[Sca-cooks] Seeking Simple Spiced Cakes

[Johnna Holloway]

Not sure that it is possible. A lot of the in period "cakes"
are yeast risen cakes with spices that resemble spiced breads.
You also get fine cakes or small cakes.
There's a pound cake recipe (actually it calls for 2 pounds each of
butter, flour, sugar, plus eggs, rosewater, and 2 pounds of currants)
in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. The manuscripts that
make up the book are dated as Tudor-Jacobean or roughly 1580-1625
by the editor Karen Hess. These are baked in buttered pans, but the size
is not stated. See recipe S 149, pages 314-315.
You might be able to add spices to that.
Stefan has a file
cakes-msg – 6/30/06 _
_that ought to cover the descriptions.

Johnnae_

_wildecelery at aol.com wrote:
>  Greetings!
>  My husband's B-day is saturday and there's a demo/event at the local college group...Normally I make him a yellow cake with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg mixed in. i then top this with sliced apples boiled in cider...like a very chunky hommemade applesauce...  I'd like to do a period version of the cake for the event...any suggestions?
>  -Ardenia