Caraway Seed Cake 2

I wrote a post on Caraway Seed Cake in March 2018 and in doing so found that although caraway is such a popular herb/spice in Poland and used in breads, meat & vegetable dishes, it is quite surprising that it is not used in cakes.

I looked in all my recipe books and did not find any use of caraway in Polish cakes.

Caraway Seeds

Caraway seed cake seem to be a quintessential British cake and recently whilst doing some research into Victorian cooking in the north of England I came across this delicious version.

As I live a short walk away from a house that Charlotte Brontë used to visit, I was very interested to find that seed cake is mentioned in her novel Jane Eyre (1847)

“And then Miss Temple invited Jane and her new friend Helen into her parlour for tea and I began to warm up. The kindly teacher unwrapped before their eager eyes a parcel containing ‘a good-sized seed-cake’.

‘I meant to give each of you some of this to take with you,’ said she, ‘but as there is so little toast, you must have it now,’ and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.

We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.”

This recipe has been adapted from –

Mrs Somerville’s Cookery and Domestic Economy, published in 1862 and found in – The Victorian Kitchen by Jennifer Davies BBC 1989 TV Series.

The original recipe used 10 eggs! – here the ingredients have been adjusted to 5 eggs.

How large the bowl must have been & how hard the whisking of the whites without an electric whisk.

Ingredients

225g butter
225g caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of cornflour
2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
50g ground almonds
5 eggs separated

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 180°C.

Use a loose bottomed cake tin – 24cm in diameter.
Grease the tin and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, cornflour, ground almonds & caraway seeds.
Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the yolks, one at a time creaming the mixture on each addition.
Fold the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.
Whisk the egg whites till firm and stiff.
Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth over the top.
Bake for 60 minutes, check after 50 minutes and cover with grease-proof paper if necessary – to prevent burning.
Leave to cool in the tin.

Caraway Seeds are thought to aid digestion – so this is a good cake to have at the end of a meal.

Royal Albert – Primulette tea set from the 1950s.

Lead Crystal cake stand – Tortenplatte – Venus by Nachtmann(Germany).

Grape Meringue Placek

This cake is a cross between my grape meringue cake and placek(flat cake) with rhubarb and meringue.

There are two parts to this cake

Short pastry base – baked and cooled
Grapes & Meringue topping.

Short pastry base

The base of this is made made from the recipe for Ciasto kruche 1 – using raw egg yolks found in a previous post – Pastry – ciasto kruche & półkruche.

However as the topping is sweet, I used less sugar in the pastry – you might be able to omit all the sugar – I have not tried this.

Ingredients – Base

300g plain flour
200g butter – chilled
50g icing sugar
4 egg yokes
pinch of salt

Method – Base

Add a pinch of salt to the flour.
Use a knife to cut the chilled butter into small pieces into the flour and then use your fingers to make the mixture like breadcrumbs.
Add the icing sugar and mix this together.
Add the yolks and gently mix them in
Bring it all together into a dough – try and handle the pastry as little as possible.
Form the dough into a rough rectangle.
Wrap the dough in grease proof paper and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to GM 6 – 200°C.
Grease and line a 33 x 23 cm baking tin – use one long piece for sides and base – helps to take it out.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough a little
Press the dough into the tin – filling it up all the sides.
Prick the surface with a fork.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes till golden.
Leave to cool.

Ingredients – Meringue

4 egg whites
200g granulated sugar
2 sponge fingers – crushed
*
300g seedless green grapes

Method – Meringue

Preheat the oven to GM 2 -150°C.
Place the whites into a grease free bowl.
Whisk till stiff.
Add granulated sugar and whisk again till stiff.
Fold in the crushed sponge fingers.
*
Place 1/3 of the meringue over the cake base.
Place the grapes over the meringue.
Cover the grapes with the rest of the meringue
Put into the oven for 50 – 60 minutes.
Leave to cool completely in the tin.
Cut the cake into squares when cool to serve.

Served here on Royal Doulton – Sonnet 1971-1998

Grape Meringue Cake

This recipe is from Pani Stasia *, she and my mother were at school together. She baked wonderful cakes and everyone loved this soft cake with seedless green grapes on the top within a mound of lovely meringue.

Many years ago I jotted down the recipe and now I found it amongst my many hand written recipes.

I obviously had not written it down very well and in my first attempt, although the topping part worked very well , the bottom cake part was not as I remembered it. Part of the problem was some of the measurements were in spoons and I think my conversions did not work out that well. Also I remember that seedless grapes used to be very small, now they seem to be much bigger.

My next attempt was a disaster! I tried cutting the grapes in half (bad idea) and I adjusted the base ingredients – the base did not cook well at all this time – a big gloopy mess – straight to birds.

One of a pair of wood pigeons that come into the garden looking for cast off cake!

I decided to bake the cake base separately and add the topping later – I had a couple of goes and found that a Victoria sponge using two eggs was the best.

Note

This method means you have 4 egg yolks left over (you can use these in many other recipe). The original recipe used the yolks in the base and the whites in the topping – sadly I could not recreate this.

Cake Ingredients

100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
Grated rind of 1 lemon

Method

Grease a 22cm loose bottomed tall sided tin.
Preheat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy
Add the eggs and lemon rind and whisk again.
Fold in the plain flour.
Place the mixture in the tin and bake for around 25 minutes.
Leave to go cold before adding the topping.

Topping Ingredients

225g seedless green grapes
*
4 egg whites
200g granulated sugar
2 sponge fingers – crushed

Method

Preheat the oven to GM2 – 150°C.
Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff.
Add the sugar and whisk again till stiff.
Mix in the crushed sponge fingers
Put half of the meringue mixture on top of the cake base.
Place the grapes in a layer on top of the meringue.
Put the rest of the meringue mixture on top of the grapes and smooth it down.
Bake for 1 hour – if not dry enough – lower oven to GM1- 140°C and leave for another 30 minutes.
Switch off the oven and leave cake in the oven.
Once oven is cold take out the cake and leave to cool in the tin.
Do not try to take it out of the tin until it is totally cold.

Queen Anne tea plates & Portmeirion – Crazy Daisy cake forks – Sophie Conran’s design from 2009.

Coffee set and plates – Greenway by Hostess Tableware – design by John Russell, 1960 – 1979.

*

Pani translates as Madam, Lady or Mrs and is a polite form of address – it is like donna in Italian or saying Miss Mary in the Southern States of America.
Stasia is the shortened form of the Polish name Stanisława. (The feminine form of Stanisław)
St Stanisław is the patron saint of Kraków & Poland, he was a martyr, murdered by the Polish king Bolesław II the Bold in 1079 – a story which has much in common with St Thomas à Beckett and the English king Henry II in 1170.

Placek with Rhubarb & Meringue

This cake was inspired by my placek(flat cake) with sour cherries and meringue.

There are three parts to this cake:

Short pastry base – baked and cooled.
Rhubarb filling – cooked and left to go cold.
Meringue topping.

Three stages all take a bit of time but well worth the effort. It is delicious with a lovely balance of sweetness against the tart rhubarb.

Short pastry base

The base of is made with a smaller amount of the recipe for Ciasto kruche 1 – using raw egg yolks found in a previous post – Pastry – ciasto kruche & półkruche.

I could see out of my kitchen window that the rhubarb was beginning to grow. As I still had one batch left frozen from last summer I to decided to use that up before the new crop and in time for you to try it.

Ingredients – base

200g plain flour
100g butter – chilled
70g icing sugar
2 egg yokes
pinch of salt

Method – base

Add a pinch of salt to the flour.
Use a knife to cut the chilled butter into small pieces into the flour and then use your fingers to make the mixture like breadcrumbs.
Add the icing sugar and mix this together.
Add the yolks and gently mix this in, then and bring it all together into a dough – try and handle the pastry as little as possible.
Form the dough into a rough rectangle.
Wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to GM 6 – 200°C.
Grease and line a 23 x 26 cm baking tin.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough a little
Press the dough into the tin – filling it up all the sides.
Prick the surface with a fork.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes till golden.
Leave to cool.

Ingredients – Rhubarb filling

400g (approx) of rhubarb
150g of granulated sugar (more may be needed)
25g of butter
3 egg yolks
2-3 tablespoons of potato or corn flour

Method – rhubarb filling

This needs to be made ahead of time as it must be cold.
Pre-heat the oven to GM2
Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and place in a baking dish
Add sugar.
Bake in the oven for around 1 hour – till soft.
Check for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary – but not too sweet.
Leave to cool a little.
*
I used cooked rhubarb that I had frozen from last year.
*
Wizz the rhubarb up with a blender or chopper to get a purée.
Place this in a saucepan.
Heat slowly.
Mix the yolks with the potato or cornflour and add this to the rhubarb and heat till it thickens.
Add the butter and mix in.
Leave to go cold before use.

A few thoughts on the origin & history of meringues:

Meringue – a French word.
Swiss village of Meiringen.
Improved by Italian chef Gasparini.
From Polish word – marzynka – a day dream?
Made by the chef for the exiled king of Poland, Stanisław Leszczyński (1677 – 1766), Duke of Lorraine (1737 -1766).
His daughter, Maria, was married to Louis XV of France and she introduced them to the court.
In Polish – beza(sing)) bezy(pl) – link to – buzi – kiss?
French meringue – whisk eggs till stiff – add sugar and whisk again.
Italian meringue – uses sugar syrup.
Swiss meringue – sugar and whites heated over a water bath.
Addition of cornflour – strengthens the egg white.

Meringue

I used 4 egg whites & 200g icing sugar.
Place the whites into a grease free bowl.
Whisk till stiff.
Add icing sugar and whisk again till stiff.

Preheat the oven to GM 1 -140°C.
Cover the base with the rhubarb filling and level it out.
Cover the rhubarb with the meringue and level it out
Put back into the oven for 45 to 60 minutes.
Cut the cake into squares when cool to serve.

Served here on Royal Doulton – Counterpoint tea plates 1973 – 1987.

Placek-with sour cherries & meringue

The base of this placek (flat cake) is made with a recipe similar to Ciasto kruche 2 – with cooked egg yolks found in a previous post – Pastry – ciasto kruche & półkruche.

The base is baked, apricot jam and bottled sour cherries are placed on top, this is topped with meringue and cooked again.

A few stages but well worth the effort. It is delicious with a lovely balance of sweetness against the sour cherries.

Ingredients

300g plain flour
200g butter – chilled
100g & 150g icing sugar
3 eggs separated
pinch or two of salt
Fine grated rind of 1 lemon – optional
250ml of apricot jam – approx
1/2 – 3/4 of a jar of morello/sour cherries

Method

Cook the egg yolks

Separate the raw yolks from the whites.
Place the yolks in a colander and cook over hot water.
Use a fork to break up the yolks into very small pieces.
Leave to go cold.

Make the base

Add a pinch of salt to the flour.
Use a knife to cut the chilled butter into small pieces into the flour and then use your fingers to make the mixture like breadcrumbs.
Add the 100g of icing sugar and mix this together.
Add the broken up yolks and gently mix this in then and bring it all together into a dough – try and handle the pastry as little as possible.
Form the dough into a rough rectangle.
Wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to GM 7 – 220°C.
Grease and line a 33 x 23 cm baking tin.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough a little
Press the dough into the tin – filling it up the all the sides.
Prick the surface with a fork.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes till golden.
Leave to cool.

Toppings and meringue

Lower the oven to GM 1 -140°C
Place the whites into a grease free bowl.
Whisk till stiff.
Add the 150g of icing sugar and whisk again till stiff.
Spread the jam thickly over the base
Drain the sour cherries and pat them dry.
Arrange the cherries over the jam.
Spread the meringue over the cherries taking it up to the edges.
Put back into the low heat oven for 45 to 60 minutes.

Cut the cake into squares when cool to serve.

Served here on Duchess – Bramble Rose tea plates from the 1960s.

Orange Cake

This cake using sunflower oil and yoghurt has a really good texture and reminds me of English Madeira cake, which was invented in the mid 19th Century taking its name from the Portuguese Madeira wine with which this cake was often served.

It started out in my hunt to make a cake using lemon balm – (melisa in Polish) which grows abundantly in my garden. Sadly none of the cakes I made captured its taste at all!

However I adapted this recipe to make an orange cake and the result is delicious.

Short History of Oranges

Oranges originated in Ancient China and sweet oranges are recorded in Chinese literature in very early times.

They are thought to have been brought by Italian and Portuguese traders to the Mediterranean area in the 15th century.

The name is of Middle Eastern origin:

Arabic – nāranj
Persian – narang
French – l’orange
Italian – arancia
Portuguese – laranja
Spanish – naranja
Polish – pomarańcz
Whilst in Dutch it is – sinaasappel – meaning Chinese apple.

Oranges in Poland were very expensive before World War 2 and my mother would tell me that at St Nicholas and Christmas time an orange or a tangerine would be a common gift.

Christopher Columbus took oranges to the Caribbean on his second voyage in 1493.

Later, Spanish settlers introduced orange plants to North America, first to Florida and then to California.

Figures from 2017 show Brazil as being the largest orange producer in the world with the United States of America coming second and Florida produces 70% of that country’s oranges.

Ingredients

85- 90ml of Greek yoghurt (full fat is best)
2 large oranges – finely grated rind & juice (not all will be needed)
125ml of orange juice
180g of caster sugar
320g of plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
170ml of sunflower oil
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM 5 – 190°C.
Finely grate the rind of the oranges.
Squeeze the juice from the oranges (you will not need all of it).
Mix the yoghurt with 125ml of the orange juice.
Prepare a 23cm loose bottom or spring form tin with a cake liner.
In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, oil and orange rind.
Add the eggs and whisk again.
Lightly mix in the flour.
Mix in the lemon juice.
Mix in the yoghurt and orange juice mixture to give a thick batter.
Pour into the cake tin.
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes (check after 25 minutes and cover the top lightly if necessary).

Served on Duchess – Bramble Rose – tea-plates from the 1960s.

Rhubarb & Date Cake

As I have rhubarb growing in the garden I am always on the lookout for recipes for rhubarb cakes and have tried many from English, American & Polish recipe books and magazines.

Some recipes just used 1 or 2 stalks of rhubarb – as I have lots of rhubarb – I wanted a recipe that used more.

I was talking with my old school friend who lives in Leeds and she told me her husband makes a lovely rhubarb cake with the rhubarb they have growing on their allotment.

So, I tried it out and it was indeed lovely!

Ingredients

340g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
170g butter
230g caster sugar
450g rhubarb, chopped into small cubes
230g stoned dates, chopped into small pieces
2 eggs
120ml milk (either whole or semi skimmed)
Optional – extra sugar to sprinkle on top – (I would not bother with this next time)

Method

Preheat the oven to GM 5 – 190°C
Line the base of a 26cm round spring-form or loose bottomed tin with baking paper. (You can use a 23cm tin)
Place the chopped rhubarb and dates into a bowl.
Place the flour and baking powder into another bowl.
Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour using your fingertips until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar.
Stir the chopped rhubarb and dates into the mixture.
Combine the eggs and milk in a jug and beat a little.
Stir into the cake mix until well combined.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and level the surface.
If using, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar on the top of the cake.
Bake for approximately 1 – 1 & 1/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean – best check on it after an hour and cover top if necessary to prevent burning.
Leave to cool on a wire rack until the tin is cool enough to safely handle.
Remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool completely on the wire rack

Although the cake keeps well, I think it is best eaten when fresh as then the rhubarb taste is strong and the cake delicious.

Crown china tea plates – no pattern named.

Note

The rhubarb season is now over in my garden as it has just past July – next year I am going to try some variations on this cake eg – without the dates or with raisins etc.

Placek with Almonds

I stayed in Derbyshire (home of the Bakewell Tart) in 2018 and I came across a recipe for a cake using yoghurt which I adapted and this was posted as Placek – Derbyshire Inspired.

This is a variation I tried out using almonds.

I used Greek style full fat yoghurt – If using my own yoghurt I would strain it a little so it becomes thicker.

Ingredients

250g butter or block margarine
225g caster sugar
150ml of Greek style yoghurt (full fat)
4 eggs
1/2 a teaspoon of almond essence
230g self raising flour
50g of ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
Sour cherry jam or other slightly tart jam
50g of flaked almonds

Method

Grease and line 22 x 32 baking tin – use 1 piece of greaseproof to do the 2 long sides and base.
Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
Place the flaked on a tray and pop them under the grill for a few minutes to toast them.

Mix together the yoghurt, eggs and almond essence
Mix together the flour, ground almonds and the baking powder.
Beat together the butter and sugar .
Add the yoghurt, egg and essence mixture and beat well.
Add the flour mixture and beat till you have a unified smooth mixture.
Using a big spoon and spatula put the mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Carefully take the cake out of the oven and place large teaspoon ‘blobs’ of jam on the top – I did 12 teaspoons at even intervals.
Cover the top with the toasted almonds and quickly put it back in the oven.

Bake for around another 25 – 30 minutes.

Place on a cooking rack and leave until it is cold to take out of the tin.
Cut into squares or rectangles to serve.

Served on teaplates by Wedgwood, Hathaway Rose – 1959 -1987

Carrot Piernik

Piernik is a spiced honey-cake.

I would describe this cake as a “Pseudo-piernik” as granulated sugar rather than honey is used.

My Polish friend in Leeds gave me this recipe and she got it from another Polish lady. The written copy could be described as being in “Ponglish” being written partly in English with additional notes in Polish!

The original recipe used cups which except for liquids I find hard to work with and much prefer weights.

I tried out a few alterations & variations until I reached this final version which I feel is the easiest way to get consistent results.

I made it is two different tins: the longer tin gave a thinner cake which was better for cutting in two and adding a filling, the shorter tin gave a thicker cake which was better with just a topping.

Ingredients

225g granulated sugar
250ml sunflower oil
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
Zest of 1 large orange
225g coarse grated carrots
225g plain flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of mixed spice (I use Marks & Spencer’s) or cinnamon

Method

Grease and line a 32cm x 22cm or a 27cm x 21cm tin.
Pre-heat oven to GM5 – 190°C
Mix well together the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla essence & orange rind (I use an electric whisk).
Mix together the flour, baking powder, spices & salt and lightly mix this into the whisked mixture.
Mix in the grated carrots.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Depending on the tin size, bake for 25 – 35 minutes but keep an eye on it and cover with foil or greaseproof if it starts to burn.
Leave to cool in the tin.

Finishing – several ways

Dust with icing sugar
Drizzle with a melted chocolate & butter mixture
Cut into two and sandwich together with powidła – Polish plum jam* or sour cherry jam – then dust with icing and drizzle with chocolate & butter topping
Top with orange butter icing

*Powidła is a lovely spread – often translated as jam but is not really a jam.

It is made from fresh ripe plums which are heated and stirred for hours until the water is driven off and you get a thick paste. The traditional version does not have any extra sugar added.

I bought some in my local Polish shop, I have seen it for sale in glass jars or in plastic tubs.