The River Tamar marks the border of Devon with the county of Cornwall. In years gone by the Tamar was as much a cultural barrier as a geographic one; Cornwall was one of the last bastions of pre-Celtic culture in England. The original British inhabitants of the island were pushed back across the river by the encroaching Celts, and succeeding generations of Romans and Saxons isolated the Cornish inhabitants further.
It was not that long ago that Cornish maintained its own version of Gaelic language, and certainly Cornish folklore and customs remain one of the unique and attractive features that set the county apart from the rest of England.For the sake of simplification, Cornwall can be divided into two coasts, the south, with its warm breezes and semitropical air, and the rugged north coast, where the wind whips off the Atlantic onto rocky headlands and draws surfer-seekers and walkers like a magnet.
Local Recipes
Cornish Heavy (Hevva) Cake
Its name is derived from the pilchard (silver sardines) industry in Cornwall prior to the 20th century when a 'huer' (cliff top lookout) helped locate shoals of fish. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the huer would shout 'Hevva!, Hevva!' to alert the boats to the location of the pilchard shoals. Cornish tradition states that Hevva cake was baked by the huers on their return to their homes, the cake being ready by the time the crews returned to land. Heva became hevva and later morphed into the anglicized version heavy. The texture of the cake itself is neither heavy nor spongy.
175g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon ginger, cinnamon or mace (whichever you prefer)
40g granulated sugar
40g butter
40g lard
75g currants
25g mixed peel
2 tablespoons milk
Grease baking sheet.
Mix flour, salt, spice and sugar. Rub in fats.
Add milk to mix to a stiff dough. Roll out to about 1 cm thick and lift onto baking tray. Cut criss-cross pattern on top.
Bake 25-30 minutes at 190 degrees C until golden
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