Is It Cake? Fishcakes on Bread Cakes

The Brits, famously, cannot agree on what to call a bread roll. A simple round soft roll that an American might think of as a hamburger bun might have a half-dozen different names depending on what part of England you’re in–a roll, sure, a bun, maybe, but a cob, a bap, a barm, a batch? A stottie? A tea cake? A bread cake? UK bread rolls The terms may not be entirely interchangeable. The Platonic ideal of a Scottish morning roll may not look much like a stottie or a tea cake. But in much the way that an American might use the word “bun” to describe a sticky bun or a cinnamon roll, a hot cross bun or a steamed Chinese bao (not to mention bread rolls of various shapes designed to accommodate hot dogs or hamburgers or bratwursts) someone in Western Yorkshire might use the phrase “tea cake” to describe a sweet roll with dried fruits baked into it–or it could mean a simple round bread roll to be split in half, buttered, and filled with bacon and brown sauce. Bacon and brown sauce in a tea…