Seed cake is a traditional

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

cake flavoured with

caraway Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Etymology The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...

or other flavoursome seeds. Caraway seeds have been long used in British cookery, and at one time caraway-seed biscuits were prepared to mark the end of the sowing of the spring wheat. These particular biscuits later evolved into this distinctively flavoured tea cake. James Matterer reports that recipes for seed cake are found in A.W.'s ''Book of Cookrye'' (1591) and ''The English Huswife'' by Gervase Markham (1615). The cake was popular in the 1700s, and through the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

. Recipes for it are included in many early cookbooks, including

Hannah Glasse Hannah Glasse (; March 1708 – 1 September 1770) was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. Her first cookery book, ''The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'', published in 1747, became the best-selling recipe book that century. It w ...

's ''

The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy ''The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'' is a cookbook by Hannah Glasse (1708–1770) first published in 1747. It was a bestseller for a century after its first publication, dominating the English-speaking market and making Glasse one of the ...

'' (1747) (note that there are recipes for "''cheap seed-cake''" and "''a rich seed-cake, called the nun's cake''"),

Elizabeth Moxon Elizabeth Moxon ( fl. 1740–1754) was an English writer known for her influential cookery book: ''English Housewifry''. She has been called one of "the female pioneers of English culinary writing". Her book was presented as practical help for "M ...

's ''English Housewifery Exemplified'' (1764), Amelia Simmons' '' American Cookery'' (1796), Mary Eaton's ''The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary'' (1822), and

Isabella Beeton Isabella Mary Beeton ( Mayson; 14 March 1836 – 6 February 1865), known as Mrs Beeton, was an English journalist, editor and writer. Her name is particularly associated with her first book, the 1861 work '' Mrs Beeton's Book of Household ...

's ''Book of Household Management'' (1861). "Seed cake" and "caraway cake" often have different recipes (see, e.g., recipes number 231 "carraway cake" and number 235 "seed cake" in Elizabeth Moxon's 1764 cookbook, and recipes for "carraway cake" and "seed cake" in Mary Eaton's 1822 cookbook). Caraway seeds were so popular a flavouring that they appear in at least 14 cake or biscuit recipes, as well as other items, including soap, a treatment for "hysterics," and as a bait for rat traps in ''The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary''. The

Goosnargh Goosnargh ( ) is a village and civil parish in the City of Preston district of Lancashire, England. The village lies between Broughton and Longridge, and mostly lies in the civil parish of Whittingham, although the ancient centre lies in ...

cake is a similar cake or biscuit named after the village in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

References

External links

British cakes {{dessert-stub