Cattern Cake Competition

Method

  1. Sieve the flour into a bowl and mix in all the other dried ingredients.
  2. Add the melted butter & beaten egg and mix to form a soft dough. I also added a tiny bit of warm water
  3. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until you have a rectangle, approx 10 x 12 inches.
  4. Brush the rolled out dough with water and then sprinkle with cinnamon (lots if you dare!) and sugar.
  5. Gently roll, as you might for a swiss roll. It doesn’t need to be too tight.
  6. Cut into approx 2cm wide slices and pop on a baking tray, leaving space in between to allow them to spread a little.
  7. Bake in an oven preheated to 200°c/Gas Mark 6 for about 10 minutes, or until golden and crispy on the top. Mine took about 25 minutes! Bask in the loveliness as your house fills with the smell of spices and good things.

Cattern Cake Recipe for the Xmas Fayre Competition

The recipe is copied from one on the blog  https://radicalhoneybee.blogspot.com/ ,which in turn is based on an almost unchanged Tudor recipe and comes from the legendary  Cattern Cakes and Laces by Julia Jones and Barbara Deer.

Ingredients:

9oz self-raising flour (sieved)

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon ~ I use 2 tsp and add some more later on, but I do have a great love of cinnamon. I advise bold experimentation.

2oz currants

2oz ground almonds

2 tsp caraway seeds ~ or, as with the cinnamon, add a bit more.

6oz caster sugar

4oz melted butter

1 medium egg, beaten

Extra sugar & cinnamon for sprinkling

Traditionally, these cakes would be enjoyed with a ‘hot pot’ mixture of rum, beer, and eggs!!!

St Catherine’s Fayre Saturday, 23 November⋅10:00am – 2:00pm

 

You can also check out the bloggers webite https://radicalhoneybee.blogspot.com/ which along with recipe has images to help, while you also learn about stir up Sunday. “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” 1594 edition of the ‘Book of Common Prayer.

The recipe can be easily adapted for different dietary requirements. For example, Jan Blencowe of the Wild Goose Collective swapped the self-raising flour for Paleo flour with a heaped tsp of baking powder, substituted flaked almonds for the ground almonds, and used powdered stevia rather than caster sugar. Last year I used rice flour instead of ground almond to avoid nuts in the recipe. You can find many other recipes on line.

HAPPY BAKING!!!