The cycles of farming in Wales revolve around the weather and seasons, and also around the availability of labor. For sheep farmers, that traditionally includes shearing day, a different day for each farm so that neighboring farmers, farm hands, and day laborers can all help out. Getting this many people together means providing hearty food, and that's where cacen gneifo, or shearing cake, comes in. The traditional cake is rare these days, but once it was expected for shearing day. The cake is filled with butter, caraway seeds (for luck with a good harvest), lemon rind, and candied citrus peel, and after baking was sprinkled with powdered sugar. This cake would follow a generous lunch for the shearers, making it a celebration as well as a work day.
Old recipes for Welsh shearing cake vary, and you don't see it made much anymore. But Jamie Ellis found a recipe sent to The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine in the mid-19th century, and tried it out. Read about traditional shearing day celebrations and get the recipe for cacen gneifo, or Welsh shearing cake, at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Keith Moseley)
