Baking is one of the oldest methods of cooking, and in the UK some of our most beloved recipes can be dated back to the ovens of yesteryear. Back then, sweet dishes would be reserved for noblemen and royalty, as ingredients we take for granted today such as spice, sugar and almonds were incredibly rare and expensive.
While many of our ancestors enjoyed flavour combinations that you’d rarely see today (the combination of sickly sweet fruits and gamey meats from all sorts of animals in a pie doesn’t enjoy the same popularity it had in the nineteenth century), there are some bakes that have stood the test of time. Here are some of our best recipes that can be traced back hundreds of years.