Sticky Buns, tarts and pastries

[caddyman]

OK Chaps, steady on, now. Stop what you're doing and concentrate. This may be the single most important poll you ever fill in on LJ.

I am trying to find out what the favourite sticky bun is in the world. Admittedly we are, between us, a very small sample group, but I for one am not beyond extrapolating wildly on the basis of a dozen or so votes.

If you have a favourite that's not on the list, feel free to add it in the text box question - but remember I am looking for buns and pastries only. Cakes just push it too wide; maybe there's room for a poll on that in due course.

Anyone who puts a savoury option down will be ridiculed as the weirdo they are.

Get to it, everyone; let's put this debate to bed once and for all!

[Poll #1008088]

Comments

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

I am surprised at how keen I am to endorse the eccles cake (with the exception of the ones that Sophocles bakery in Camberwell Church Street sells --- they're vile). They don't exist in the Land of the Free and I now realise that I miss them.

I even feel some nostalgia for their close relative the Chorley cake, which substitutes shorcrust for puff pastry and lacks the carapace of caramelised sugar granules.

Incidentally, if you had included the custard slice, mille feuilles and custard tart, I would still have voted for eccles cakes.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Eccles is my solid favourite, too. Marks and Spencer make the only reliable Eccles that I can find in London. Like you, I am find of the Chorley, though a little less so. I find them far harder to get hold of, even further north.

I had completely forgotten the custard slice (bangs head on table), but I see that lupercal has added it in the guise of 'vanilla slice' under the other suggestions box.

I do like a vanilla/custard slice. Not as much as an Eccles Cake, though...

[lupercal.livejournal.com]

But look at it! Look at it! Prince amongst pastries!

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

MMmmm whilst I generally a savoury girl (apart from choccy - yum yum) I cannot resist the choccy eclair. Hurrah and yum again! Every now and then though, the standard iced bun is a fabulous thing. I might have one on my birthday.

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

And please to explain Bath, Colston and London buns!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

It is very good, I'll grant, but behold the majesty that is the Eccles Cake:

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

[diabetic]Oh, piss off, Bryan.[/diabetic]

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Oops!

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

And when is that blood test of yours, again? ;)

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Maybe a Bath bun shouldn't be here as they are almost impossible to find. Double bake it and it's a Bath Oliver biscuit...

A London Bun is a sweet bun with almond paste and treacle. Slice it and eat with butter.

A Colston bun comes from Bristol and is very yeasty and flavoured with lemon, dried fruits nand mixed spice.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Eventually.

(I should arrange it for about a fortnight from now I guess).

[itsjustaname.livejournal.com]

Your text box wasn't big enough for all I wanted to say. The king of the patisserie is the Bavarian Cream Doughnut which is basically a posh custard doughnt.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Cor.

[agentinfinity.livejournal.com]

Have you renamed the above mentioned 'Bakewell Pudding' from 'Bakewell Tart' because the latter sounds a bit lewd, because it's a regional thing, or because they are two different things entirely?

I put Danish pastry but in truth I only really mean ones involving cinnamon, or some sort of pecans/almondy goodness.

I also like the vanilla slice.

The doughnut seems a little out of place somehow. I have nothing against him, you understand, I'm just not sure that he wouldn't get black balled by the sticky-bun-gentleman's-society before gaining entry into such esteemed ranks. At the very least for having been franchised by colonials.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that "Bakewell Pudding" is the official name, if there is such a thing, that the purists use. I think it's probably exactly the same as the Bakewell Tart, possibly without the icing and cherry. Not sure.

I like vanilla/custard slices, too. I can't believe I forgot to include them on the list.

I know what you mean about doughnuts. But they aren't cake, and are a sort of bun, I think. But they do sit rather uneasily alongside the other chewy comestibles on the list...

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

I picked choclate eclair and then felt immediately guilty. Y'see I like eccles cakes but I can't eat more than two of them at a time, wheras I can shovel chocolate cream eclairs into my mouth until I choke to death,

But the eclair is foreign, so I feel guilt.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I have no sympathy for one who would sell his birthright so easily for a giblet full of clotted cream...

Mmmm.... clotted cream....

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

Doughnuts area species of fried, sweet dumpling.

On the substantive issue, Bakewell Pudding, which is a cholesterol-saturated almond-thickened custard resting on a layer of rasberry jam and encased in a pie crust, is what they sell (or sold) anyway, in Bakewell. The recipe for an 8-incher calls for six egg yolks, six ounces each of ground almonds, sugar and half a pint of double cream.

Thus the pudding is distinct from the more common Bakewell Tart, which is a frangipane (like a custard, but far dryer), and is often iced (puddings aren't). The tart is cheaper to make, easier to transport, has a longer shelf life and is susceptible to grotesque bastardisation, thus the cherry bakewell and the apple bakewell. Some people debase the concept even further by subsituting almond flavoured cake batter for the custard/frangipane.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Blimey.

I was interested in the world's favourite, but I wan't aware that there was a whole taxonomical world out there just for this stuff!

I begin to feel as though putting the doughnut in is a little like ranking spiders with insects...

[nortysarah.livejournal.com]

*grin* Yeah. [diabetic] I prefer savouries because I wasn't allowed sweets for medical reasons. Does that makes me weird? I don't like (and can't actually eat)eccles cakes, cherry bakewells, most doughnuts, but especially jam ones, pan au chocolats, macaroons, iced fingers and belgian buns.

I do like chelsea buns and hot cross buns but they're not very sweet![/diabetic]

Oh and I found these whilst trying to identify whether I'd eaten them or not!!
http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Travel/Tours/England/Bath/BathBun.jpg
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/f/f1/180px-Saffron_bun_20051213_001.jpg

[nortysarah.livejournal.com]

Re-reading the above - can't eat because they're too sweet rather than not allowed to!!

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Cherry Bakewell TART - The Prince of cakes

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

I did think that perhaps the chocolate eclair and the cream choux should be classified as cake but then remembered that choux 'pastry' means they can't be cake cos of the way they are made. the same way that technically a doughnut is bread because it has yeast and therefore it is a bun while eccles cakes do not have yeast and therefore are NOT buns in the purist sense.
If we are using the foreign "pattisserie" then they all count.
See, we all have something we can be geeky about and mine is the result of frumpty years in the catering industry

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of Bakewell Pudding.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

What about scones?

And apple turnovers?

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

Insist away: you will be disappointed. The supreme pastry, the Eccles cake, is the vehicle that the pure form of the raisin takes to move from from Plato's cave to the physical world. It cannot be denied.

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

They're perilously close to empinadas (the only difference is the pastry).

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Not being able to eat something for medical reasons doesn't make you weird. Not liking them does! ;-p

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Testify, Brother. Testify!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

stop it you mad fool, stop it, stop it.

Eclair.

Ecoutez et repetez; Eclair.

What the bejasus is a Colston bun?

No, don't try to justify it.

The one true answer lies below:

Eclair.

Oh Lawks!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Ah, Dear Boot.

You realise of course, that by failing to use the accented "e-acute" (é), you have advised me to listen and fart clearly, rather than listen and repeat?

Is this a solstice thing?

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a species of pastry echidna

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

MACAROON!!!!!!!! Mmmmmmm cocnutty

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Oh yes and eclairs are foul and disgusting

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

Tis a small matter but surely Bakewell Puddings never come with cherries on.
Bakewell Tarts (the nasty things that they are which do come with cherries on) are not really related to the mighty pudding at all.

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

Ah, the true difference has already been given above.

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

That's probably because you've never been to Bakewell, which is the only place on the planet such things are easily available.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I have been to Bakewell, I'll have you know!

[sea-strands.livejournal.com]

I am surprised no one has mentioned muffins here; they are surely big buns?

[nyarbaggytep.livejournal.com]

Do you actually mean muffins - as in proper muffins, or are you talking about big fairy cakes?

[dawntreader]

weeeeeird. dawn_treader... dawntreader90. it's nearly like talking to myself. ;)

[dawntreader]

i've had that discussion with ellfurtle before. in america the fairy cakes are called cupcakes. which are basically just smaller versions of regular, decorated cakes. icing or frosting on top, and usually sprinkles for decoration.

muffins, like breakfast muffins, can be blueberry muffins, or lemon poppy, or apple, or even chocolate chocolate chip, which is really just a glorified excuse to eat chocolate cake for breakfast. (like we need an excuse?) :)

[dawntreader]

hey, caddyman, if you haven't figured it out, i finally got around to VOTING. your comment got lost in my inbox which i finally got around to cleaning out.

sorry i'm only about a week late!

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

Quite so. Never, ever or, in Spanish, nunca jamas. I have only had the pudding once -- it was a Damascene conversion and I can no longer take the tart seriously. Sadly, if I ate the blessed dish again, I would probably die. Eccles cakes, although by no means good for you, at least are smaller and act as a source of fibre.

I'm surprised that the burghers of Bakewell (or, for that matter, Eccles) haven't done that Euro-law thing that limits the use of the name to the actual place of origin. Like Parmesan cheese or Champagne.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

Votes are still creeping in two weeks late!