In her cottage kitchen on the outskirts of Coventry, Leigh Waite puts on her apron.
She is making her signature dish, a sweet treat that dates back 700 years.
Three years ago, by chance, she stumbled across the recipe while working as a Blue Badge tourist guide at St Mary鈥檚 Guildhall.
Her revival of the humble Coventry Godcake has been so successful she has launched her own business, the Heritage Cake Company, to breath new life into puddings from the past.
After gaining a reputation as a cake baker among her colleagues, Leigh鈥檚 journey began when fellow city historian David McGrory brought an old Godcakes recipe into the Guildhall for Leigh to recreate.
She made her first batch of Godcakes for the annual Heritage Weekend and the baked triangular treats sold... like hot cakes.
Since then, Leigh has made a staggering 6,300 Godcakes, baking regular batches for Esquires, the Transport Museum鈥檚 cafe, taking commissions for conferences and private events, and now featuring in a new book by Sunday Times best-selling author Caroline Taggart, A Slice of Britain.
For Leigh, Godcakes are more than sweet treats. They are a way of celebrating Coventry and connecting with its past.
But whatever you do, don鈥檛 compare them to Eccles cakes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nothing like an Eccles cake!鈥 she laughs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a crispy sugar-coated puff pastry parcel, filled with beautiful fruit, spices and loveliness.鈥
Despite Leigh鈥檚 reluctance to compare them, Godcakes are from a large family of puddings made from pastry and mincemeat.
Both round, Eccles cakes use flaky pastry while Chorley cakes use shortcrust.
Banbury cakes are oval-shaped and use shortcrust pastry while Godcakes use puff pastry and are easily distinguished by their triangular shape.
鈥淚t鈥檚 heavily religious,鈥 says Leigh, 鈥渁nd the three corners, as well as the three slashes across the top, represent the Holy Trinity. 鈥淪ome people also think they might represent the three spires in Coventry but that鈥檚 a much more modern idea.
鈥淭his is pre-Reformation and Godcakes were given by godparents to godchildren as a gift or a blessing at new year.鈥
Godcakes have survived over the centuries thanks to a succession of Coventry bakers keeping them alive.
Before Leigh adopted them, Godcakes were sustained by Craven Street鈥檚 family-run Pails鈥 bakery, which closed in 2008, and Doris Pails gave her compliments on Leigh鈥檚 recipe at the Heritage Cake Company鈥檚 launch in 2012.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 when I knew I was doing it properly,鈥 she says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great recipe, it鈥檚 relevant to the city and we should really get it out there.
鈥淎nd because the Godcakes have such a great story and history behind them, that made me want to start looking into other recipes.鈥
As word spread that Leigh was recreating dishes from days gone by, she was contacted by Ron Shuttleworth, from Earlsdon in Coventry who, after losing his wife, Jean, donated her much-loved recipe books to keep her passion for baking alive.
Today, Jean鈥檚 copy of Florence White鈥檚 Good Things in England, from 1932, is Leigh鈥檚 favourite source of inspiration.
鈥淲hen I opened the book it gave up the smell of the last thing she baked 鈥 fruit cake.
鈥淭his is a real cook鈥檚 book,鈥 she says, 鈥渋t鈥檚 my baby.鈥
A magazine article published 40 years ago has been folded up and tucked inside the front cover and the book itself contains recipes dating from the 1300s up to the 1930s, the type interspersed with Jean鈥檚 handwritten notes.
鈥淚n a way, this is her life鈥檚 work,鈥 says Leigh.
She鈥檚 now working to recreate Bosworth Jumbles 鈥 a favourite biscuit recipe of Richard III which, according to legend, was lost on the battlefield 鈥 and hopes the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre will stock them for visitors.
鈥淲e have so many amazing historical regional recipes that have slipped away,鈥 says Leigh.
鈥淩ather than confining them to the pages of old books I want to get them back out there, bring them back to life and get people tasting them again.
鈥淲hen you get into it and start reading and researching you begin to see patterns in how food has developed.
鈥淵ou can tie foods in with trading patterns, for example, so mincemeat dates back to the 1100s and the Crusades when they came back with nutmeg and cinnamon which started to be used in combination with fruit, and the trade link to slavery starts to see ships being filled with sugar and rum and pineapple.鈥
She adds: 鈥淧eople have become really keen on family history and finding out about our ancestors, but these recipes are what they would have eaten.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a practical use of history.鈥
Originally from Berkshire, Leigh also has roots in Derbyshire and Cornwall but had links with Coventry for many years through work and friends before finally coming to Hartshill in north Warwickshire.
Like the book she鈥檚 featured in, Leigh is most interested in recipes belonging to a certain place 鈥 Belvoir Castle buns, London Johnny cakes, Grasmere gingerbread and Cumberland rum Nicky.
She can make a Bedfordshire clanger to her husband鈥檚 gran鈥檚 recipe and, as she鈥檚 a quarter Cornish, enjoys cooking Cornish fairings.
Now, she鈥檚 digging out recipes from around the Midlands such as Leicester cheesecake and fill belly pudding, a Black Country baked dish of soaked bread mixed with suet, egg, butter, sugar, spices and fruit.
She鈥檚 reviving Walton ginger cake, from Warwickshire鈥檚 Walton Hall, and has found Birmingham recipes including a Quakers鈥 chocolate pudding made with Cadbury鈥檚 chocolate and a Harborne gooseberry and elderflower cream, popular with Victorians as a high tea dish in the suburb that was home to the Gooseberry Growers鈥 Society.
She鈥檚 now hoping to revive Coventry鈥檚 Corporation custard tart.
She says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 like egg custard but less sweet and with spices, and it probably hasn鈥檛 been made for a very long time.
鈥淭hey were cooked in the city for special occasions and there are records of James II鈥檚 table being so heavily laden with food one day that it collapsed covering him with custard.
鈥淚鈥檇 like to think it was Corporation custards he was wearing that day.鈥
Leigh would like to persuade the makers of TV鈥檚 Great British Bake Off to feature Godcakes in one of its episodes, taking heritage baking to a mainstream audience.
She says: 鈥淧eople can identify with these recipes because they are from their home towns.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just a disembodied thing. It feels more personal to people.
鈥淎nd they are great things to cook with young kids.
鈥淚t鈥檚 comforting and nostalgic and it鈥檚 food people can really identify with.鈥
Godcakes Recipe
Ingredients:
(makes nine godcakes)
* 500g puff pastry
* A breakfast bowl or jar of mincemeat (Leigh鈥檚 is made with currants, orange and lemon peel, spice mix and a secret ingredient)
* Milk to brush
* A bowl of sugar to coat
Method:
Divide the puff pastry into nine pieces.
Roll each one out into a flat square or rectangle just slightly smaller than an A5 piece of paper.
Put a dessert spoon of mincemeat into the middle of each.
Brush the edges of the pastry square with milk.
Take the two bottom corners and fold them over the mincemeat to make an envelope shape.
Now brush the bottom flap of pastry and fold the top two corners into the middle to make a triangle, left corner first, then right.
Turn over your folded triangle and coat the entire front side of it with milk.
Dip it into your bowl of sugar, then lift it out and sprinkle some more sugar on top for good measure. In the oven, this will become a thick sugary crust on one side of the Godcake.
Cut three small slits across the top of your triangle and bake your Godcakes at 200C for 15 minutes.
