SC - Digby's Excellent Cake

[Crystal A. Isaac]

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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