Ah,
nice to see you again! Today I'm making a seed cake. That's an old recipe but still
very popular especially in the evening with a madeira. For this recipe you will need...
Milk Butter
Eggs Sugar
Flour and Caraway Seeds
I've started by creaming my butter and sugar together and now I'm going to separate the eggs.
Remember, for all cakes your ingredients must be room temperature and by that we mean larder
temperature, not kitchen temperature! Imagine, when the kitchen is lit with
all the ranges and the fire it gets quite hot even though this kitchen is well ventilated.
Your sugar and flour should be kept in the dry larder. Milk and butter in the cooler larder.
Now I'm going to put the eggs into the mix
and loosen it with some milk.
I can't imagine that there's a table across the country that doesn't have seed cake on
it once in a while. It's very popular with all classes although less seen on elegant tables.
It's the kind of cake you'll be presented with when you visit an inn and are a little peckish.
I quite enjoy it in the evenings after the cooking is done and dinner has gone up,
with a piece of cheese.
This makes it lighter for baking especially if it's been in the dry larder for a while
and it removes any bugs or bits of chaff that may have flown in from the mill.
Not that we get anything like that here!
You can buy roller milled flour. It's very nice and lasts longer. But we buy locally.
Lord Braybrooke believes that wealthy families should support local businesses,
not that that stretches to the buying of tea or confectionary. We get that sent up from London.
I'm now going to mix this in very gently.
And now add my caraway
seeds.
Caraway seeds are often used to prevent bad breath although to be honest a good
toothbrush and tooth powder will do the job better. Some recipes call for caraway comforts
and that's caraway seeds coated in sugar but this one just has plain caraway seeds.
I'm now going to whisk my egg whites.
You could add baking powder I support but I don't like it. It makes the cake taste soapy.
I prefer to use well whisked egg whites to give the cake some fluff. It is the mark
of a badly trained girl I think, the reliance on chemical additions rather than what she's learnt.
I'm now going to very gently mix this in.
And now I'm going to put it in my cake tin which I've already
lined with butter and a sprinkling of sugar.
And now it's ready to go into a moderate oven for about an hour.
The cake has been baked and cooled. Now I could serve this to Lord and Lady Braybrooke. But
actually this cake is destined for the upper servants' table for the likes of myself, Mrs
Warwick and Mr Lincoln the butler and the other upper servants. In fact as I won't be there when
the other servants have their tea as I'll be here in the kitchen, I'm going to have my slice now.
And there we have it. Seed cake.