Banbury Cake*

Categories:	English   17th century   Baked goods
Original Source:	The English Hus-wife
Secondary Source:	Micheal Best Edition
Cook:	Marian of Edwinstowe
Meeting Date:	2005-04-15

To make Banbury cake.

To make a very good Banbury cake, take four pounds of currants, and wash and pick them very clean, and dry them in a cloth: then take three eggs and put away one yolk, and beat them , and strain them with good barm, putting thereto cloves, mace, cinnamon, and nutmegs; then take a pint of cream, and as much morning's milk and set it on the fire till the cold be taken away; then take flour and put in a good store of cold butter and sugar, the put in your eggs, barm, and meal and work them all together an hour or more: then save a part of the paste, and the rest break into pieces and work in your currants; which done, mould your cake of what quantity you please; and then with that paste which hath not any currants cover it very thin both underneath and aloft. And so bake it according to the bigness.

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350°, with a baking stone or tiles on the oven shelf. If you don't have a bakestone, prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
2. Combine ingredients for the "barm" and let it sit 10 minutes or more till it starts to foam.
3. Add beaten eggs and spices.
4. Meanwhile, mix flours and sugar together; and cut in butter, till the consistency is that of small crumbs.
5. Add barm/egg/spice mixture, milk, and cream and knead well.
6. If it's too sticky, add a little more flour; if it's too dry, add a little more liquid. Duh.
7. Let it rise for about an hour.
8. Divide this dough into thirds, and put one third aside for the outer layer.
9. Tear the remaining two thirds into small chunks (to create lots of raw sticky edges) and put them back into the mixing bowl alternately with handfuls of currants, so that the currants are well distributed in the dough.
10. Knead it all together and shape it into 4 balls.
11. Then take the portion of dough set aside, divide it into 4 parts, and on a lightly floured surface stretch and roll each part thin enough to completely surround a ball. (This layer prevents the currants from poking out and burning.)
12. Try not to overlap too much, and set each wrapped ball with the overlapped side down. Flatten the tops somewhat.
13. Bake directly on the bakestone (or on parchment paper on the stone) at 350° for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 325°, rotate cakes (and remove the paper if you used it). Bake for another 20 minutes. Test for doneness: interior temperature of 190-200°; sounds hollow when knocked on the bottom. Bake longer if necessary. Allow to cool a little before slicing and serving.

Note

* modern commercial currants do not need to be picked over, washed and dried. However, they are very sticky. To keep them from sticking in clumps, sprinkle an ounce of the flour on them and mix until they are all lightly dusted with flour and not sticking to each other.

* "morning milk" has a lower fat content than "evening milk"

* unbleached flour. For best approximation of 3 pounds of best white flour of Elizabethan England:
2 lbs, 3 oz unbleached flour (such as King Arthur), approximately 9 cups
8 oz cake flour, approximately 2 cups
4 oz whole wheat flour (white whole wheat if possible), approx 1 cup less 2 Tbs
1 oz rye flour, approximately 1/4 cup

* sugar. For best approximation of whitest sugar available in Elizabethan England, substitute 1 Tbs "natural" (unbleached) sugar for 1 Tbs of regular granulated sugar. In this recipe, however, the cake is darkened by the addition of spices and the slightly darker sugar doesn't show. Just use white sugar.