Sour cakes were traditionally made in the month of October for St Lukes Fast Day on the 18th October.
Making Sour cakes was a tradition that was only undertaken by women and as such the recipe was only passed on by word of mouth.
So how do we know about it? Well in the 1845 Statistical Accounts of Scotland, a Rev Peter Brown, wrote about this "unholy pagan" practice that was still being carried out by the women of the Rutherglen Parish. Most of the Statistical accounts of Scotland were written by churchmen so can be a little biased about what is and is not included.
The Rev Brown was so incensed by the practice (luckily for us) that he wrote the whole thing down.
10 days before the feast of St Luke, you take oatmeal and water, sugar and spice and lay it to ferment until the evening on the 17th.
As previously said these cakes are only ever done by women and they did not start
to cook them until after sunset.
A minimum of 7 women is needed and a large area inside a house is marked off near the fire, by drawing a line on the floor. No man may cross this line and if they do then a forfeit is to be paid - usually in alcohol!
The women all sit around the fire with their feet pointing towards the fire. One of the women is the Queen and sits next to the griddle. The lady to her left is called the Todler and the women to the left of the Todler is called the Hodler. The other women all have names too but the Rev Brown only mentions two - Mrs Baker and Worst Maid.
Each woman,apart from the Queen, has a bread board on her lap. The Todler starts by taking an amount of dough and makes it into a round. She then passes it to the Hodler who flattens it. The Hodler throws it onto the breadboard of the next woman on her left who flattens the round a bit more. The dough is then thrown from woman to woman until it reaches the Queen, who places it on the griddle for cooking.
The Rev Mentions that songs and chants are said while this is taking place, but he does not give any detail of these. The Rev also mentions that the women can sometimes get the cake so thin that it has been known to float up the chimney with the slightest draft!
Sour cakes are traditionally given away to strangers at a fair held in honour of St Luke.
To make Sour Cakes, first get your Coven together! The following recipe only requires the oats to be fermented for 24hrs and you can make it on your own, however making it with friends seems a lot more fun!
Ingredients
150 mls sour cream
150 mls warm water
150 grams rolled oats
flour
sugar
cinnamon or nutmeg
Mix the sour cream and water together in a large bowl.
Add the oats and stir well.
Now cover the bowl and leave to one side for 24 hours.
After 24 hours it is time to add the sugar and spices. We haven't given the amounts for the sugar and spices because it is a personal choice on how sweet and spicy you want the sour cakes to be. We added 2 tablespoons of sugar to ours and 2 teaspoons of nutmeg.
Give everything a good stir.
There are no measurements for the flour because each time we have made this, we needed different amounts of flour! The idea is to add flour, a wee bit at a time, until you have a dough that you can handle.
Once you have a dough break off golf ball sized rounds and place onto a floured surface.
With your hands flatten the ball out as thin as you can without putting holes in it.
Cook the flattened ball in a heavy based frying pan for about 2 or 3 mins each side. You should not need to use butter or oil to fry, but if you find it is sticking rub the pan with a little butter.
When cooked, place on a plate to cool. It is fine to just keep stacking them up as you cook them.