Wales in the world: Patagonia
Patagonia black cake recipe
“The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people. It is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects.”
I’ll just leave that there for a moment for you to contemplate.
Believe it or not, this is a direct quote from the 1847 Reports of the Commissioners of Enquiry into the State of Education in Wales – a public inquiry by three monoglot English parliamentarians. Speaking no Welsh, it is likely that their ‘research’ came from the testimonies of English-speaking Anglican ministers (at a time where the Welsh Christian movement was increasingly non-conformist). The findings in the three report volumes (bound in blue leather) encouraged practices such as the Welsh (k)not used in classrooms – where a child caught speaking Welsh would be given a piece of wood, often hung around their neck, for the rest of the day (or until someone else was caught) to stigmatise them and the language. Whichever child was wearing the (k)not at the end of the day would be subjected to some form of corporal punishment.
Welsh author Robert Jones Derfel famously coined this determined attempt at eradicating the Welsh language as Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (Treachery of the Blue Books).
With this increasing attack on the Welsh language, culture and freedoms, it was little wonder that a wave of emigration began. There had already been Welsh tracts established in the USA (more on this another time), but many of them had already started to lose much of their Welsh identity. A man who had seen this first hand in Ohio was Michael D Jones, who resolved that a new colony away from external influences was needed if the Welsh language and culture were to survive. He looked towards Australia, Palestine and Argentina.
A publisher and printer, Lewis Jones (from where the Patagonian town of Trelew gets it name), and politician Captain Sir Love Parry-Jones (whose Welsh home gave its name to what is now Puerto Madryn) set off to Argentina to see how suitable some unsettled land in the south of the country would be for a new ‘Wales’. They deemed it appropriate and went about canvassing for people at home in Wales to join them on this new adventure across the world.
By 24 May 1865, 153 Welsh settlers including tailors, carpenters and miners had paid their £12 for the voyage on the tea clipper Mimosa, and set off from Liverpool across the Atlantic to start their new lives in Argentina, in Y Wladfa (The Colony/Settlement). Sadly when they arrived, they didn’t find the fertile lowlands that had been promised to them, but instead a semi-arid desert.
They trekked inland from Puerto Madryn and set up houses in what is now the Chubut Province’s capital, Rawson, only for the dwellings and many of their possessions to be washed away by flash floods. But they persevered. And with the help of the native Tehuelche people from whom they learnt to hunt, and an ingenious irrigation plan thought up by settler Rachel Jenkins to dam and redistribute the Chubut River (Afon Camwy) they began to prosper. Not just prosper, but thrive.
In just 20 years, Y Wladfa’s wheat production had reached 6,000 tons and was winning prizes all over the world for its quality. And by the late 19th century there were around 4,000 people of Welsh descent living in Chubut. It’s thought that today, there are around 50,000 people with Welsh heritage in Patagonia. A hundred and fifty-six years since the first settlers landed, Welsh is still spoken and taught in schools and coexists alongside Spanish, there is an annual eisteddfod held in Trelew, and plenty of handed-down traditions, names, stories and links from ‘little Wales’ to the homeland and back again.
The Recipe
Torta Negra Galesa (Patagonia Black Cake)
There’s a running joke between me and my flatmate that I can relate anything back to Wales (a bit like the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding does with Greece) so it came as no surprise to her that I could relate her homeland of Argentina back to my homeland of Wales.
Not long after Shannon had moved in, I was rustling up some Welsh cakes and she mentioned that they didn’t look like torta galesa (Welsh cake) that they have in Argentina. She was right of course, these being two very different recipes but with the same name when translated. What we know here as Patagonia black cake, they know as Welsh black cake. I’d never made one before so went to trawling recipes books and online to find more about it.
The cake is so called because of all the dark fruits and sugar used, which gives it a deep, rich colour when baked. Apparently the story goes that when the settlers fell on hard times, each family clubbed their food resources together (one putting currants, another sugar etc.) to create a substantial fruit cake. Something that was calorific to give them much-needed energy, and something that would keep for long periods of time without spoiling. They created this fruit cake based on the wedding cakes they knew from back home, but using what they could lay their hands on.
What shocked me was that as I was testing out the cake, Shannon said, “I think one of the layers of my mum’s wedding cake was torta Galesa. It’s quite common”. I knew that this tradition was known in the south of Argentina but to find out that it is quite common in Buenos Aires for those with no Welsh heritage blew my mind.
Supposedly, the torta galesa layer is kept for the first year of the marriage, and either a slice is cut and eaten each of the first twelve months, or it is shared out on the first anniversary. It’s meant to represent the determination and perseverance of the settlers to succeed, and in a similar vein, the married couple’s resolve to make their marriage as success.
If you visit Welsh Patagonia, you can taste torta negra galesa in the Welsh teahouses that exist there. While there are many different ways of making it, this is the most common and makes a lovely afternoon treat – no need to wait for a wedding!
Ingredients (serves an army – or at least 20 generous helpings)
150g raisins
150g currants
150g sultanas
100g mixed peel
150ml dark rum
200g butter or Stork for Cakes
200g dark brown sugar
4 eggs
400g self-raising flour
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1.5 tbsp cocoa
75g chopped almonds or walnuts
1tbsp icing sugar
Method
In a large bowl, soak the raisins, sultanas, currants and mixed peel in the rum (you can do this overnight for better results). Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/170°C and grease and line a large deep cake or loaf tin.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and coffee-coloured. Slowly beat in the eggs bit-by-bit. If it looks like it’s starting to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.
Sift the flour cocoa, and fold into the mixture along with the spices.
Finally, fold in the soaked fruit (and any leftover rum) and the chopped nuts until you have a smooth thick batter.
Transfer the mix to the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 1.5 hours until a skewer when inserted comes out clean.
As the cake cools, brush with a little extra rum. Mix the icing sugar together with a drop of water and gently brush it all over the cake to form a very thin sugar crust.
As with any cake, I think this tastes better the next day. It’s great with a cuppa as a celebration cake, an alternative to Christmas cake, or served in thin slices with butter and cheese.
If you try it out, don’t forget to tag any photos with #mywelshkitchen
The Playlist
To me, cooking and music go hand in hand, whether that’s singing at the top of your voice using a wooden spoon as a microphone while waiting for pasta to boil, or dancing around with the oven gloves on as the oven timer counts down. Here are this week’s ideas for your Welsh Kitchen playlist.
It’s a Patagonia playlist this week. Firstly, we have a piece from the soundtrack to the film Patagonia (a great watch if you are interested Y Wladfa) and the second is by Pedwar Patagonia. This quartet made up of Marcelo Griffiths (tenor), Billy Hughes (Baritone 1), Fabio González (Baritone 2) and Héctor MacDonald (bass) – came together in the town of Gaiman, Patagonia.
Patagonia by Joseph Loduca and Angelo Badalamenti
Y Deryn Pur by Pedwar Patagonia
The Pantry
Good food is nothing without good ingredients and thankfully there are plenty of fantastic Welsh products on the market. Here is where you’ll find recommendations to stock up your cupboard, fridge or fruit bowl.
Cradoc’s Savoury Biscuits
Last week, we spoke all about cheese. But what is cheese without a good cracker I hear you cry?! Never fear, I am here to offer answers – this week in the form of Cradoc’s Savoury Biscuits. It’s difficult to pick out one particular product from this lovely cracker company based in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, but I do rather love their beetroot and garlic vegetable crackers. They use real veg and strictly no palm oil, which gets a big tick from me. They also do hampers, which make lovely gifts.