What the Heck are Lardy Cakes? ‘The Great British Baking Show’ Finale Technical Challenge

The Great British Baking Show saved its shaggiest Technical Challenge for last. For the final Technical Challenge of the 2023 season, judge Paul Hollywood asked the three remaining bakers to make eight evenly sliced lardy cakes. Prue Leith was ecstatic that he had chosen such a classic bake. Matty Edgell, Josh Smalley, and Dan Hunter, on the other hand, were all stymied by the bake. Noel Fielding joked that no one had made lardy cakes since “the war,” and Alison Hammond laughed when she realized no one knew what they were doing. So what exactly are lardy cakes? And were they a good idea for the final Technical Challenge on this year’s The Great British Baking Show on Netflix?

The final episode of The Great British Baking Show pit three very different bakers against each other in a battle royale for a cake stand. Throughout the competition, Josh Smalley dazzled the judges with his elegant Showstoppers, but he often didn’t dazzle them quite enough to win Star Baker. Dan Hunter was the tent’s first Star Baker of the season, but soon proved to be his own worst enemy, sabotaging himself with overly ambitious plans. Matty Edgell ran under the radar throughout the season, but took every one of Paul and Prue’s critiques to heart, consistently improving week after week.

So who would win? Well, in between impressing Paul and Prue with eclairs and three-tiered celebration cakes, the three remaining bakers had one last Technical Challenge to complete. The bake? Lardy cakes. What are lardy cakes? Well, that’s what we’re here for. Here’s everything you need to know about lardy cakes, the final Technical Challenge of The Great British Baking Show in 2023…

What are Lardy Cakes? The Great British Baking Show Final Technical Challenge

So what exactly are lardy cakes? Well, as their name would imply, they are cakes made from lard. As Paul Hollywood explains to Prue Leith, they were popular for hundreds of years as a way to use up extra lard. Historians actually suggest they were probably created to use up excess flour on the single day a week folks would have access to an oven. Either way, they were popular in several southern English counties for hundreds of years. Alas, though, because they haven’t been all that popular in recent decades.

A lardy cake is made of flour, lard, sugar, spices, and dried fruit. Paul Hollywood describes it as a cross between a Danish pastry and bread. That’s because the dough starts off as a simple bread dough, but then bakers add layers of laminated lard after the dough’s first prove. It’s meant to have a layered texture like pastry. And yet! It’s a bread! But it’s technically called a cake!

Eager to make lardy cakes at home? Make sure you actually use lard! Okay, you could technically use butter, but then they would be butter cakes? (I think?) But seriously, if you’ve got a yen to make lardy cakes, you’re in luck! Paul Hollywood has shared his own personal lardy cake recipe on the official British site for The Great British Baking Show.

Go forth and be lardy with it! Was this a good idea? I guess! It’s a weird old British bake and, after all, that should be what The Great British Baking Show is all about.