SC - Digby's Excellent Cake

[Decker, Terry D.]

"... put it into the oven well heated presently."  I would say the dough
should be allowed to rise for about an hour.  Even if you don't allow a rise
time, there will be a certain amount of rise during baking, making the final
product lighter than without the yeast. 

Digby's recipe is actually a fruit bread baked in a cake hoop to help keep a
round, relatively flat shape (a "cake").  Baking the bread in a flat pan to
create a bar cookie is an interesting alteration of the recipe.

Thinking about it, I would probably let it rise if I were making it to
Digby's specifications and not rise if I were making a flat bread of it.

I'm not sure whether Digby is referring to real currants or "raisins of
Corinth" (Zante currants), however either should work, although the tastes
will be different.  You could also use candied fruit or soak dried fruit in
the sack (you might need a little more sack) as an acceptable substitute.

Bear


> I'm lost. Should this be given time to rise? I'm guessing no, since you
> say it comes out like bar cookies. Why all the yeast if there's no time
> to rise?, or is is supposed to work like baking powder? (Sorry if this
> is a silly questions, yeast  should be for mead.)
> 
> David said the other day that zante currants aren't really currants, can
> I get real currants anywhere?
> 
> thanks,
> Crystal
> 
> Elizabeth/Betty Cook wrote:
> > To Make an Excellent Cake
> > The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby, Opened
> > 
> > To a peck of fine flour take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be
> > tenderly melted, ten pounds of currants, of cloves and mace, 1/2 an
> ounce
> > of each, an ounce of cinnamon, 1/2 an ounce of nutmegs, four ounces of
> > sugar, one pint of sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of ale
> > (as soon as it is settled to have the thick fall to the bottom, which
> will
> > be when it is about two days old), half a pint of rosewater; 1/2 a
> quarter
> > of an ounce of saffron. Then make your paste, strewing the spices,
> finely
> > beaten, upon the flour: then put the melted butter (but even just
> melted)
> > to it; then the barm, and other liquours: and put it into the oven well
> > heated presently. For the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and let
> it
> > stand in the oven one hour and a half. You ice the cake with the whites
> of
> > two eggs, a small quantity of rosewater, and some sugar. [end of
> original]
> > 
> > Scaled down: (1/16th)
> > 2 c flour
> > 3/8 lb = 1 1/2 sticks of butter
> > 5/8 lb currants = 2 c = 10 oz
> > 1/4 t cloves
> > 1/4 t mace
> > 1/2 t cinnamon
> > 1/4 t nutmeg
> > 1/2 T sugar
> > 2 T sack (or sherry)
> > 1/4 c ale yeast settled out of homemade mead or beer (or 1 t  dried
> yeast
> > dissolved in 3 T water)
> > 1 T rosewater
> > 8 threads saffron
> > 
> > Icing:
> > 1/8 egg white (about 2 t)       1/4 t rosewater         2 T sugar
> > 
> > Mix flour, spices, and sugar. Melt butter, mix up yeast mixture, and
> crush
> > the saffron in the rosewater to extract the color. When the butter is
> > melted, stir it into the flour mixture, then add sack, yeast mixture,
> and
> > rosewater-saffron mixture. Stir this until smooth, then stir in
> currants.
> > Bake at 350? in a greased 10" round pan or a 7"x11" rectangular pan for
> 40
> > minutes. Remove from pan and spread with a thin layer of icing; We
> usually
> > cut it up into bar cookies.
> > 
> > Elizabeth/Betty Cook
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