[Sca-cooks] Digby's Cakes

[Tom Bilodeau]

HI,

I don't prick the cakes before baking them. I found that the cakes stayed a
"uniform"
height when I didn't prick them.  I also have found currants to be a
hard-to-find item
in my local grocer; hence I tried and found that the cakes stayed a mot moister
when I
used baking raisins.  I also usually get the 3 cups of raisins in a batch.

I do cheat a bit nowadays.  As these cakes are popular in Atlantia, I rarely
make a single
batch at a time.  The Kitchenaid will do 2 batches easily.

I interpreted the Icing to be more of a glaze than the frosting we are more
accustomed to. I once forgot the sherry (or sack) in the cakes and so I added it
to the glaze.  Those Digbys were gone in a flash as folks ate
them with a relish.

Adding water and powdered sugar to make an opaque glaze -- I then use a pasty
brush to cover the top of
the cakes as soon as they are out of the oven. With the cakes still hot, the
icing locks into cakes very nicely.
I usually wait about 20-30 minutes for the cake to cool on wire racks and then I
can put them into plastic bags for transport.

Tirloch

Glenda Robinson wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I also find that I can't quite get the amount of currants in, but only by a
> couple of handsfull. Did you prick the biscuits as per the recipe, as that
> makes the dough rise a lot more, and the finished biscuits can hold more
> currants.
>
> I translate 'ice' in a different sense to our modern icing, by dusting them
> with sugar. I haven't found (or know anyone that has) any references to what
> they actually meant by icing, which doesn't help any of us :-(
>
> Glenda.
>
> [a while ago, while baking a batch of these biscuits (200 or so), I had a
> bit of a production line going, with my husband's help with the biscuit
> pricking. The next tray-full was ready for pricking, it was late at night,
> and I was tired. I held the forks out to him and (slightly tersely,
> probably) gave the command "Prick". His reply, a slightly camp "Bitch", had
> me nearly rolling on the floor with laughter, relieving the tensions of the
> seemingly endless biscuit making wonderfully, and becoming a kitchen
> tradition in Villa Robinsonii]
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <CalicoJim1 at aol.com>
> To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 12:29 PM
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Digby's Cakes
>
> > --
> > [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> > Hi guy's,
> >  I was trying this tonight and the cakes came out extremely well.  But I
> have
> > a question or two.  I found the amount of currants to be twice as much as
> was
> > neccessary (at least to my taste) I was wondering if that was a misprint
> or
> > if I should really try the reciepe with 3 cups of currants.  Also I was
> > wondering about the frosting well now that I've mentioned it frosting in
> > general.  I don't usually do cakes.  Don't like to eat them so I rarely
> bake
> > them.  So what kind of frosting can I use and does anyone have any info on
> > frosting.  Thanks -- Calico
>
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