These aren’t cakes at all – rather, they're tender, scone-like bites, filled with savoury snippets of fried bacon and melty cheese.
Hailing from post-War Birmingham (hence the name Brummie), they were cooked up in households across the West Midlands in the mid-19th Century as an affordable, filling, portable snack – and a canny way to use flavoursome, cheap bacon trimmings from the butcher.
They’re at their best warm, split and spread with butter – or even filled with more cheese and bacon.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 225g self-raising flour
- 30g unsalted butter or lard
- 75g (around 3-4 slices) smoked streaky bacon or bacon offcuts, cut into small pieces
- 100g Cheddar, grated
- 150ml milk
- Large pinch salt
- 1 tbsp ketchup (optional)
- Splash Worcestershire sauce (optional)
To finish:
- Milk
Method
1. Set the oven to 200C and line a baking sheet.
2. In a pan, fry off the bacon snippets until cooked through, with golden fat.
3. Rub the butter into the flour. Add the salt and bacon and its juices and rub through. Add half the Cheddar, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.
4. Pour in the milk and use a knife to bring the dough together.
5. On a floured surface, form the dough into a flat 18cm round, then cut into four pieces with a sharp knife. Brush with milk, and top each one with the remaining cheese.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
