Читать книгу The British Baking Book - Regula Ysewijn - Страница 26

Caraway seed cake

29

For 6–8 people

14 Tbsp (200 g) butter, at room

temperature

1 cup (200 g) superfine sugar

4 eggs

2 cups (250 g) plain white flour

1 Tbsp caraway seeds and/or 2 Tbsp

mukhwas

1 Tbsp baking powder

butter, for greasing

flour, for dusting

For a 3½ x 6–inch loaf tin

Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare the loaf tin (see page 21).

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a

time, and make sure that each egg is completely incorporated before adding

the next one. Add a teaspoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the

mixture from separating.

Stir the caraway seeds and/or mukhwas (if using) into the batter, then fold in the

remaining flour and the baking powder so that the volume is retained. Spoon the

batter into the cake tin and smooth out the top. Place in the middle of the oven and

bake for 45–50 minutes. A skewer inserted in the center of the cake should come

out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and

let cool on a rack.

Caraway seed was a very popular addition to British baking in the past. Nowadays, however, it is a taste we usually

associate with Scandinavia. Around 1900, May Byron gave regional recipes for seed cakes from Gloucestershire,

Cheshire, Kent, Yorkshire, and Ireland, but we know from other books that seed cake was also very popular in

Cornwall. Old recipes also say to add caraway comfits. These are caraway seeds that have been given a white sugar

coating, a tedious task that took hours over an open fire, applying the sugar coat seed by tiny seed. Caraway comfits

can be compared to Indian mukhwas, the difference being that they use fennel seeds and add a colored sugar coating

rather than white. The different colors of the mukhwas add a nice touch to the cake. I usually use a combination of

mukhwas and caraway seeds, but you can easily use just seeds and have an equally nice cake. You can also replace

the caraway seeds with crushed cardamom seeds.