Gardening in the Blackmore Vale: Tips for Growing Local Flower Varieties

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5 February 2025

The Blackmore Vale, nestled in the heart of Dorset, is a region known for its rolling green landscapes, charming villages, and a deep connection to nature. The mild climate and fertile soil make it an ideal place for cultivating a variety of flowers, many of which have been growing here for centuries. Whether you’re an experienced gardener, just starting out, or even looking for inspiration to brighten someone’s day—perhaps by deciding to send flowers to Australia as a thoughtful gift—choosing the right plants for this region will ensure a flourishing and vibrant garden.

Understanding the Blackmore Vale’s Climate

The temperate maritime climate of Blackmore Vale provides mild winters and warm summers, with steady rainfall throughout the year. This creates excellent conditions for growing native and traditional flower varieties. However, with the region’s clay-heavy soil, proper drainage is key to avoiding waterlogging, especially in wet months. Selecting hardy, well-adapted flowers will make gardening easier and more rewarding.

Best Local Flowers to Grow in the Blackmore Vale

1. Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) – These striking, tall flowers thrive in woodlands and cottage gardens. Preferring partial shade and well-drained soil, foxgloves attract bees and butterflies, contributing to the local ecosystem.

2. Primroses (Primula vulgaris) – A springtime favorite, primroses flourish in damp, shaded areas. They are perfect for garden borders and bring an early burst of color after winter.

3. Cowslips (Primula veris) – Often found in meadows, cowslips are excellent for wildflower gardens. They do well in sunny spots with well-drained, slightly alkaline soil.

4. Meadow Cranesbill (Geranium pratense) – A hardy perennial with violet-blue flowers, meadow cranesbill requires minimal care and thrives in both sun and partial shade.

5. Oxeye Daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) – These cheerful wildflowers are a common sight in Blackmore Vale’s fields and meadows. They prefer poor, well-drained soil and need little attention once established.

Planting and Care Tips

● Soil Preparation: Improve heavy clay soil by adding compost and grit to enhance drainage. Most native flowers prefer well-drained, nutrient-rich soil.

● Watering Wisely: While natural rainfall often provides enough moisture, young seedlings and newly transplanted flowers may need additional watering during dry spells.

● Mulching for Protection: Applying mulch around plants helps retain moisture, suppress weeds, and enrich the soil. Organic mulch like bark chips or leaf mold works best.

● Encouraging Pollinators: Native flowers attract bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. A diverse mix of plants ensures a healthy, pollinator-friendly garden.

Seasonal Gardening Tips

● Spring: Start seedlings indoors before transplanting them outdoors. Keep soil moist to support early growth.

● Summer: Deadhead foxgloves and geraniums to extend their blooming period. Deep watering is necessary during dry spells.

● Autumn: Divide perennials like meadow cranesbill to promote stronger growth for the next season. Collect seeds from wildflowers for future planting.

● Winter: Protect tender plants from frost by applying mulch or fleece. Prune back dead foliage to encourage healthy regrowth in spring.

Bringing the Beauty of the Blackmore Vale to Your Garden

Gardening in Blackmore Vale is more than just a hobby—it’s a way to connect with the region’s rich landscape and biodiversity. Whether you’re cultivating a wildflower meadow, a cottage-style garden, or a simple backyard retreat, these native flowers will thrive with the right care.

And while tending to your own garden can be incredibly rewarding, sometimes sharing the beauty of flowers with others is just as meaningful. Let the natural beauty of Blackmore Vale inspire you to grow, give, and celebrate flowers in every way possible.

Experienced IFA Client Services Administrator | Wessex IM

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Editorial team

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1 February 2025

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As an experienced IFA Client Services Administrator with a minimum 3-5 years’ experience, you will be integral to enhancing client relationships within our financial services team. You will know the difference between a platform provider and a life company, a SIPP from an investment bond.

This role requires strong communication (verbal and written) skills in support of our Financial Planning Consultants. You will have a professional telephone manner, superb client service skills and know how to access information easily and speedily from providers. You will be working in a dynamic environment with exposure to all aspects of financial planning and wealth management.

Benefits:

Competitive salary reflecting level of experience
Death in Service, Contributory Pension, employer-sponsored private medical insurance and 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
Assistance with improving your industry qualifications and continuing CPD
All the tea and coffee you can drink, the occasional foodie Friday or tasty Tuesday and a dynamic vibrant workplace!

The Job:

37.5 hours per working week
Office based role in Shaftesbury with free parking

The company’s ethos is one of sustainability and responsible investing; acting with the utmost degree of integrity and professionalism at all times.

Wessex Investment Management is a “Living Wage Employer” a member of The Organisation for Responsible Businesses and a signatory to the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Investing.

If you want to know more contact Lisa Bailey via email l.bailey@wessexim.co.uk or on 01747 859411

WESSEX INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

The Wincombe Centre, Wincombe Business Park, Shaftesbury, SP7 9QJ

NORDCAT Community Transport to close after 23 Years

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Laura

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31 January 2025

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NORDCAT (North Dorset Community Accessible Transport), the Sturminster Newton-based charity that has provided transport services to elderly and isolated residents for over two decades, has announced it will cease operations on 14th February due to financial difficulties.

The charity, which has struggled to secure alternative funding following the loss of key education transport contracts, has confirmed that staff will be made redundant and the office will close. Passengers have been notified of the decision.

Chairman Cllr Pauline Batstone said: “We bitterly regret the abrupt withdrawal of this service, which has been a social lifeline to so many over the years. People have become friends with our staff and other passengers.”

While the closure will leave a gap in community transport provision, some support remains available through the Community Connections charity, which runs a Community Cars Scheme for lunch clubs, meal deliveries, and medical appointments.

Previous Transport Challenges

NORDCAT’s financial struggles follow the revocation of most of its vehicle permits in 2022, after an inquiry by the Traffic Commissioner found serious concerns over vehicle maintenance. The commissioner’s report highlighted a high MOT failure rate and inadequate maintenance systems, appearing to lead to the loss of key contracts, including one with Kingston Maurward College.

At the time, Commissioner Kevin Rooney stated that inspections showed “not one compliant record in the entire bundle” and that vehicle safety checks had been inconsistent. Following the inquiry, NORDCAT was unable to continue operating its education transport service, which had previously subsidised its wider community transport provision.

A NORDCAT spokesperson told The BV: ‘To clarify, the Kingston Maurward College contract was awarded to a logistics company through an open tendering process, well before any complaints were raised with the Traffic Commissioner. That company then had to source buses to fulfil the contract.

‘NORDCAT completely refuted the Traffic Commissioner’s judgement, and all our buses passed an independent inspection following the Commissioner’s report. The permits not renewed at the end of the academic year were those for the larger buses that were no longer needed after the Kingston Maurward contract ended, and those vehicles were disposed of. Our smaller vehicles continued to operate under Community Transport Association permits.

‘The education contract had provided a stable income that helped subsidise our wider community transport service. Once that ended, our reserves steadily depleted until we reached the point where closure became unavoidable.’

With no sustainable funding model in place, and amid the rising costs of operating such services, the charity has been unable to continue. Any remaining assets will, where possible, be used to support the work of Community Connections.

For those in need of alternative transport options, the Community Cars Scheme can be contacted on 01258 473154.

With no sustainable funding model in place, and amid the rising costs of operating such services, the charity has been unable to continue. Any remaining assets will, where possible, be used to support the work of Community Connections.

For those in need of alternative transport options, the Community Cars Scheme can be contacted on 01258 473154.

47 Healthy Cows Slaughtered – James Cossins’ TB heartbreak

By

Laura

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31 January 2025

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In the first BV Podcast of 2025, Terry and Jenny get straight on with tackling some of rural Dorset’s biggest issues. We start, as always, with Laura’s Letter From The Editor, in which she provides a small voice of reassurance amid the frantic New-Year-New-You clarion calls.

Then, as usual for Episode 1 of the month, Dorset’s political voices weigh in:

Simon Hoare, MP for North Dorset, critiques Labour’s early missteps, discusses the potential impact of devolution on Dorset, and fiercely rebukes the Reform Party’s stance on farming.
Ken Huggins of the Green Party champions imagination as a tool for change, urging Dorset residents to focus on solutions over anxieties.
Gary Jackson of the Lib Dems laments the delayed social care reforms, calling for better planning and investment in Dorset’s future.

“While we may disagree on policy, we all share one essential thing—the land we live on. Let’s imagine and create the future we truly want.” – Ken Huggins

The Housing Debate: Who Decides Dorset’s Future?

The latest Dorset Insider column from our anonymous Parish Councillor explores the bureaucracy and broken systems behind local planning decisions, with concerns swiftly rising about local knowledge being overlooked.

“If Dorset’s strategic councils are formed at a regional level, will local voices still be heard? Or will decision-making become detached from those it affects most?” – The Dorset Insider

Dairy Farmers vs. TB Testing: A System Under Fire

Dorset dairy farmer James Cossins shares the recent harrowing experience of TB testing when 47 seemingly healthy cows were slaughtered due to test inaccuracies. With no visible TB lesions found, James calls for urgent investment in better diagnostics and a viable vaccine.

“Sorting 47 animals onto lorries for slaughter was one of the saddest days I’ve had in my long lifetime of farming. Seeing our stock bull of eight years destroyed for nothing was gut-wrenching. The system is broken … We’re testing and culling healthy cattle while waiting on a vaccine that’s always ‘five years away.’ It’s a waste of animals, time and taxpayer money.” – James Cossins

And we finish with your Letters:

BV readers weigh in on Dorset’s crumbling roads, the council’s neglect of Dorset’s food and drink sector, and the underwhelming Christmas lights in Sturminster Newton.

Dorset’s food and drink producers should be a crown jewel, not a dusty trinket the council forgot it owns.” – BM, retired farmer and cheese lover

These interviews were based on articles found in January’s BV, which can be read here … grab a coffee and jump in to the Dorset-ness. News, opinion, people, wildlife, art, farming, what’s on, horses … and frankly stunning photography.

Did we mention it’s FREE?

The BV is Dorset’s go-to magazine – named ‘Best Regional Publication in the UK’ (ACE Awards) and ‘Regional News Site of the Year’ (Press Gazette) in 2024. Brimming with Dorset’s people and places, it’s too good to miss!

Teaching Assistant with combined HLTA responsibility at Milborne Port Primary School

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Editorial team

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27 January 2025

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TEACHING ASSISTANT HOURS

12.5 hours per week – Worked over Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Actual Salary £6,770

HIGHER LEVEL TEACHING ASSISTANT HOURS

5 hours per week – Worked over Wednesday and Friday pm

Actual Salary £3,123

38 weeks per year

Fixed term to 31.08.2025 initially with potential opportunity to extend

Start date 3rd March 2025

Will be enthusiastic, flexible and highly motivated to prepare and deliver lessons to individuals,

groups and whole classes in the planned absence of the teacher, i.e. for PPA or leadership duties;

Has relevant HLTA or equivalent qualifications or the desire to do so;

Will work collaboratively with teaching staff and assist teachers in the whole curriculum planning

cycle and the management/preparation of resources;

Will need to be able to cover classes across the school;

SEND experience advantageous but not essential;

Will be expected to show a high degree of initiative and be able to react to given solutions with

integrity and compassion;

Can inspire and motivate children and enable them to be the best that they can be;

Has the ability to encourage every child to learn, aspire and achieve;

Has the enthusiasm, skill and desire to make a difference

Closing date: Friday 7^th February at 12 noon

Interviews to be held on: Friday 14^th February

Telephone Number: 01963 250366

Email: Office@MPPrimary.co.uk

Fish cobbler

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Editorial team

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26 January 2025

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This is a simple twist on a classic fish pie, replacing pastry or mashed potato with a cheesy scone or dumpling type topping which bakes beautifully to give a soft middle and crunchy top. I’ve used smoked salmon here, but you can replace that with any type of fish or even prawns. Serve with a jacket potato for a wonderful, warming winter dinner. Heather x

Ingredients
(serves six)

For the sauce:

3 heaped tbsp butter
2 large leeks, chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
Small glass of white wine
400ml milk
5 fillets of your fish of choice, cut into chunks.

For the topping:

280g/10oz self raising flour
110g/4oz cream cheese
1tsp caster sugar
50ml milk (approx.)
30g/1oz cheddar (or parmesan) cheese to finish

Heather Brown is a special officer for the Guild of Food Writers, and has worked in the food industry for 20 years. She is a food writer and photographer, offering one-to-one help to local businesses for content and websites. Images: Heather Brown

Method

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chopped leeks and cook until the leeks have begun to soften. Pour in the white wine and cook for two to three minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and mix well. Slowly add the milk, stirring, until everything has combined and then bring to the boil, still stirring continuously. Once boiled, remove from the heat and set to one side.
In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar and cream cheese. Mix to combine (using your hands here is easiest). Then add the milk, a little at a time, until the crumbs combine to form a soft, sticky dough.
In an oven proof dish (approx. 25cm/10inch square or similar), add the fish chunks and pour over the sauce. Stir together and spread evenly across the dish. Using your hands, break the dough into pieces and place them gently on top of the sauce. Spread them out – its ok if there are gaps, but you want the dough to stay on top of the sauce.
Grate the cheddar cheese on top, then place into the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

A wetland revival

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Editorial team

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25 January 2025

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How Dorset Wildlife Trust is restoring ponds, protecting species and tackling biodiversity loss with the help of the Species Survival Fund

Dorset Wildlife Trust received government funding last year to revitalise over 500 hectares of habitats – including woodlands and ponds – across 18 sites in Dorset. The funding, part of the Species Survival Fund, aims to halt and reverse the decline in species abundance by preserving vital habitats and creating nature-rich landscapes.
The UK’s rain-soaked landscapes provide ideal conditions for wetlands – dynamic ecosystems where water meets dry land. These habitats support a rich diversity of species, including dragonflies, damselflies, wading birds such as curlew and snipe, carnivorous plants, and fluttering butterflies. Historically, wetlands covered a substantial part of the UK landscape. Before Roman times, as much as 25 per cent of the British Isles may have been wetlands. However, modern development, agriculture, and drainage have drastically reduced their extent, leaving them to cover just three per cent of the UK today.
Wetlands are vital ecosystems, yet many in Dorset and across the UK are in decline or poor condition. Dorset Wildlife Trust is working to expand and revitalise wetlands across several of its nature reserves with government support.

Great crested newt in Dorset.
Image: John Bridges

Understanding wetlands
Wetlands are dynamic ecosystems, varying in size and shape, and defined by the presence of water – still or flowing – for extended periods. They may contain freshwater, brackish, acidic, or saltwater and act as vital transitional zones between land and water. Their distinctive soils and vegetation are specially adapted to saturated conditions.
Healthy wetlands provide critical benefits, including carbon storage, flood mitigation and rich plant life that offers shelter, nurseries and breeding grounds for wildlife.
As environmental challenges intensify, restoring and protecting wetlands is vital for biodiversity and human wellbeing.
Through the Species Survival Fund project, Dorset Wildlife Trust is working to restore and create new wetlands across nine of its nature reserves, including Brownsea Island, Lyscombe, Peascombe, and Nunnery Mead. This network will help wildlife move across the landscape, meeting their needs during different life stages and seasons.
One example is Brooklands Farm, Dorset Wildlife Trust’s headquarters, where a well-established pond is home to great crested newts, a protected species. Maintaining such habitats is essential, as ponds can quickly become overgrown with vegetation. To ensure light reaches the water’s surface and encourages aquatic plant growth, willows around the pond edge are carefully pruned. This work is timed for late autumn and winter to minimise disturbance, ensuring it takes place after the breeding season and once juvenile newts have migrated to land.
The clearance has reduced the number of dominating species around the pond edge, allowing a variety of other, less aggressive, plant species to flourish, including marginals such as native water-forget-me-nots which are already present but need a helping hand to become more established.
These provide a great place for species like the great crested newt to lay their eggs, and when in flower add a splash of colour to pond edges.
This intervention is needed because, before humans changed our landscapes by parcelling up land with boundaries, wild ponds would have a diverse mix of wildlife coming to their edges to drink, feed, bathe and hunt. The larger mammals visiting would trample and graze the vegetation, maintaining the open areas of the pond edge. Wetland restoration and creation, then, combined with traditional habitat management techniques, are crucial for preserving biodiversity, improving water quality, and mitigating climate change in Dorset. Success relies on collaborative efforts between government bodies, conservation organisations and local communities.

Restoration of Dorset wetland in progress.
Image: Brian Bleese

The Species Survival Fund initiative is funded by the Government’s Species Survival Fund, developed by Defra and its Arm’s-Length Bodies. It is delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency.

Love in triangles – the Bloomsbury set in Dorset

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Editorial team

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24 January 2025

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Photograph of the participants in The Dreadnought Hoax

Dorothy Parker famously said of the Bloomsbury Group that “they painted in circles, lived in squares, and loved in triangles.” While this group of writers, artists, and intellectuals was based in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, they often ventured beyond London – particularly to Dorset, and especially to Studland.
The group’s core consisted of sisters Virginia Woolf, the writer, and Vanessa Bell, the painter. Around them were economist John Maynard Keynes, novelist EM Forster, post-impressionist painter Duncan Grant, art critic Roger Fry and biographer Lytton Strachey. The spouses – art critic Clive Bell and essayist Leonard Woolf – were also integral. Many in the group were bisexual and had numerous affairs, rejecting Victorian conventions in favour of bohemian ideals that prioritised personal relationships and individual pleasure.
Virginia and Vanessa’s father, Sir Leslie Stephen, first brought them to Lyme Regis in 1901. They returned to Studland with friends in 1909, perhaps inspired by Stephen’s work editing one of Thomas Hardy’s novels. For Virginia, who struggled with bouts of severe depression, the trips offered respite from London.
The new train service to Swanage brought many artists to Purbeck for the first time, drawn by its dramatic coastline and downlands dotted with clay pits and prehistoric barrows. Dorset artist John Everett encouraged his contemporaries from the Slade School of Fine Art to visit. Inspired by the area, the Stephen sisters often brought their friends along.
In a 1909 letter from Studland, Virginia wrote: ‘Julian rushes straight into the sea. Nessa tucks her skirt up. Clive dives from a boat in a tight black suit. Yesterday I hired a gentleman’s – it was bi-sexual – bathing dress, and swam far out, until the seagulls played over my head.’

The Dreadnought Hoax
In 1910, Virginia and Vanessa returned to Dorset with friends, including Horace de Vere Cole, who was known for his
elaborate pranks. At the time, there was a rivalry between the officers of HMS Hawke and
HMS Dreadnought, the Royal Navy’s flagship stationed at Portland. A friend from the Hawke joked to Cole: ‘Couldn’t you do something to pull the leg of the Dreadnought? They want taking down a bit.’
Taking up the challenge, Cole and his friends staged one of the most famous hoaxes in British history. Disguised as Abyssinian royals – complete with blackface, turbans and robes – they tricked the Navy into giving them an honour-guarded tour of the Dreadnought. Unable to find an Abyssinian flag, the Navy used Zanzibar’s flag instead and played its anthem.
Throughout the tour, the group communicated in a mix of Latin and Greek gibberish, punctuated by cries of “Bunga, bunga!” De Vere Cole ensured the prank gained national attention by sending photos and an account of their escapade to the Daily Mirror. While the Navy was humiliated and threatened the hoaxers with symbolic caning, no real punishment followed and Virginia later drew on the experience for her short story,
A Society.

Cliff End Villa in Studland – still a holiday cottage today, it was rented by Lady Ottoline Morrell during Easter 1911.
Here, she began her affair with philosopher Bertrand Russell

The War changed all
In 1911, Vanessa and Virginia stayed at Harmony Cottages in Studland with Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry. Both Fry and Vanessa painted scenes from their holiday – and began an affair. Fry’s Studland Bay, one of the first post-impressionist paintings by an English artist, used simplified forms and mosaic-like shapes. Vanessa’s Studland Beach reflected similar influences, particularly Matisse, with its bold colours, rhythmic lines and simplified forms. The painting is often regarded as a visual equivalent to her sister’s experimental literary work, To the Lighthouse.
The sisters were also active in the women’s rights movement. Vanessa captured a leading suffragist on Studland Beach holding a Votes for Women pamphlet, highlighting the political undercurrents of their time.
Lady Ottoline Morrell rented Cliff End Villa in Studland during Easter 1911. There, she began an affair with philosopher Bertrand Russell, exchanging more than 2,000 love letters.
In her open marriage, Lady Ottoline was unafraid to take other lovers.
Leonard Woolf married Virginia in 1912, though their relationship remained platonic. Vanessa once observed that Virginia “never had understanding or sympathised with sexual passion in men.”
The group returned to Dorset in 1913, but with the outbreak of the First World War, the Bloomsbury Group retreated to Charleston in Sussex. There were still visits to Dorset, such as when Virginia and Leonard saw Thomas Hardy at Max Gate in 1926 – but the visits were more sporadic.
The Crichel Boys
After the Second World War, Dorset welcomed a new bohemian circle echoing the Bloomsbury spirit. Three “hyphenated gentlemen-aesthetes” – Eddy Sackville-West, Eardley Knollys and Desmond Shawe-Taylor – bought Crichel House on Cranborne Chase. Bed-hopping was de rigueur at their bohemian weekends of croquet and connoisseurship, recreating some of the intellectual atmosphere of the pre-war Bloomsbury set.
Guests included Duncan Grant, EM Forster and Vita Sackville-West, Virginia Woolf’s former lover. Vanessa Bell painted at Crichel House but Virginia was no longer part of these gatherings, having taken her own life in 1941, during the Second World War.
by Rupert Hardy
The Tate has a fascinating gallery of images available to view, all taken by Vanessa Bell during the 1910 stay on Studland.

The inviting taste of a savoury cake

By

Editorial team

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23 January 2025

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We British are renowned for our sweet cakes – but it took a French cook to create some savoury alternatives

Fanny Charles’ savoury courgette, gouda and parsley cake, recipe opposite

From Mary Berry and Delia Smith to the creative and exotic creations of the Great British Bake Off, we British have a lifelong love affair with cakes. The BV’s own Heather Brown regularly provides inspiration with her always-reliable and easy-to-follow recipes for beautiful and delicious cakes, buns and other bakes.
We are also really good at pies, tarts and cheesecakes – savoury and sweet. And we do make carrot cake, courgette cake or beetroot brownies … but these are all sweet. What we don’t have is a tradition of savoury cakes.
Last year, at a buffet lunch given by a friend who is a brilliant cook, we were introduced to savoury cakes and instantly fell in love. Light, delicious and very attractive, they are full of colourful vegetables like peppers, tomatoes and courgettes. Our friend loaned us a book, Les Cakes de Sophie*, by French baker and cookery writer Sophie Dudemaine, from where she had selected her recipes. I have been experimenting with them ever since.

Savoury cakes are quick, easy to make, most cook in less than 40 minutes and they are fairly inexpensive in terms of ingredients.
You can eat them hot and fresh from the oven, perhaps with a bright chilli, tomato and herb salsa or a favourite sauce. But they are just as good at room temperature, with a salad.
They are fine for vegetarians, but less so for vegans, as they do depend on fresh eggs and a selection of good cheeses (however, with a bit of trial and error and a good vegan cheese substitute, you probably could make a satisfactory vegan version).
Our current favourite is a date, feta and sun-dried tomato cake – it looks pretty and it tastes delicious. It’s great with a peppery green salad, and also good as a quick lunchtime snack or sliced to have in the car on a long drive.
This flexible use is what you might expect – most traditional English cakes (not the fancy, iced and decorated ones) are portable and versatile.
But with their colourful ingredients – some can even be layered like a terrine – the savoury cakes are also an appealing feature on a party table.

Anglo-Saxon cake
Over more than 20 years, Sophie Dudemaine has made her name as a successful cookbook author, cookery teacher, baker and pioneer of the so-called “easy cooking” trend in France. She ran a cookery school, restaurant and bed and breakfast in Normandy. She is a prolific writer and many of her books focus on cakes both sweet and savoury – she has acknowledged that some of her inspiration derives from the Anglo-Saxon style of cakes.
Most of the savoury cake recipes follow a simple formula of flour, eggs, sunflower oil, warmed semi-skimmed milk and gruyere cheese, with other cheeses, herbs, vegetables, smoked salmon or prawns for the different cakes. Like most basic recipes, you can tweak and embroider the original combination to suit your tastes. The quantities are pretty flexible too.
You could also experiment using your own preferred basic sweet cake recipe – using, for example, a simple sponge mix of 100g butter, 2 or 3 eggs (depending on size) and 100g self-raising flour, but omitting the usual sugar. As with a basic sweet cake recipe, you can multiply the quantities to make a larger cake.
Cooking times may vary – check that your cake is cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle. The mixture is more like a batter than a typical sweet cake, so you may have to experiment with timings. But if the skewer comes out clean, the cake should be ready. If it’s not quite ready but is getting too brown, cover it with a piece of greaseproof paper or foil.
Above is the recipe for our courgette and cheese savoury cake, which starts with Sophie’s core mix of flour, eggs, oil and milk. You can vary this basic recipe with whatever takes your fancy – eg substitute stoned dates, cut in three or four pieces, for the courgette, and use as many as you want, remembering that dates are very sweet; replace the gouda/gruyere with roughly cut up feta, and use a few more tomatoes, but omit the parsley (you could use a few torn fresh basil leaves, if you have them).
*The cookbook is in French, but with the power of Google Translate at our fingertips this isn’t a problem!

Courgette, gouda and parsley savoury cake
Makes 8 to 10 slices

Set oven to 180ºF, Gas 4
Line a loaf tin or square tin (the size you would use for brownies) with greaseproof paper – there is no need to grease the tin.

150g self-raising flour
3 eggs
13ml warmed semi-skimmed milk
10ml sunflower oil
150g grated firm courgette (skin on)
150g grated gouda (or gruyere)
50-60g sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, very roughly chopped
Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, roughly chopped
Grated farmhouse Cheddar for topping

Gently mix the flour and eggs together until fully combined. Then stir in the warmed milk, thoroughly, and then the sunflower oil. At this stage it is a very loose batter. Grate the courgette and fold it in, grate the cheese and mix that in, and then stir in the chopped sun-dried tomatoes – fold them in gently – and finally the parsley.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and put in the oven. After about 15-20 minutes, check on its progress, and then sprinkle on a generous amount of finely grated Cheddar. The cake should be ready after a total of about 30 to 35 minutes, but timings depend on the shape of the baking tin – if it is a deep loaf tin it will take longer than a square brownie tin.

Gardening in the Blackmore Vale: Tips for Growing Local Flower Varieties

Experienced IFA Client Services Administrator | Wessex IM

Benefits:

The Job:

NORDCAT Community Transport to close after 23 Years

NORDCAT (North Dorset Community Accessible Transport), the Sturminster Newton-based charity that has provided transport services to elderly and isolated residents for over two decades, has announced it will cease operations on 14th February due to financial difficulties.

47 Healthy Cows Slaughtered – James Cossins’ TB heartbreak

The Housing Debate: Who Decides Dorset’s Future?