What is the seed cake?
Lovers of J.R.R. Tolkien's Works as the The Hobbit enjoy or empathize with Agona Bilbo Baggins as the unwelcome side of the dwarves descends at him. Bilbo has just completed the production of a seed cake for his afternoon tea and realized that 13 dwarves could force him to give up his own delicious delicacy. Many of them read the novel and wondered what this cake was, while others are already familiar with delicious treatment, so they understand Bilbo's inconvenience when they had to miss the taste. Some date back to English recipes, while others say that Ireland or Wales's inhabitants invented it first. Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales mentions a cake as a round and reminiscent.
Early recipes do not include sugar and actually differ very much from the modern version of the cake. The recipe from the end of the 16th century uses yeast for jumps. Recommended to use about 1 tablespoon (6.7 g) worth anise or cumin.
Given that DorT is lifted with yeast, this early version can be technically called bread. To increase the seed cake in this early recipe, it is recommended to be warm beer, which would provide natural sugars for yeast. The Welsh or Irish recipe later adds sugar, removes yeast, replaces brandy for beer and suggests spices of a cake with a nut. This recipe requires stem seeds.
Modern recipes tend to use baking soda or powder to produce a lighter product and the amount of sugar is higher. Increasing the use of butter, so one often has a rich pound cake dotted with seeds. The cake can be either round form or roasted in a loaf pan. Irish or old recipes for regional cakes often require currants or raisins except cumin seeds and adding alcohol is optional.
The most modern and probably the most popular, the form today is the cake of lemon poppy seeds. This variant is a very rich baseou pounds that are flavored with lemon and includes poppy. It tastes very differently that the original cake, because the seeds of cumin are not present to provide their liquorice with a similar taste to the final product. Poppy seeds also provide a cake with a slightly crispy texture.
Traditional seed cake still enjoys many in the British Isles and elsewhere. Depending on the amount of butter and sugar used, the cake can be very rich. Slices can be served as part of the afternoon tea and some people serve as a dessert, or even as a sweet bite for breakfast.