Origins of hardy Lardy are a myth

JUST about every county in the South West has its own biased theory around the (somewhat hazy) origins of the Lardy Cake. And each has staked a claim to the invention of the gooey tea bread.

Wiltshire is no exception, and the richly spiced pastry has been hailed as a local staple for as long as anyone cares to remember – its recipe fiercely guarded from the prying ears of nosy rivals.

Marshalls Bakery director Richard Marshall has no interest in settling the age-old dispute. He is, he admits, as much in the dark about the genesis of the Wiltshire Lardy Cake as every man, woman and child in the West Country.

And, for that matter, how Marshalls’ own ancestral recipe came to be whispered down through the generations. Scant traces remain of his forebear Charles’s foray into baking or how his humble shoppe came to be one of a handful to put the Wiltshire Lardy Cake on the map.

“We’ve got the Dorset and Oxford lardy. But Wiltshire was a big area for rearing pigs,” says Richard knowingly. “So it would have been a lot more popular and common in Wiltshire in these times.”

Enough said.

“We don’t know where my great grandfather got the recipe from, but the Lardy Cake is what we’ve really become known for,” he grins with pride. “One thing you notice is that they can taste quite different from one place to the other.”

He has been able to glean a few handy clues from public record and family lore, however. Marshalls Bakery was founded in the late 1870s by Charles Marshall after he left Newbury for Pewsey, following a family feud – or so his descendants have gathered.

“The story goes that he moved to Pewsey when he fell out with his family, we don’t know why,” adds 52-year-old Richard. “He started baking bread in his lodgings and it became popular so he started baking for other people; that’s when it took off. We don’t know what he was doing for a living before that. We don’t know where the original bakery was. We think it probably moved but it’s been in the same place for three generation, on North Street.”

Later the bakery became an all-purpose store selling all kinds of household wares and goods. Among the mementos passed down the family line is a photograph of a sign promoting ‘Marquees for Hire’.

Today Marshalls consists of a bakery in its birthplace of Pewsey and a sister branch launched in Royal Wootton Bassett’s Borough Fields Shopping Centre in 2005, with fourth generation baker Richard at the helm.

The Lardy Cake is only one of the many treats on offer at the shops which specialise in bread, pastries and an array of confectionary products.

And for a time, it was just as well, explains Richard.

As health-mania and clean-eating crazes swept the nation a few years ago, many began to shun the high-calorie cake and Wiltshire’s regional pastry gradually fell from favour.

But with growing numbers now returning to good old ingredients and embracing lard and butter once more, The Lardy Cake has experienced something of a revival recently.

“In the last couple years it’s become more popular again and we’ve had quite a lot of requests from people asking us if we could send them through the post,” he says. “There has now been proof that some of the products people were trying to avoid are not as bad as they were made out to be. And I think more and more people are interested in tradition. It’s been a good time for the Lardy Cake,” he chuckles.

Like his father before him, from the cradle Richard was groomed to take over the family business. Though, he insists, his was an arm’s length sort of induction. His dad John, who is technically retired but still acts as a silent director to the company, was not one for hothousing as far as training was concerned.

“I was always around the bakery before and after school and in the holidays and at weekends, learning, helping out,” recalls the father-of-two. “I didn’t learn the recipes until my teens; then I went to college and did an apprenticeship in Salisbury. I learnt most of the technique at college. My dad didn’t want to teach me too much in case I got bad habits early on. Then once you know how things should be done you can work out which way you want to do them. I’m still learning today.”

While he never once questioned following in his ancestors’ footsteps, the antisocial hours – rising at 2.30am to fire up the oven and whip up batches of up to 300 loaves not to mention trays of jam donuts, Danish, cookies and glazed buns before daybreak – were not an alluring prospect.

“You learn to grab sleep when you can,” he shrugs with a timid smile. “You get naps during the day. It’s not easy.”

Never drawn to the fiddly gimmicks and artistry of cake decorating, Richard is a baker at heart (“I much prefer working with dough,” he declares) – and he escapes to his beloved France, the MECA for any professional worth his salt, for scoffing binges whenever the hectic running of the business allows.

His penchant for traditional, no-fuss baking has made him particularly partial to the good old Lardy Cake over the years – in essence a bread dough mixed with fresh lard, sugar, spices and dried fruit.

Loath to reveal his trade secrets, he will go as far as discussing the challenges of achieving a flawless consistency: the key to Marshalls’ lauded recipe.

“What makes a good Lardy Cake is having the right dough. If it’s too sticky or too dry it won’t work and it’s about having the right balance of sugar and lard. It can’t be too greasy. It has to be done right. It doesn’t matter if you do it all the time. You are always disappointed of it doesn’t come out as well as you hoped.”

Not content to peddle one signature bun, Marshalls also sells an Extra Sticky Lardy, “with extra ingredients”, Richard points out with an air of mystery.

Having grown up gorging on great grandpapa Charles’s Lardy Cake, he has developed a fool-proof method to best appreciate the famed dessert.

“It has to be served cold,” he says, brushing off the enduring habit in certain tea shops of warming or, perish the thought, toasting the Lardy. “Some people put butter on it but I think it’s a bit extreme. The best way is to have it as it is.”

The primogeniture may end with him and, with it, the secret recipe to the cake which has made Marshalls a household name in the region, as Richard’ brood is not so far particularly enamoured with the bakery business. But never say never, he adds cautiously.

“My son is going to college to study IT and he’s not interested in it so much. My daughter is still in junior school and she quite likes baking at home. I wouldn’t be forcing them either way but I would love to leave that legacy to my children when I retire,” he pauses. “At least I’d still have the recipes for myself anyway.”

To find out more or place an order, go to www.marshallsbakery.co.uk or call 01793 852668. The Royal Wottoon Bassett bakery is based at 3 Borough Fields

Shopping Centre, SN4 7AX.