[Sca-cooks] Digby's Small Cakes

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

I need to bring something snacky/desserty to an event with a Late 
Elizabethan theme, and looked at these. (OK, they're slightly later - 
they'll deal...) I looked up the recipe in the Florithingy (thanks, 
Stefan) and glanced through the several redactions there. And noticed 
something that intrigued me.

In the original, you mix your ingredients, and then > When you have 
wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a 
dish before the fire, till it be through warm

and then go on to form your cakes. All the redactions seem to blithely 
skip over this step. (I was skimming - it's possible I missed one.) 
Anyone know why, other than the fact that it makes no sense to our 
modern bakers eye, well trained to chill dough? has anyone tried it, and 
found a problem?  Has anyone tried it, period? Does it get soggy, or 
does this make it possible to make the cakes thin, as directed? Or both?

It's in the high 80s, here, I'm not going to need any fire to warm my 
paste... which makes this rather attractive for summer baking... *G*

AEllin