The thread about the Empire Biscuit, “all the sweeter” for not being German
“The Empire Under Attack”. An Empire Biscuit in the process of being eaten. CC-by-NC-ND 2.0, Trawets1 via Flickr
I usually write about Edinburgh and Leith local history, indeed that’s probably how you came to be here, but regular listeners will probably know by now that I occasionally like to foray into the realms of Scottish cuisine. Today’s topic is that quintessential teatime treat, the Empire Biscuit.
You probably have a vague inkling of its origins as the German Biscuit, but shall we get a bit more specific about its origins? Yes. Let’s.
In mid-1889 a recipe for German Biscuits were published in papers across the UK in a syndicated column called “Nice Dishes” – you’ll find it sandwiched between the Potato Cakes and a Cod Curry. With the exception of there being no cherry on top and the cinnamon in the dough, they are recognisable to us today; two softly-baked shortcake biscuits (not shortbread, they always include milk, egg and a raising agent) sandwiched with jam and given a sugar icing. They likely derive from the Austrian Linzer Auge, a similar shortcake and jam sandwich but one which has a hole in the top and is dusted with icing sugar. These weren’t the first British German Biscuit recipes however, the previous year the Eastbourne Gazette provided an altogether different sweet treat with much more egg and milk in the dough and served as a single layer flavoured with caraway seeds.
Falkirk Herald, 5th June 1889, the original recipe for the German or Empire Biscuit?
It is in 1896 recipe that we first find the glacé cherry being added as a decoration in the centre, in a Daily Record column called “Woman’s World (for ‘Fashion, Chit Chat and Home Hints’)”. But the cherry is not alone as a suggested garnish, this recipe also suggests pieces of candied angelica as an alternative. This recipe is repeated in London papers and over the following decade the garnish evolves to include chopped pistachios and the icing may be varied to include vanilla essence or cocoa powder.
Daily Record recipe for “German Biscuits for Afternoon Tea”, May 6th 1896
At this time there is nothing particularly Scottish about these German Biscuits, between 1889 and 1914 of the recipes for them which appear in the papers 66% are English publications and only 15% are Scottish. The popular story goes that it was the outbreak of WW1 that caused the re-christening of them to the Empire Biscuit in amongst the fit of patriotic pique to sign-up and de-Battenburg the county. And what do you know that’s actually true. Well, mostly. It is true that the papers were happily printing recipes for “German” biscuits right up until the declaration of war itself and only a month after the outbreak it fell to an unlikely source – the Campbeltown Courier – to announce the change of name for what another paper referred to as “a naturalised British subject“:
What’s in a name? The edible hitherto known as a “German” biscuit has been rechristened, and tastes all the sweeter as an “Empire” biscuit
Campbeltown Courier, 12th September 1914
So that part is true. But it wasn’t the only variant and in November the papers were also printing the recipe under the name Belgian Biscuit as a wave of national sympathy for the wartime plight of that country. “Lady Edith’s Household Column” of the Belfast Newsletter confirms in 1915 that Belgian Biscuits were “formerly called German Biscuits”. It also gives what seems to be a peculiarly Northern Irish variation on the recipe, with carmine-died sugar sprinkled in the centre of the wet icing to stain in. A key difference seems to be the Belgian Biscuit recipes never seem to include a cherry on top. They weren’t the only biscuit of this name on the market – in Glasgow, Macfarlane, Lang and Co. launched a “biscuit of short-eating character, moderately sweet, rich and mellow in flavour“.
Description of Macfarlane Lang’s “Belgian Biscuits” from “The Queen (The Lady’s Newspaper)”, January 1915
British bakers suffered during WW1 as imported wheat supplies dwindled and what was available was reserved for bread and heavily adulterated with the flours of other grains. As a result there is relatively little mention of biscuit recipes in the wartime press, but postwar they biscuits returned with renewed popularity and this is when they seem to establish themselves as a peculiarly Scottish delicacy, predominantly under the Empire Biscuit name. Of recipes printed in the papers post-WW1, 326 are in Scottish publications and only 13 are English. Looking at both recipes and the published results of baking competitions in Scottish print columns we can see the name emerges in the 1890s as the German biscuit, that Belgian and Imperial briefly replace it after 1914 but the Empire name is clearly dominant thereafter.
Line graph – Recipes and results of baking competitions printed in Scottish newspapers for various biscuits, 1880-1980.
Recipes in Scottish publications throughout the interwar period always give the Empire Biscuit as the shortcake and jam sandwich with water icing and glacé cherry garnish which we know today. English versions are rare but include adulterants such as mimosa or violet to garnish and coffee, chocolate or orange-flavoured icing! Back in Belfast, Lady Edith’s column was still going in 1938 when it printed the recipe under the heading “German or Imperial Biscuits“. By this time the entire icing was stained pink, not just the centre, and instead of a cherry she suggests a garnish of 3 slivered pistachios “to form a shamrock in the centre”. The Imperial Biscuit moniker was a rare variant; in 1921 December People’s Friend gives a recipe of that name in “Xmas Fare” section, complete with a cherry topping, and In 1925 Dundee Courier files it under “old Fashioned Recipes“.
Come World War 2, rationing and food control once again did for the availability of the Empire Biscuit. In 1942 the Midlothian Advertiser printed a recipe using dried eggs or “egg substitute” (I think this is a trick mentioned with respect to the Scottish Women’s Rural Institute of a teaspoon of custard powder) and had no jam, icing or cherry. These “war-time Empire Biscuits” are mentioned in occasional results for baking competitions in the papers. Post-war the SWRI, that bastion of the provincial baking competition and county show, included the Empire Biscuit as a staple in their cookbooks
The Scottish Women’s Rural Institutes cookbook, 6th edition, 1950. Cover.
The Empire Biscuit managed to escape from Scotland – there are recipes for it in a WW2 New Zealand rationing cookbook. In 1958 the Gourmet magazine in California describes it as a “jam-filled cookie, iced and cherry-topped” amongst what it called “Scotch baked goods“. American Betty Crocker cookbooks printed recipes for them in the 1960s but altered to suit American tastes and baking practice by using a vanilla cookie dough for the biscuit and a sugar cream icing. Canadian “Empire Biscuits” seem to be an altogether different, chocolate-based creation. In 1975 the Yorkshire Federation of Women’s Institutes lists it under shortbreads and describes them as being “called German Biscuits until the ’14-18′ war when the name was patriotically changed“
Cinnamon seems to finally die out in the recipes in the 1960s, the Aberdeen Press and Journal being the last to include it. Another regional Aberdonian peculiarity seems to be the alternative name of “iced double shortbreads“. Staying in the northeast, a 1984 recipe in the Grampian Cookbook by Gladys Menhinick is doubly interesting as it suggests the Empire name came from a push to use only imperial produce in the ingredients and – importantly – is the first I can find that includes a Ju-jube (or Jelly Tot) as garnish rather than a cherry. You’ll find this latter version is increasingly dominant these days. You can ignore the BBC version which uses a chocolate Smartie, that’s just nonsense.
Domestically, there must be a thousand and more variant recipes for Empire Biscuits that have handed down through the generations, with everyone swearing that it was their Granny who made the best! By kind permission, Heather Clark has allowed me to share her grandmother’s recipe from the mid 20th century here as an example.
Janet White’s well-used Empire Biscuit recipe, with kind permission of Heather Clark.
The Empire Biscuit has proved itself a convenient cultural touchstone for a number of Scottish authors and has entered the lore. Bill Paterson’s autobiography recalls Empire Biscuits from the City Bakeries in Glasgow and in Billy Connoly’s biography a sundae called a “McCallum” is described from the York Café in Hyndland that is made from vanilla ice-cream, raspberry sauce and Empire Biscuits. Any Scottish bakery worth its salt (the traditional ones that also sell pies, not the gentrified type that make you queue for a £10 donut) will sell you an Empire biscuit and they are made for shelf sale too. I’m also told they are popular in northeast England. So why not go treat yourself?
Modern industrially baked Empire Biscuits by Mortons Rolls in Glasgow and packaged for shelf sale
If you liked this deep-dive into Scottish popular cuisine then please check out my other threads about Macaroni Pies, Plain Breid, Morning Rolls, Lorne Sausage, Creamola Foam and more…
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