While we all contemplate the radical yellow and blue split that is now the UK, we have to remember that this is only a map pertaining to representation in Westminster. It is to be hoped that the Holyrood elections next year will introduce a healthy palette of other colours. I’m as happy as the next SNP voter with the strong vote of confidence in Nicola Sturgeon, the unprecedented landslide, and the party’s aim to have a louder voice in Westminster; but in both Scotland and England, both parliaments lack the balance of opposing views. In England especially, it will make for a right-wing climate that will be difficult to change.

It is cruel indeed that Sturgeon has been robbed of the opportunity to join forces with another party to take on the Tories over Trident, the NHS and education; but the failure of Labour to create any kind of understandable manifesto in both Scotland and the rest of the UK has been her undoing.

And how skilfully the Tory strategy has exploited that weakness. A leader who can’t eat a bacon sandwich, can’t make up his mind what he wants, and sinks £30k into a ridiculous Edstone, has been woven into a demonised portrayal of the Scottish Nationalists to create a distorted vision of the political landscape that polarised the vote. Afraid of a Labour/SNP alliance, the English voted for the Tories; with no credible Labour party responding to the changes brought by devolution, the Scots voted SNP.

Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933 with a similar plan; by removing the Catholic Centre Party from the electoral landscape with the connivance of the Vatican, he robbed the middle ground of 23m votes and forced Germany to choose between Communism and Fascism.

With that relentless focus on creating fear over the economy and the ‘disaster’ of a Labour/SNP alliance involving ‘the most dangerous woman in Britain’, Cameron has destroyed the Liberal Democrats, inflicted serious damage to the Labour party (although Milliband was a great help in this instance), and castrated the SNP.

Not so long ago, it was possible for people in all walks of life to get a job and be paid a living wage. Property was affordable and home ownership was not dependent on crippling mortgage payments. How strong is our economy really, when many people work with zero-hour contracts, and jobs do not deliver a living wage, forcing people to be dependent on the government by claiming tax credits? Tax credits equals another word for benefits, distorting the real picture of UK employment.

That Tory majority now makes the £100bn waste of money that is Trident a certainty, all the more galling for the fact that Scotland will be forced to host it, and the devious sell-off of the NHS unavoidable. With the Daily Mail already indulging in hysterical (and hysterically funny) anti-Scottish propaganda, the rift will widen.

On the plus side, the SNP has presented us with 50 brand new MPs, many of them young, and many of them women, who will offer a fresh political face in the jaded, corrupt old boys’ club that is Westminster. Sturgeon needs to keep her head down, keep doing what she’s doing and keep the faith; the positive response to her integrity, her willingness to engage with voters and her concentration on political goals are great assets. It will be interesting to see how her MPs perform in what promises to be a hostile environment.

I wonder, too, if Cameron’s real agenda is to cut Scotland loose; if he believes in the ‘stronger together’ notion, what is the attraction? Politicians never do anything for sentiment; with Scotland politically as diametrically opposed to the rest of the UK as it is now, what is the driver for continued Union?  With the rest of the UK largely blue and Scotland almost entirely yellow, the question is: What kind of a Union is possible now, when the rest of the UK’s electorate has been trained to be afraid of the Scottish electorate?

The other day, I decided to break one of my baking ducks and have a go at Eccles cakes. The combination of currants wrapped in sugar-frosted puff pastry is one of those simple delights that tastes great and offers textural contrast between the sticky fruit filling, the pastry flakes and the granular sugar glaze.

For traditional farmhouse baking, it’s always best to use an old cookery book. As my cookery books are currently buried in the shed – don’t ask – I found a recipe online, then consulted with my mother, whose copy of Good Housekeeping (copyright 1941)  is not buried in a shed. The online recipe was pretty close to the traditional one, which satisfied my need for authenticity. Apparently, Eccles cakes were first sold commercially from a shop in Eccles owned by James Birch, around 1796. In those days, the dough would have been yeast-raised, and the filling contained apples, orange, egg yolk, dried fruit and probably brandy or rum, as they were so popular they were exported and would need a preservative. 19th century recipes are closer to the ones we have today; with such elasticity of ingredients, there is no such thing as an original recipe, which means you can play a bit with the contents and still come up with something close to what people were tucking into over 200 years ago.

The only other issue was size; the online recipe stipulated 2 ½ ” pastry rounds, and the smallest thing I had was a beer glass at 3 ½ ” – the size given in Good Housekeeping. Even this turned out to be hopelessly small for the filling and sealing operation – I am not good with fiddly things. The first batch, whilst it cooked OK and tasted fine, had open-bottomed cakes because I couldn’t seal them properly.

The second attempt was much more successful. To compensate for my poor fiddling skills, I made them much larger – the pastry rounds are about 6-7” in diameter, which gives space for a dessertspoon of filling and a good margin of pastry for folding and sealing. The bigger size makes them good for sharing - or over-indulgence!

Pre-heat oven to 225C, Gas Mark 7.

Ingredients: about 1lb of puff pastry for the cases, plus egg wash for sealing and glazing, and sugar for frosting. Filling: 7oz mixed dried fruit and candied peel OR 5oz currants & 2oz chopped candied peel; 3oz melted butter; 4oz soft brown sugar; cinnamon & nutmeg; rind and juice of 1 orange, OR grated zest of 1 lemon.

Filling: Melt the butter and combine with all other ingredients in a bowl.

Assembly: On a floured board, roll out the pastry and cut into large rounds. Put a dessertspoon of filling into the centre of one half. Paint the edges and the other half with egg wash and fold over the filling, sealing the edges firmly, so it looks like a Cornish pasty. Sit the pastry parcel with the filling pouch at the bottom and the sealed edges upwards, and bring the corners together at the top, pinching them firmly into place. Turn the parcel over so the seam is on the bottom, and use the rolling pin to flatten the Eccles cake to about ¼ ” thickness. Place on a large baking tray covered with baking parchment.

Baking: Brush the tops with egg wash and scatter generously with sugar. Make three slashes across the top of each cake with a sharp knife. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack, but eat them while they’re still warm!

If you make your own mincemeat for Christmastime, using this as a filling would also yield good results.