Fishing Village · Currant Cake
Hevva Cake
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Gwikor Frank / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Its criss-cross pattern isn't decoration — it copies the pattern of a pilchard fishing net, a nod to the cake's roots as a fisherman's treat.
A currant-studded, lightly sweetened dough is rolled flat, scored in a diamond lattice, and baked until golden, then served in slabs. Cornish bakeries in fishing towns still sell it as a teatime slice.
Why it's made this way: Its name comes from the shout of 'Hevva!' that lookouts gave to alert Cornish villages that a shoal of pilchards had been spotted, and the cake was traditionally baked to celebrate a good catch.
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