King Alfred’s Cake
Walking through a woodland you will often see ash trees with black blobs on them, usually on dead branches or on branches that have fallen off the tree. This has several names including coal fungus or cramp balls or King Alfred’s cakes. These hard, semi-spherical black lumps are usually about 3-4 cm in diameter and are the fruiting bodies of a fungus, which decays the dead wood of the ash tree. The photo shows the inside of one of these pictured on a log in my back garden - not on an ash tree.
Legend has it that King Alfred, when in hiding from the Danes, once burnt some cakes by failing to take them out of the oven. These fungal growths, which look as if they have been burned, are a reminder of his poor cooking and hence are nicknamed “King Alfred’s Cakes”, but their correct Latin name is Daldinia Concentrica. They grow in either a black form or a dark brown – perhaps the lighter colour shows that Alfred did remember to take out the cakes before they were totally incinerated!
The black variety can be very useful for lighting fires because the inner flesh, once dried out, can be easily lit from a “firesteel” (this is an “artificial flint” which creates a spark for starting fires, much used in bushcraft). A spark will ignite the flesh of the fungus and, although it burns slowly like a barbecue briquette, once it has been lit one can transfer the glowing part to a ball of tinder and get a flame started.
Like so much in woodlands once you know to look for these you look out for them and see them very often.
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6 comments so far
Hallvord R. M. Steen
4 April, 2007
Such mushrooms (perhaps not exactly the same type) are used to make paper in Norway and Sweden. I’m not sure about the practical value of doing so but the paper looks quite rustic with clear fibers - a pretty effect.
Tracy Pepler
6 April, 2007
ooh, I would love to know how to make paper with mushrooms…. do you know, is it just pulped in the same was as using old paper?
Tracy
Mike
9 April, 2007
This should answer your question:
http://bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/Mycology/UsesOf_Fungi/industrialProduction/papermaking.shtml
Mike
12 April, 2007
Here’s some more info, and magnified photos of paper produced from fungi:
http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/celtica/fungi/paperb.htm
danny
23 May, 2008
hi im a 14 year old scout and i love this stuff its helped me enormously even now in this time of year i still find king alfred’s cakes on birch trees. normally i would use horse hoof fungus but they are out of season now and i can’t find any. know of any other useful natural tinders that will light with a spark?
Edward Bainbridge
7 August, 2008
I only recently started trying to light fire without matches. I find King Alfred cakes easy to do with either a fire steel or the magnifying glass on a compass. Horse’s hoof I find more difficult - am I doing the right thing? I cut it thinly (about half or a quarter of a cantimetre) then use either a fire steel or a magnifyer. I find it difficult to catch a light and doesn’t burn so hot when you blow it. Should I batter it to get it thinner? or soak it in something? I have also tried cutting it in 1 cm cubes but again, failed to get it alight. I do dry it for a couple of days first.