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Seed Cake

Seed Cake
Breads

General term for small cakes with seeds, typically caraway or poppy.


Caraway seed cake

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Original Receipt in 'English Housewifry' by Elizabeth Moxon, 1764 (Moxon 1764)

235. To make a SEED CAKE.

Take one quartern of fine flour well dried before the fire, when it is cold rub in a pound of butter; take three quarters of a pound of carraway comfits, six spoonfuls of new yeast, six spoonfuls of cream, the yolks of six eggs and two whites, and a little sack; mix all of these together in a very light paste, set it before the fire till it rise, and so bake it in a tin.




Original Receipt from 'The Complete Confectioner' by Frederick Nutt, 1789 (Nutt 1789)

No. 41. A small rich Seed Cake,

BREAK fourteen eggs into a copper pan, whisk them ten minutes; then take one pound of butter, and rub it well with your hand to a cream; put one pound of powdered sugar to the eggs, and whisk them over the lire three minutes, then whisk them till they are cold, afterwards mix them with the butter, with your hand as light as you can; put two or three handsful of carraway seed in, and some sweet almonds cut; and a little cinnamon and mace; mix one pound and a quarter of flour, as light as you can with your hand: put three papers inside your heap, and four or five at bottom, and let your oven be rather brisk; when you find your cake has risen, and the oven too hot at the top, cover it with a sheet of paper, and it will be done in about an hour and a half, or two hours at farthest.




Original Receipt from 'Pot-luck; or, The British home cookery book' by May Byron (Byron 1914)

844. SEED CAKE (Cheshire)
Take one pound of flour, one pound of sugar, one dozen eggs, quarter of a pound of caraway seeds. Put one pound of butter before the fire till it gets soft enough to beat it up; when well beaten with the hand, put in the sugar and beat it well, then the eggs, and afterwards the fiour. They must all be beaten as they are put in. Line your pan with buttered paper and put in the batter.

845. SEED BISCUITS (Kent)
Take three and a half pounds of flour, one pound of moist sugar, one and a half ounces of caraway seeds, one and a half pints of milk, and a little volatile salts. Wash them over with egg and sugar, and bake in a quick oven.
N.B. - The sugar should be dissolved in the milk and strained, for all biscuits.

846. SEED CAKE (Gloucestershire)
(Rich)
Take one pound of flour and a pinch of salt, six ounces of butter, three-quarters of a pound of castor sugar, four eggs, one teaspoonful of caraway seeds, one ounce of baking powder, one gill of milk or cream. Add the eggs well beaten, and work well together; thin down with milk. Add bakingpowder and seeds last. Let it stand on plate rack over oven (coolest part) for about one hour. Then bake in moderate oven about one hour. Sufficient for two medium-sized cakes.

847. SEED CAKE (Ireland)
Take one pound of butter beaten to a cream. Beat in one pound of powdered sugar (white); then beat in, one by one, a pound of eggs, each whole. Keep beating all together with a wooden spoon. Then add one pound of flour, well dried at the fire, and lemon or hawthorn whisky to flavour - a wineglassful. Beat at least one hour from the commencement. Bake in tin shapes lined with buttered paper. Bake about two hours. (The seeds have been omitted. Two ounces of caraways should suffice. Ed.)

848. COMMON SEED CAKE (Yorkshire)
Two and a half pounds of flour, half a pound of loaf sugar, one tablespoonful of thick yeast, half a pint of warm milk, half a pound of butter, one ounce of caraway seeds. Line a tin with buttered paper, put in the mixture, and set it before the fire to rise. Bake it about one hour in a rather hot oven. When done, brush the tops over with milk.



See also:
Cake Fritters
Mothering Buns
Northamptonshire Seed Cake
Seblet Cakes
Seed Cake
Soul Cakes


And receipts in:
A new system of domestic cookery, 1807
Bread and Biscuit Baker, 1890
English Housewifry, 1764
La cuisine anglaise, 1894
Modern Cookery for Private Families, 1845
Modern Domestic Cookery, 1819
Pot-Luck, British Home Cookery, 1914
Reform Cookery, 1909
System of Domestic Cookery, 1822
The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined, 1802
The Complete Confectioner, 1807
The Cook and Housekeeper's Dictionary, 1822
The Experienced English Housekeeper, 1769
The Lady's Assistant, 1777
The London Art Of Cookery, 1811
The Modern Cook, 1846
The Skilful Cook, 1884







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