Has anyone noticed how many terms there are for bread cobs up and down the country ? The ones I've seen are : Cobs (our Derbyshire one), baps,balms(Lancashire I think) buns, batches(from Warwickshire ?) Can anyone name any more, and where from. And aren't dialects wonderful ?
Here in Lancs they are barms, not balms. But yes agree, if you move out of your district and ask for a barm say down Souffff they'd probably look at you as if you were daft.
I'm from Manchester too, I (born in New Moston) have always called them Muffins whilst my boyfriend (born in Ardwick) has always called them barms/barm cakes. I'm assuming the differences are because of the area