Reception Cake (tea-time treat for visitors)
Caraway Seed Cake
FestiveReconstruction🍯 🌶️moyen1 h 15
A buttery festive cake perfumed with toasted caraway seeds and lightly spiced with mace. A shared specialty between North Germany and England, sliced for distinguished guests around a teapot.
Why this dish? Seed cake was THE cake served to visitors in Georgian England, and caraway reminded the Hanoverian Caroline of the flavours of her German childhood. When William received his scholarly correspondents at Observatory House, such a cake could grace the table.
Ah, this one, I confess, took me straight back to the kitchens of Hanover where my mother toasted the caraway seeds! When a man of science came to converse with my brother, I made sure a seed cake was ready, golden as it should be, for a house devoted to the stars must still receive worthily. Beat the butter and sugar with a vigorous arm until the mixture whitens—that is the whole secret, and it takes patience, believe me. The caraway, bursting under the tooth, perfumes the mouth as much as the memory.
Ingredients
- •Wheat flour — one pound (structure)
- •Fresh butter — half a pound (tenderness)
- •Sugar — half a pound (sweetness)
- •Eggs — four or five (binder)
- •Caraway seeds — two good spoonfuls (signature flavour)
- •Ground mace — a pinch (spice)
- •Brandy or sherry — a small glass (aroma)
How it was made : Before baking powder (commercialised in the mid-19th century), the long beating of butter and eggs leavened the cake, sometimes aided by brewer's yeast. Caraway seeds were always toasted to enhance their aroma.