Welsh cakes lose popularity as tastes change

With St David's Day on the horizon, it seems only right the Welsh would go back to their culinary traditions to celebrate the event.

But it seems Welsh cakes are losing their popularity in Wales, as well as the independent baker.

Brutons the Bakers have been a baking institution in South Wales for over 110 years, with the Bruton family setting up the business in 1893. At one of the eight stores and in-house bakeries in Cardiff, tucked away in a Grangetown side street, Richard Best talks about the lack of interest in Welsh culinary treats and the changes in taste in society today.

"Welsh cakes are dying a death," he said. "It's a shame but we have to adapt to the market to survive."

Mr Best, 30, oversees the running of the bakeries when his family took over from the Brutons in 2002.

"People just don't like dried fruit in cakes any more, they want things like chocolate cake," he said. "We do make Welsh cakes all the time but they're still not that popular. At St David's Day we'll up the count a bit, maybe to 2000. But we certainly wouldn't make Bara Brith any more."

Nicky Davies, 47, has been working at the bakery since 1980. Jovial and upbeat at work, he tells a similar tale of the changes in baking. "When I first started at 16, it was all about bread and confectionery," he said. "But now it's all about take-away sandwiches and fast-food."

Contrary to their traditional roots, the production of Welsh cakes is fast-paced and far from the image of a grandmother slaving away over a hot stove. Mixture is mixed and rolled by machine, before the cakes are cut with a rolling cutter and baked on mass on a hot plate.

"The process has speeded up considerably," said 38-year-old Neil Jones, another baker at Brutons. "Some of the traditional methods have been lost but it's far easier to produce this quantity now."

"I remember my father cooking Welsh cakes five or six at a time over a hot stone," he reminisces. "There's a sort of familial comfort that comes with Welsh cakes that doesn't come with anything else."
 

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