Editing Pontefract cake

{{Short description|Type of liquorice candy}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2009}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}

{{Infobox food
| name             = Pontefract cake
| image            = PontefractCakes.jpg
| image_size       = 280px
| caption          = A pile of Pontefract cakes
| alternate_name   = Pomfret cake, Pomfrey cake
| country          = United Kingdom
| region           = [[Yorkshire]]
| creator          =
| type             = [[Confectionery]]
| served           =
| main_ingredient  = [[Liquorice]]
| variations       =
| calories         =
| other            =
}}

'''Pontefract cakes''' (also known as '''Pomfret cakes''' and '''Pomfrey cakes''') are a type of small, roughly circular black [[candy|sweet]] measuring approximately {{cvt|0.75|in}} wide and  {{cvt|4|mm|order=flip}} thick, made of [[liquorice]], originally manufactured in the [[Yorkshire]] town of [[Pontefract]], England.

==Name==
{{expand section|date=November 2013}}
The original name for these small tablets of liquorice is a "Pomfret" cake, after the old [[Normans|Norman]] name for Pontefract. However, that name has fallen into disuse and they are now almost invariably labelled "Pontefract cakes".  The term "[[cake]]" has a long history. The word itself is of Germanic origin, from the Germanic "kakâ" (cook).<ref>{{cite OED | Cake|id=26116 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RhcuEAAAQBAJ&dq=pontefract+cakes&pg=PA76|title=The History of Sweets|last=Chrystal |first=Paul |publisher=Pen and Sword History |date=2021 |isbn=9781526778888|page=75}}</ref>

==History==
The exact origins of liquorice growing in England remain uncertain. However, by the 16th century there is record of the activity, possibly via monastic gardens and as a garden crop for the gentry. During the 17th century it was recorded as being grown in areas with alluvial soil overlying magnesian limestone such as in Surrey, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. [[William Camden|Camden]]'s ''[[William Camden#Britannia|Britannia]]'' of 1607 noted the crop in [[Worksop]] and Pontefract.<ref name=chartres>{{cite book| first=John |last=Chartres |author-link=John Chartres|chapter=A special crop and its markets in the 18th&nbsp;century: the case of Pontefract's Liquorice |title=
People, Landscape and Alternative Agriculture Essays for Joan Thirsk|editor-first= R. W. |editor-last=Hoyle
|series=The Agricultural History Review Supplement, Series 3|date=2004|isbn=0 903269-03-1|page= 116}}</ref> By 1780 liquorice growing was concentrated almost wholly in Pontefract and in Surrey, around [[Godalming]].

In Pontefract the growing of liquorice was done on plots of land behind people's houses.  In a map of the 1648 [[Siege of Pontefract]] (reproduced by Chartres<ref name=chartres />) the liquorice is indicated as being grown in "garths" either side of Micklegate, the street which runs between Pontefract's Market Place and the castle.

In the 18th century liquorice was used as a medicine both for humans and for horses. The Pontefract cake "was almost certainly a black cake, the portable lozenge used to make 'liquorish water', stamped with the castle lodge emblem of Pontefract to signify quality. This trade mark had been employed on Pontefract cakes since 1612, when the initials 'GS' were used, and are thought to be those of Sir [[Sir George Savile, 1st Baronet|George Savile]], major local landowner; and a second die-stamp from 1720."<ref>Chartres 2004, p. 118.</ref>  It was only in the 19th century that it was used extensively for confectionery. Of the merchants in the 18th century, [[apothecary]] chemist [[George Dunhill]] (later bought by German confectioner [[Haribo]]) was the most important.  In 1760, Dunhill added sugar to the medicinal liquorice;<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacEacheran |first1=Mike |title=The strange story of Britain's oldest sweet |url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190710-the-strange-story-of-britains-oldest-sweet |website=BBC Travel |accessdate=15 July 2019 |date=11 July 2019}}</ref> he was also a grower of liquorice.<ref>Chartres 2004, p. 124 Table 1.</ref> It was not until 1810, that [[Ewbanks Liquorice|Firth Confectioners]] (eventually known as Ewbanks) joined Dunhill in producing sweet liquorice.<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Sweets|last=Chrystal|first=Paul|date=2021|isbn=9781526778888|pages=78–79|publisher=Pen & Sword Books }}</ref>

With the growth of Pontefract cakes as confectionery the demand for liquorice outstripped the capacity of Pontefract growers to supply. By the late 19th century the 12 firms producing liquorice confectionery relied mainly on extract imported largely from Turkey.<ref>Chartres 2004, p. 132.</ref>

==Production and design==
Originally, the sweets were embossed by hand with a stamp, to form their traditional look (the workers who did this were known as "cakers" and were able to produce upwards of 30,000 per day), but now they are usually machinery formed. The embossed stamp was originally a stylised image of [[Pontefract Castle]] with a raven on the top bar, which is thought to have been in use for almost 400 years.<ref>{{cite book|title=Chronicles of Old Pontefract|year=1905|isbn=1152214659|page=203|author=Lorenzo Padgett|publisher=Old Hall Press, Leeds}}</ref> When the first [[secret ballot]] in the United Kingdom was held in Pontefract on 15 August 1872, the ballot box used was sealed using a Pontefract cake stamp from Frank Dunhill's factory, which shows the image of a castle and an [[owl]].<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/WryVwsknTr-aa4IQ-ID9iQ
|title = Pontefract's secret ballot box, 1872
|accessdate = 24 March 2013
|date =
|work = [[Wakefield Council]]
|publisher =
}}</ref>

==Health warning==
In 2004, healthcare professionals warned against overindulgence in Pontefract cake after a 56-year-old woman was admitted to hospital following an overdose. The woman consumed about {{convert|200|g|oz}} daily, leading to dangerously low [[potassium]] levels and subsequent muscle failure. Earlier in 2004, the European Commission had recommended limiting consumption of the active ingredient, [[glycyrrhizic acid]], to 100 mg or less per day.<ref>{{cite news
|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3733757.stm
|title = Woman 'overdoses' on liquorice
|accessdate = 25 September 2020
|date = 21 May 2004
|work = [[BBC News Online]]
|publisher = [[BBC]]
}}</ref>

==Literary references==
In [[Elizabeth Gaskell]]'s 1866 novel ''[[Wives and Daughters]]'', Mr Gibson, the local doctor and one of the main characters, has the following exchange with the father of one of his apprentices:

"Must my boy make the pills himself then?" asked the major ruefully.

"To be sure. The youngest apprentice always does. It's not hard work. He'll have the comfort of thinking he won't have to swallow them himself. And he'll have the run of the pomfret cakes, and the conserve of hips, and on Sundays he shall have a taste of tamarinds to reward him for his weekly labour at pill making."<ref>Chapter 4 'Mr Gibson’s Neighbours' in Penguin Classics 1996 p46</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Traditional British Sweets}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pontefract Cake}}
[[Category:Liquorice (confectionery)]]
[[Category:British confectionery]]
[[Category:Yorkshire cuisine]]
[[Category:Pontefract]]