry would be good instead of the peel? Raspberry season is coming to an end soon.
I was thinking it is a perfect recipe for my gluten issues and as a diabetic it will be a lower carb recipe and it looks like a scone texture of batter. Any way it sounds just so lovely.
I like this attitude of figuring it out but for a very modern reason. When I love the recipe but they hide the instructions behind a pay wall. You have to figure it out by what is shown in the video. Thanks Glenn for putting the recipe in the description. Have a pile printed off that I have to get to.
When you cut this and showed the inside my first thought was "scone". I see from some other comments that people who actually have made a scone thought that, too. Nice to know I was sort of on the right page. I'm interested in seeing what the toast recipes are like, though. I remember my grandmother using a triangular shaped "stand" over a gas burner to make toast when I was a child, since she didn't have a toaster.
For the "peel" ingredient, i would suggest using finely slivered fresh lemon or orange peel. Or, zest the skin. I put slivered peels in my biscottis and it provides a nice flavor in the mouth when you are xhewing these small pieces. This recipe makes me think it is similar to a cake made with Bisquick. In the Fall, we made a Bisquick cake with fresh apple slices and cinnamon.
An elderly relative she gave me the recipe for robin cake on my marriage which she always served it with custard. Her recipe had an egg mixed into the milk. I used butter not lard when I made it.
It's candied peel. A very British/Commonwealth kind of ingredient. It's often a blend of candied lemon and orange peels, as little diced pieces in a bag.
It LOOKS like something in the US referred to as "citron," which is candied (usually) orange peel. They come in red and green and are normally used in fruit cakes. Since Glen is in Canada, it may be something else.
I think this would have been made in a loaf tin, my gran used to make a fruit cake like that and was very economical and contained 1 egg, and a handful of fruit. It was quick, easy and kept in a tin to slice with a cup of tea.
Putting it in a square pan like that/cut into. "fingers" it reminded me of biscotti... Based on what you guys said it sounds like the consistency of a biscuit. Still I wonder how it would be twice baked and dipped in tea or cofefe.
Printed recipe in newspaper Lincolnshire Echo Sat, Mar 30, 1940 ·Page 3 The Times Sat, Dec 04, 1915 ·Page 37 The Darling Downs Gazette Sat, Feb 19, 1916 ·Page 11 Mention of a thief stealing from a shop "rough robin cakes" Stockport Advertiser Fri, Nov 10, 1837 ·Page 3
My Mom said she is going to make it with cinnamon, vanilla, and pecans. I suggested orange juice concentrate instead of the peel. She might remember to update us, or not lol.
The size of the pan also influences texture. 9x9 inches looked to be a great choice for this biscuit/cake. The larger pan would have produced a drier cake.
Did a little research and I can’t find any entry for this, at least not so far. Wondering if perhaps that was a local name for the cake and there’s a more well-known name for it which is why it may not be listed or others may not have heard of it. Either way, I will definitely be making this.
I think that in England everyone knows what a currant is and there is no confusion with black currants or red currants which are never referred to as just currants.
I’ve never heard of this recipe, so of course the first thing I did after watching your video was Google it. It seems the only thing the internet knows about a Rough Robin Cake is your video. I did find some recipes for a Robin Cake which looked similar
Baking powder doesn’t need an additional acid, it has a dry powder acid as part of its makeup. Baking powder just needs a liquid to dissolve the dry acid and start the reaction
I think that this recipe might be better if mixed like a scone mixture and done by hand. In England dripping was generally beef dripping. I think that the flavour of this recipe would be markedly different if using lard.
I have never heard of a rough robin cake: it seems likely it's a regional recipie or perhaps one associated with the Church calendar. It looks very much like things I have eaten and enjoyed but I've never heard the name.
The charm of this channel lies in the easy chat, the reflection on the recipe, the weighing up of possibilities as to how to probably change/improve it. But my personal favourite is the “it’ll be alright” attitude, so familiar to cooks who substitute and improvise. As always, fun and informative, thanks Glen and Julie
Agree -- makes cooking so much less fraught. I love Glen's attitude and Julie's taste testing. And Chicken's rare but welcome appearances.
Yes, it almost feels like sitting with them in their kitchen as Glen chats to me about a recipe he's making.
I saw the recipe name and thought "Man, why are the English so bad at food?" and then I clicked and that cookbook title broke 3 of my ribs.
Robin cake was popular in the north of England, particularly Yorkshire. I've read the origin of the name may have come from it being referred to as "rubbing in" cake which morphed into the name Robin cake.
Surprisingly different from a Smooth Batman cake. Enjoyable watch.
😂
Car! Now!
Haha
"Holy stand mixer, Batman!"
(Insert rimshot here.)
Hi Glen. I know this as the mixture for rock cakes. Only difference in my book there is an egg is added mixed into the milk. My grandma would put spoonfuls (dessert spoon size) dolloped on a baking sheet. Would cook in an oven that was already hot after the midday meal ready for tea time (high tea rather than afternoon tea) or put in the tupperware box for a picnic ready to eat with tea from the thermos flask on an afternoon drive often out into the lake district from Bolton (Lancashire). My book for this is new economy cookery book- 1500 recipes (success economy cookery book 6d) the adverts place it mid 1930s and was the result of book 1 and 2 which each had 700 recipes from the 1920s being amalgamated
I am British and was Project Manager on the refurbishment of the building 1970- 1973. As you say in your video Battersea Polytechnic became the University of Surrey and they later vacated the building and moved to Surrey. The vacant building was then taken over by the London Education Authority and in 1970 was refurbished for Westminster Technical College. This included the catering college where a number of top British chefs were taught. So cooking was very much part of the building history. The building has since been converted into luxury apartments.
Fab - thank you!
Hi Glen and Julie! So “Rough Robin” also appears in my copy of a 1915 New York published book “The Pure Food Cook Book, Good Housekeeping Recipes”:
“Six cupfuls of flour, two cupfuls of rice flour, one cupful of lard or butter, one cupful of sugar, three cupfuls of currants, three cupfuls of Sultana raisins, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one teaspoonful of ground caraway seeds, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Rub the butter or lard into the flour and rice flour, add the sugar, baking powder, salt, spices, and fruit. Mix with buttermilk to make a stiff batter. Turn into a large buttered and floured cake tin. Bake slowly for two hours.”
"English is all about confusing you." 🤣🤣
It's because it's such a conglomeration of various languages and heritages. I once read that English has more words for the same thing (i.e., synonyms) than any other language. Don't know if it's true, but it feels like it is.
Not only that, if you didn't grow up speaking American English it's twice as confusing.
Ha Ha!
Sunday morning cookbook show with Glen is my "go-to" watch with my morning coffee. ❤❤❤
Mine too. ❤
It’s my subscription video I click on first🥳
When I was at school in the late 1980s in Northern Ireland we had a cook book for the things we would make in Home Economics class. It included making a sandwich, toast and tea and heating up a tin of soup, we could bring in whichever soup we wanted. It did progress to more complicated and difficult things including a Christmas cake with marzipan and royal icing that had been fed with whiskey by the teacher. It started us off slowly and taught us how to follow recipes and read instructions plus what the cookery terms meant and we would get to take home our weird and wonderful concoctions for them to be eaten or chucked out as they were inedible!
I remember the 1980s Home Economics classes in Canada! It would be fascinating to see how much we share in common! I was born in Newfoundland and of Irish descent, as like much of the Island. Many parts have various accents that sound and are from Ireland originally. Centuries later, and many linguists and historians from Ireland and Newfoundland discovered there was little linguistic change, and their accent is definitely one of them!
Cheers!🇨🇦😊🇮🇪
Its of the school of rock cakes, fat rascals, scones, welsh cakes, lardy cake ect. Made from flour, fat and sugar, and began by rubbing the fat into the flour
Etc. It's an abbreviation of et cetera.
That laugh of Julie's is contagious - I can't help but giggle in return.
Me too I always say hi back lol
IKR! She's adorable.
“English is all about confusing you.” This is quite literally one of the most accurate things I have ever heard.
This seems something like a cross between a scone and a biscuit. I love these kind of cakes. They are meant for dipping in tea or coffee. They get more flavor from spreads like butter, perhaps a compound butter of sugar, spice and extract. Even something like cream cheese, sweetened yogurt or clotted cream if you have it. These cakes can be dry although yours looked moist. I love sweet tender cakes but I also like these hybrid biscuit type cakes also. This could have all kinds of add ins. Chocolate chunks, nuts and dried cherries comes to mind. I pick my videos based on what sounds interesting to me. 9/10 it's always the old cookbook show. Never stop this series please:)
I love that you don't research the old cookbook recipes before you make them, and engage with your viewers on any history of the recipe they know. I look forward to learning more about this one!
I'm the other way around, I miss the episodes where he would investigate and show us the origins and evolution of a recipe
@@tomimar2001 I like both, as I enjoy history immensely! Yet, I like Glen’s “free style”, as many professional chefs are artists with a flare for creative expression, and he practiced under a well known chef.
Glen, I love your "it'll be fine" approach. That's the right way to approach any cooking task; do what seems most sensible, trust your instincts, use ingredients you know you like, and indeed, it will be fine. Even if the results aren't optimum, your family will enjoy it, providing you haven't made some wildly stupid move. It makes me think of the comforting phrase often used by the presenter of my favourite sewing channel, "lives aren't at stake here." If in the end you don't like what you've made, cheerfully toss it out and count it as a valuable lesson learned.
In the early 80s an Uncle and Aunt, French Canadians in a small village of Essex County (near Windsor, Ont) served us muskrat, and also an apple pie in which, to save money, they used fat from a pork roast. Why spend money on lard when it was free after baking a roast.
You would have to remember not to use herbs and spices on the roast so that the piecrust didn't taste like meat.
I enjoy your shows and it's like watching a friend cooking. Thanks for the fun.
Hi Mary Ann ~ I was born in Newfoundland, and like French Canadians pork fat rules! There is a famous recipe that my mom loves…called a “bang belly”…in which they use tiny square pieces of fat in the batter, and rub on the sides of the pan to prevent sticking. Surprisingly, the fat produces a very tender and soft product. I’ve never tried it, but my mother and relatives assure me it’s heavenly.
I have a friend in Newfoundland who has her own TH-cam channel and catering business…she makes 2 versions of this recipe - both using pork fat or “fat pork” - as Newfoundlanders call it.
Thanks for sharing your French Canadian family history!❤
" Step 2. Stone the raisins, cut in two." What the heck?? What were raisins like back in the day? And what kind of stone did they have?! I've never heard of such a thing before. So interesting.
Love the history lessons you give along with the recipes, Glenn. Having more context adds so much to the enjoyment. Thanks!
We have seedless grapes now. 🍇 I've never heard of cutting open raisins to remove seeds, sounds tedious. 🍇🍇🍇
@@redwingblackjackI’m 64 and remember cutting raisins and removing the stones to help mum in the kitchen when I was young, especially when she was making plum pudding. Raisins were so much bigger then. I often wonder why they must have chosen a different variety.
Well, I Googled "Rough Robin Cake" and found only all your videos, etc. So good luck finding out its origin. I was glad you mentioned last night's Brown Butter cake I watched you make and you confirmed how filling (heavy) it was which I surmised in a comment (and hoped you wouldn't be insulted.) This Rough Robin cake you described as light and fluffy, the antithesis of the Brown Butter cake. I'm actually surprised it is "light" with all the dried fruit you added, making it seem like it could have been like a very heavy fruit cake. Anyway, always enjoy your presentations! Thank you so much, Glen. - Marilyn
The return of the bagged milk!!!! Been waiting for this for a bit. Love it! Despite our last exchange, I do love watching your channel. Keep 'em coming!
We have some bagged milk here in Wisconsin.
I think that I might try that batter in a muffin tin and eat the results warm or toasted with a scraping of butter. Not a flat tin, yes, but I like edges.
I was thinking the same thing. Kind of like a drop scone, only muffin-ish?
Love old recipes and old books in general! Super cool.
I'm British, and I'm interested in historic recipes, and I've never heard of this either!
I love to add cocktail orange bitters when I'm adding orange zest to recipes like this, gives it a whole extra dimension of floral flavour
When you were talking about flavor, I was thinking orange zest! ❤😊
My thought was finely slivered candied orange peel, otherwise you would need to add more sugar to make up.
I prefer to use citrus zest to using extracts.
As soon as you cut into it, it looked like my scones that I pat into a circle and cut into 6 pie shapes. And my scones start with the all the dry ingredients, then butter rubbed in, then milk. No egg. Sometimes currants or raisins.
British background but learned how to make them on the internet😉
So, so good to hear and watch you, Glen and Julie, after a rather tense absence. And the wealth of cookbooks awaiting you and us is fantastic. I appreciate this video very much. It's always enlightening and inspiring to reap the rewards of your research, your vast knowledge, your erudite conversation. The University of Glen is back. Thrilled here!
Regarding not have the "right" equipment back then, even if it came out not so great it would have been eaten. Waste not, Want not. Heck, my poor father ate all my disasters when I was young and learning to cook and bake and always told me it tasted great. ♥️
Your father sounds wonderful!
@@TamarLitvot He certainly was.
You're lucky. All my father would have done is complain & been nasty about it. I know it would have happened because he did that all the time about Mom's cooking. Thereby my decision NOT to learn how to cook. Anything I learned I did by just watching my Mom or home ec class. I did learn how to bake cakes as I loved chocolate cake & Mom couldn't make one to save her life. So between home ec & a wonderfully simple recipe on the Hershey's cocoa can I learned baking. 😆😉
Never ceases to amaze me how Julie will come in and take a serious bite not matter what it is. No little taste or hesitation and statement about not eating that. She's an excellent sport. Exactly the perfect spouse to a chef that likes to experiment.
I guess the reason why there’s no temperature is that most kitchens would’ve had an aga / range type of oven…and those don’t have adjustable temperature control
This cake may have fallen to the wayside as its basically identical to the recipe for a rock cake (especially an Australian rock cake), right down to the currants and peel. And they're just more convenient to make.
When I first moved into my first apartment, many years ago, I got a James Beard Cookbook. It starts with a recipe for boiling water, on the premise that many people would never have been in a kitchen before.
I watched this video this afternoon (Jan 16/25) and a memory was rattling all around in my head with no where to land. So I went through my grandmother's recipes and sure enough, that is where it was - except they were called rough robin cookies, not cake . You just spooned the batter out onto the cookie sheet and left it in that shape. She had candied citron, raisins, sultanas and currants as the add-ins. My guess is that the batter was a little drier - more like a cookie but it still turned out more like a biscuit than a cookie. Well done!!
I live in England and have never heard of this cake, though i am looking forward to trying it. Thank you for sharing the recipe, you have taught me something.
British and never heard of it at all! I was hoping you tell me! it reminds me of my grandfathers hand written recipe book - he was a cook in the RAF in WWII and it has all these odd things like Buller pudding in vat sized amounts though I doubt these are the same it gives me that feeling
The cake looks delicious! I just got a huge blast from the past with your bagged milk. I have not seen that in BC since I was a kid in the 70s.
That looks so good. Thank you for showing us the technique, and the great suggestions for additions. You guys are so sweet.
Oh, this would be so good with a cup of tea on a dreary afternoon.
Ground rice is coarser than rice flour. It gives a pleasingly sandy texture to some baked goods.
Is it ground raw? Or toasted
@@DMAC1301 Raw. Ground rice is made by milling and grinding white or brown rice into a powder.
I looked for over an hour for more Rough Robin cakes, the only ones I could find were directing me to your channel.🙃
So, after your show I just had to find out more about the Rough Robin Cake...and found only one source for information on it. You!
Now I'm even more curious. 😄
Thanks for all you do, Glen
Found a "Robin Cake" recipe that is similar in some ways -- lard, creaming method -- but with eggs and without rice flour or fruit. Author claims it's from around Huddersfield (gave me a jolt since, even though I'm American, my BIL is from Huddersfield). TH-cam doesn't allow me to put in a link but it's a blog by SaturdayWalks in Wordpress, dated 8/8/2019.
My grandmother lived near Huddersfield and made it for my grandfather to eat regularly on medical advice, because he had a hernia. As i remember it, his was also plain.
electric colored peel reminds me of my grandma during the holidays...I was always amazed at the garish shades :)
Love the show , some nice butter would be good on it.
Looks and sounds like a tea scone in a pan. I have a Readers Digest hardcover cookbook my mom sent me in 1977 that has a shortbread recipe with rice flour. 🎉
I loved all the info you gave us! Thank you Glenn! Now I have to look some things up.
I truly enjoy all your videos
this would be easily adapted to be gluten free for me. thinking i would use dried cranberries for the raisins and yes, a bit of orange extract. perhaps served warm with a little butter to go with my coffee (or tea for some of y'all). yum-e!
My door neighbor has a severe gluten allergy along with other food allergies.I apparently tested positive for Celiac disease myself but eat everything and suffer and 😂Im def going to make this for him modified as well so he can have something with his morning coffee ❤
I just made a comment about replacing the wheat with potato flakes. If you try it or another let us know! One of my foster sisters has the her vegetarian husband doing most of the cooking due to her Parkinsons. It has been an adventure.
Good idea. Maybe I also should try to make it with gluten free flour. I'm also allergic to dairy, eggs and citrus.
It already has no eggs, and I can use plant based milk or cream.
Maybe raspberry would be good instead of the peel?
Raspberry season is coming to an end soon.
I was thinking it is a perfect recipe for my gluten issues and as a diabetic it will be a lower carb recipe and it looks like a scone texture of batter. Any way it sounds just so lovely.
@@espenschjelderup426 i always use almond milk and have never had issues in baking.
I like this attitude of figuring it out but for a very modern reason. When I love the recipe but they hide the instructions behind a pay wall. You have to figure it out by what is shown in the video. Thanks Glenn for putting the recipe in the description. Have a pile printed off that I have to get to.
I always have a look at the other recipes shown with the recipe he's making and occasionally make one of them.
When you cut this and showed the inside my first thought was "scone". I see from some other comments that people who actually have made a scone thought that, too. Nice to know I was sort of on the right page. I'm interested in seeing what the toast recipes are like, though. I remember my grandmother using a triangular shaped "stand" over a gas burner to make toast when I was a child, since she didn't have a toaster.
What I think would make this amazing is using bacon fat and dark chocolate chips ❤ maybe even some candied bacon bits.
And replace sugar with confectionery that would make it have that cream taste and texture of a shortbread more than a biscuit I would think.
My mom used to make a fantastic shortbread that mixed rice flour and wheat flour.
The only rough robin cake recipe that I could find was from Australia in a 1932 newspaper called "The Advertiser". The recipe is very different!
Found the same. Thought there would be more in the Inter-web
For the "peel" ingredient, i would suggest using finely slivered fresh lemon or orange peel. Or, zest the skin. I put slivered peels in my biscottis and it provides a nice flavor in the mouth when you are xhewing these small pieces. This recipe makes me think it is similar to a cake made with Bisquick. In the Fall, we made a Bisquick cake with fresh apple slices and cinnamon.
An elderly relative she gave me the recipe for robin cake on my marriage which she always served it with custard. Her recipe had an egg mixed into the milk. I used butter not lard when I made it.
When I saw the cake, I thought of a biscuit cake, or that is what I would call it. I think it would be good with a powdered sugar glaze.😊
Hiya Glen, I've never heard of this cake either, but I'm sure it'll taste nice, this is Choppy
I assume the ingredient "peel" is candied citrus peel?
I need a recipe for toast!
What's peel? Are you talking about orange peels or is it something else?
It is candied fruit peel. If only seen it made with citrus fruit peel.
It's candied peel. A very British/Commonwealth kind of ingredient. It's often a blend of candied lemon and orange peels, as little diced pieces in a bag.
It's a dried citrus peel.
My guess is orange
It LOOKS like something in the US referred to as "citron," which is candied (usually) orange peel. They come in red and green and are normally used in fruit cakes. Since Glen is in Canada, it may be something else.
I think this would have been made in a loaf tin, my gran used to make a fruit cake like that and was very economical and contained 1 egg, and a handful of fruit. It was quick, easy and kept in a tin to slice with a cup of tea.
I'm British. Never heard of it, and I'm thinking the only people who have are the ones that own that cookbook! Lol
Recipes for toast??? That is the kind of cookbook that mall too many people need nowadays!!!
I want a man that bakes for me❤it looks delicious!
Thank you
I found a recipe in a 1935 Home Ec. textbook from B.C. called Ragged Robins. It's a drop cookie with dates, cherries, walnuts and cornflakes,
You mentioned lemon, and theres a version of this recipe in an Australian newspaper in 1941 which adds lemon juice and golden syrup
There are many more additions to this cook book
I wonder what rum flavoring would add to the taste as opposed to lemon or orange?
We mostly grew up on sultanas, not raisins, in Australia.
I like this sort of basic cake. Great with a cup of tea or coffee that is not full of sugar.
Putting it in a square pan like that/cut into. "fingers" it reminded me of biscotti... Based on what you guys said it sounds like the consistency of a biscuit. Still I wonder how it would be twice baked and dipped in tea or cofefe.
Printed recipe in newspaper Lincolnshire Echo
Sat, Mar 30, 1940 ·Page 3
The Times
Sat, Dec 04, 1915 ·Page 37
The Darling Downs Gazette
Sat, Feb 19, 1916 ·Page 11
Mention of a thief stealing from a shop "rough robin cakes" Stockport Advertiser
Fri, Nov 10, 1837 ·Page 3
Wow -- these must have been very popular cakes!
What kind of peel? Apple peel? Orange peel? Fresh or candied?
If an ‘English’ recipe asks for peel: Candied Citrus Peel
My Mom said she is going to make it with cinnamon, vanilla, and pecans. I suggested orange juice concentrate instead of the peel. She might remember to update us, or not lol.
This looks nice as it doesn’t seem overly sweet. I was thinking grating orange peel into it would suit me.
That, served warm out of the oven with butter or maybe some light honey butter.
@@peregrine1970 or orange marmalade…..mmm mmm good!
Currants and raisins are so similar that I would swap one out for some other dried fruit. Thanks.
You didn't say if you'd keep the same pan to make it again or go with the bigger pan for a flatter result...
The size of the pan also influences texture. 9x9 inches looked to be a great choice for this biscuit/cake. The larger pan would have produced a drier cake.
Would you recommend potato flakes for a replacement for the wheat flour, or something else? I know potato flakes and rice flour make good biscuits.
Maybe a smear of orange marmalade would be nice.
That sounds excellent!
I always thought that currants were dried blackcurrants rather than a type of raisin. Am I wrong?
Yes - you are wrong. They are a dried grape; a Corinthian grape, a raisin.
@@GlenAndFriendsCooking thank you
Did a little research and I can’t find any entry for this, at least not so far. Wondering if perhaps that was a local name for the cake and there’s a more well-known name for it which is why it may not be listed or others may not have heard of it. Either way, I will definitely be making this.
What is this peel you speak of? Is it a specific item, or the candied peel of a specific fruit?
Candied citrus 'peel'
@@GlenAndFriendsCookingI reckon these “what is peel?” bods are taking the mickey.
We have a cook book that tells you how to boil water.
I think that in England everyone knows what a currant is and there is no confusion with black currants or red currants which are never referred to as just currants.
Maybe some of that browned butter frosting from the freezer to spread on?? (From the browned butter pecan cake).
What is peel? Thanks
Candied citrus peel.
The first thing i thought of when you said things sounding the same but being different was "spatula". 😂
Can you tell me about this peel?
It's candied citrus fruit peel.
I’ve never heard of this recipe, so of course the first thing I did after watching your video was Google it. It seems the only thing the internet knows about a Rough Robin Cake is your video. I did find some recipes for a Robin Cake which looked similar
what was the acid that activated the baking power?
Baking powder doesn’t need an additional acid, it has a dry powder acid as part of its makeup. Baking powder just needs a liquid to dissolve the dry acid and start the reaction
I think that this recipe might be better if mixed like a scone mixture and done by hand. In England dripping was generally beef dripping. I think that the flavour of this recipe would be markedly different if using lard.
Scones baked as bars.
I kinda want to soak the fruit in a bit of rum. Add some candied orange peel.
"Stone the raisins". I can see myself with a headset magnifier and a tiny paring knife.
That's funny. I saw the raisins lined up against a wall being stoned.
@@virginiaf.5764 Or left in the smoker for a while with the "special" mix.
@@shaventalz3092 That was my first thought, but I didn't think this was the channel for that.
@@virginiaf.5764 I'm just talking about mesquite and hickory, I don't know what _you're_ thinking of.
As I remember, you have to re-hydrate them, and then use your fingers to squish and separate them.
😂 took a while to swallow that boat anchor .
Almost looks like a pudding that someone decided to bake instead of boiling or steaming
I think of zante currants as baby raisins.
I have never heard of a rough robin cake: it seems likely it's a regional recipie or perhaps one associated with the Church calendar.
It looks very much like things I have eaten and enjoyed but I've never heard the name.
Julie ate an entire piece - it must have been good.
The batter is so thick I think by flat pan it meant it can be baked freeform on a sheet.
Spoon biscuits/scones
That's exactly what I thought. Like a drop biscuit or a scone.