Visitors to Cornwall may be intrigued when they see very large saffron buns displayed in bakeries as 'tea treat buns' for me they recall the Sunday School treats of my youth, when we paraded around the village carrying the Chapel banners and then went to a nearby field in the grounds of the home of one of the local landowners. Here we played games, ran races, and then, exhausted, were given these large buns and lemonade. I remember them as being larger than the ones we see in the shops today. In later years the children were taken by bus to a local beach, perhaps Carbis Bay, but by then I had become a 'grown up' and missed out on these events.

In making saffron cake it is important to use real saffron - although it is expensive - and not saffron essence (colouring really) as there is an immense difference in taste. Over 4,000 blooms of the autumn flowering Crocus sativas are needed to produce 1 oz (16 drams) of saffron. It is of course a yeast bread but we always think of it as 'cake' and personally I never spread slices with butter, believing that this masks its flavour.

• half a dram of saffron 2 lbs flour 1lb butter (or margarine)
• 2 oz candied peel
• 1 lb currants (or mixed dried fruit)
• 4 oz sugar
• 1 oz yeast pinch of salt warm milk

Dry the saffron strands on a piece of greaseproof paper, then fold the paper over and crush the contents with a rolling pin. Put in a small bowl and cover with two tablespoons boiling water, leave to soak overnight. Next day rub the butter in the flour, add the salt, sugar and fruit.

Warm a little milk and pour it over the yeast and one teaspoon of sugar in a basin. When the yeast rises, pour it, together with the saffron liquid, into a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly by hand, adding milk as needed, until smooth and free from the sides of the bowl. Leave in a warm place to rise for a while. Bake in a cake or loaf tin for about one hour at 190 C.

Alternatively the dough can be formed into buns, these will take 15 to 20 minutes to cook.

As a child I can recall being given yeast buns with caraway seeds by some elderly ladies (seedy buns), these were distinct from the better known seed cake made using a rubbed in mixture. You rarely went into a home in this area at Christmas time fifty years ago without being given a glass of homemade ginger wine, I don't know what recipe was used for that but it was possibly the same as the one given below for Cornish Mead, which I found in a book 'Cornish Recipes Old and New' by Ann Pascoe (published by Tor Mark Press in 1970).

Margaret E. Perry 

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