The Cornish Association of
Western Australia Inc.
(Re-Established 1991)
Ginger Fairings
Fairings were at one time gifts or trinkets sold at all the local fairs. Later, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries these gifts became cakes or biscuits sold at the gingerbread stalls. The gingerbreads or parkins of the North contained oatmeal. In the South and Scotland, the more expensive white flour was used. Gingerbreads in Cornwall became known as Fairings and are at thin ginger biscuit.
Ginger Fairings 1
Ginger Fairings 2
Cornish Pasty Recipes
The original pasty was a fish wrapped in pastry, made for the Cornish Tin-Miners to take for lunch. Fish has been replaced with meat and vegetables for very many years. For a family dinner it is usual to mark each person's initial in one corner of the pasty in case some is left over, then each one claims his or her corner.
Cornish Pasty 1
Cornish Pasty 2
Cornish Heavy Cake
Purely regional, and mostly from the area south of Truro, these cakes were made in the fishing villages where seine nets were used. When the net was being hauled in and the men were shouting 'Heave' with every pull, the wives knew the mean would soon be in for their tea and would make this quick flat cake to be eaten warm or cold. It has a diamond criss-cross pattern marked on the top with a knife depicting the fishing net.
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