to make an extraordinary good cake..
rating:This is a very interesting, tasty, moist, rich cake. The recipe is modernised from one in Robert May's The Accomplisht Cook of 1660.
Cake Ingredients.
450 grams wholemeal flour
75 grams butter
40 grams sugar
10 grams ground cinnamon
10 grams ground ginger
20 grams ground nutmeg
325 grams currants
two teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
600 ml double cream
Icing Ingredients
225 grams granulated sugar
two tablespoons rosewater
Preheat an oven to 350F/170C/Gas 4.
Grease an eight inch cake tin with a removable base.
Rub the butter into the flour as for pastry will stop
Add the sugar, spices and currants and mix well.
Heat the bicarbonate in a small amount of the cream, then add it to the rest of the cream and pour into the dry mixture.
Mix well, to a dry paste, and put into the tin.
Bake for 1 1/4 hours. Test with a skewer to see if it is ready. turn the oven down to 330F/150C/Gas 2.
Cool slightly and remove from the tin to an ovenproof plate.
In a thick bottomed pan melt the sugar with the rosewater and boil it for a few minutes so it bubbles fiercely. Pour or spoon it over the top of the cake.
Return the cake to the oven for 15 minutes to glaze the icing.
