I have a growing collection of vintage recipe books. The most recent addition is a copy of Borwick’s Cookery Book which looks to be from the 1920s or 30s.
One of the recipes that jumped out at me was this one for luncheon seed cake. I love caraway seeds in bread but have never tried using them in a cake. I’d never heard of luncheon cake but, after some online detective work, I found that Mrs Beaton included a version which includes candied peel and currants in her famous Book of Household Management.
It’s quite a substantial cake – only a small slice is needed. The caraway really works well, giving it a distinctive flavour.
Luncheon seed cake
A Victorian slab cake
Ingredients
- 225 g / ½lb flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 85 g / 3oz butter
- 85 g / 3oz caster sugar
- ½ tsp caraway seeds
- 2 eggs
- wine glassful of milk
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2
- Grease a 15cm/6-inch loose-based cake tin
- Sieve the flour and baking powder
- Rub in the butter
- Add the sugar and caraway seeds
- Stir in the eggs and milk
- Pour the batter into the greased tin
- Bake for about an hour
- Remove the cake from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack
It works well with a scrape of butter and is the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon cup of tea.
