My Nana passed away a few weeks ago, and I was at her house today looking through her things before it all gets thrown away. She was a wonderful home cook. She put so much care into everything she made. I have so many wonderful food memories with her. A delicious pasta dish, or a perfect salad, or her iconic braised steak.
Growing up, we’d often go over for Sunday dinner. She’d do everything so perfectly and I’d mash the potatoes! Her Yorkshire puddings were important enough to get a mention in the eulogy. But for me there was one item that stood out even more. As another item on the Sunday dinner she did a suet dumpling cake… thing. It’s suet dumpling style mixture but baked as one big dough in a cake tin rather than in stew. It would look like a cake. Crusty outside, light fluffy inside. You’d get a slice of it and it would soak up the gravy perfectly and be just this delicious stodgy accompaniment to the roast.
I looked through her recipe scrapbook today and found no recipe for it. I have tried looking it up and I can’t see anything of the sort online. Only small ball dumplings for stew or suet puddings with meat etc baked into it. This is dumpling dough being baked like a sponge cake. I’d love to be able to recreate it.
Any help?
Extra info: she definitely used atora beef suet. She’s from Hartlepool but I grew up in Derby (could it be a northeast thing?). This kinda took the place of stuffing I guess. But I think it was normally served with beef.
I just really want to recreate this but she never let anyone help in the kitchen except for me mashing the potato! So nobody knows the recipe and it not being in the book was a heartbreaking development!