How to make Gur Cake

Our Project Coordinator Ger shares how to make Gur Cake, one of her favourite recipes in our latest blog.

Reducing waste is a big issue, and in particular, food waste is something that Greener Kirkcaldy has always been very keen to address. One of our actions to keep good food in circulation is by redistributing it. We do that by processing it into tasty meals for our Community Meals Takeaway, and making it available for people to access at The Lang Toun Larder and our Community Fridge.

We are always really grateful for every donation and we find a use for most food items. One food item we always seem to have is unsold bread. While every day in the UK, 20 million slices of bread are thrown away (mostly because they are not used in time) there is also a lot of bread left on shelves in shops and supermarkets. You can explore ways to store bread for longer and find out how to use up leftovers here.

We have been using leftover bread in lots of creative ways, but there are only so many bread and butter puddings and breadcrumbs we can make. On the Isle of Bute, the Bute Brew Co turns leftover bread into beer and I have seen lots of bread recipes using beer so that could help the circular economy. Could there be other uses for bread not just in our homes, but also in industry and manufacturing? I am sure there are some great ideas and innovators out there – it would be great to hear about any you are aware of – please share them with us.

Here is my favourite use for leftover bread – Gur Cake from Dublin (or Donkey’s Gudge Cake if you are from Cork!)

Gur Cake was a favourite of Irish bakers to use up leftover or stale bread but it is quite rare to find it now. We made it at home at least once a week as a sweet treat. The ingredients have always been slices of bread, dried fruit, spices, brown sugar, pastry and anything else you might like to add. It has a lovely smell that always reminds me of Christmas so you could add some leftover mincemeat over the festive period. Some people add other ingredients like flour and eggs, which will make a richer Gur Cake. This is how I make it – I have always been a ‘bit of this and a bit of that’ cook:

Ingredients

 6-8 slices of stale bread

Hot water – a couple of tablespoons

A handful of dried fruit – more if you like a lot of fruit

A tablespoon of mixed spice or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

A handful of brown sugar

Any pastry – puff or shortcrust is fine.

Additions: mixed peel, orange zest, grated apple, mincemeat, cherries – I think every house will have its own recipe.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F. Lightly grease a 22cm {9″ square} baking tin with softened butter, then lightly flour the surface, and set aside.
2. Cover the bread with enough hot water to soak the bread, and leave it for a few minutes. Roll out the pastry.
3. Squeeze the water out the soaked bread with your hands. Add it to a mixing bowl along with the other ingredients. Combine well until you have a soft bready mixture. Taste, and add more spices and sugar if you like it sweeter and spicier
4. Cut two pieces of shortcrust pastry just big enough to fit inside the baking tin. Line the bottom of the baking tin with one piece of pastry, pour over the bread mixture and spread it level. Then cover with the second piece of pastry.
5. Prick the top pastry with a fork or score it three or four times across with a knife.
6. Bake for about an hour. Leave in the tin to cool completely. Cut in squares and sprinkle with icing sugar.

But why ‘Gur’ cake? It comes from Irish slang for ‘gurrier’ – children who skipped school were ‘on the gur’ so they were called gurriers. Gur cake was very cheap, gurriers would buy a slice to eat and that is where the name come from.