Not long ago a box arrived at The Times filled with all sorts of treats from a Norfolk baker by the name of Stuart Oetzmann. There was a glorious Gloucester Old Spot pie, thick rashers of dark, smoky bacon, a couple of breads – one a wheat-free rye, carrot, hazelnut and raisin, if memory serves – plus the most phenomenal lardy cake. God, that was good. It had to be seen to be believed: the size of a hat box, all crisp and caramelly on the outside, with dense folds of moist dough and fruit within. When I close my eyes, I can taste it still.

The lardy cake had seemed a very welcome but unexpected inclusion. I’d always assumed they were a West Country thing – I remember them as a childhood treat when on day release from my Wiltshire boarding school – but a colleague insisted they were a northern speciality, born from the same oven as Eccles and Chorley cakes. So we looked them up, and discovered that they come from all over. In the days when ovens were only fired up once a week, any dough left over from making the week’s supply of bread would be made into richer cakes as the higher fat content meant they’d keep longer.

Whatever the origins, you just can’t find them the way you used to, not even at those resolutely old-fashioned baker’s. It’s very sad, and for the life of me I can’t understand what it is about a cake made of equal parts lard and sugar that has made it so darned unfashionable.

Time to ring this Oetzmann chap and rhapsodise about saturated fat. He turns out to be a young baker who, after a career as a pastry chef with the likes of Albert Roux and Sally Clarke, felt the call of his native Norfolk and set up the Metfield Bakery seven years ago. He is fanatical about traditional British foods, and wants to re-establish that link between the farm gate and the local baker. He supplies shops such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Fortnums, and sells online.

Stuart, about that lardy cake…

“Well, we’re very much a British bakery, and savoury tarts and pork pies are probably the largest portion of what we do. We have a lovely Norfolk rabbit, white bean, bacon and mustard pie on at the moment, and have made the tercentenary pie for Fortnums: it’s about 7kg and filled with goose, apple, chestnut, Old Spot…”

And the lardy cake…

“We’re trying to create a virtuous circle, using the leftovers from our bread-making to feed the pigs. We’ve got 12 breeding sows of our own, which produce about 100 pigs a year. And they go into the pies, of course, but also Bath chaps, black and white puddings, terrines…”

And presumably supply the lard for the…

“And on the bread front, I’m trying to re-invent the old traditions of British bread-making. They must have existed but have been lost along the way. I’m not hidebound to rustic European techniques. We make a wholemeal with flour from a farm in Suffolk. We let it prove for 15-16 hours, so you get so much flavour out of it.”

Stuart, what about the lardy cake?

“Oh, you liked it, did you? I’ve got to say, I’m faintly obsessive about them. We do cakes and puddings so well in this country, it's a shame so few bakers put them on nowadays. The secret to ours is we use half butter, half lard to make it a bit less porky. The butter gives more caramel flavour and the lard fries the sides to make the sugar really crispy. That’s essential. Then we ram them full of fresh and dried fruit, add a touch of all spice and cinnamon, a sprinkling of demerara…” And not a calorie in it.

The Metfield Bakery (01362 695340; www.metfieldbakery.com)

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