< May Day
< May Day Fun and Food

Milkmaid's Butter-Making
Buttermilk Cake
Maypole Cake
Flowers to Eat
Mayday Madness
May Day Jig
Merrie May Days
Going A-Maying
Maypole Whirl
Make a Maypole
Junket
Vanilla Ice-Cream with Orange Toffee and Cowslips

Buttermilk Cake

Use bought or home-produced buttermilk in this deliciously moist no-frills mix – a big hit with children who like slabs of plain cake for tea.

75g butter
150g caster sugar
150ml buttermilk (use the leftover from butter-making)
200g self-raising flour
Zest of ½ unwaxed lemon, grated


Preheat oven to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4. Line a 21cm x 11cm x 6cm loaf tin. Mix the butter and sugar together until slightly creamy. Slacken the mixture with half the buttermilk, stir in half the flour, then add the rest of the buttermilk, flour and lemon zest. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 30 to 40 mins. Leave in the tin to cool before turning out.