Seed Cake by uirgiliana

[ermingarden]

B2MeM Prompt, Card and Number: "Beautiful, Round Seed Cakes" from the card "Eat, Drink, and Make Merry" (number N44)
Format: Food/Recipe
Genre: Cake
Rating: All
Warnings: None
Characters: None
Pairings: None
Summary: A taste of the Shire: recipe for Bilbo's seed cake, with photos!





And here it is! This seed cake uses caraway seeds. I looked at a number of caraway seed cake recipes when coming up with this one. The cake was very good on its own; a taste-testing friend suggested a lemon glaze, which I will try next time. It's perfect to serve with tea, and I will definitely be making it again in the future!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups flour
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoons caraway seeds

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bundt pan. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla and about 1/3 cup of flour, beat for about five minutes. Add the rest of the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat just until blended. Add the caraway seeds and mix just until combined. Pour into bundt pan and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean - about 25 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this little taste of the Shire!

Comments

[shirebound]

*eagerly holds out plate*

[ermingarden]

That's the sad thing about posting a recipe to an online challenge - I don't actually get to share any of it with you all!

[elwendell]

It sounds delicious. Sadly, my cooking skills would render it inedible.

[ermingarden]

Thank you for the compliment! If you're interested in a less work-intensive version, I'm sure you could add caraway seeds to a vanilla pudding cake (which is basically just cake mix + pudding mix) and get a comparable result, though I haven't tried it. Here's the recipe for a pudding cake:

Ingredients
1 lb. box yellow cake mix
3.5 oz. package instant vanilla pudding
1 cup water
3/4 cup safflower oil
4 eggs

Directions
Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Pour into a greased bundt pan or 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Cake is done when toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn out.

Easiest cake ever - totally foolproof! Just stir and pour. If you throw in 1 1/2 tablespoons caraway seeds, you should get a nice seed cake. If you don't have safflower oil, I think you can substitute vegetable oil. And the best part about pudding cake: no one will be able to tell it's not from scratch! It's perfectly moist and delicious.

[kayleearafinwiel]

Donut: *looks happily at seed cake* Seed cake fish Mine? *hopefully holds out plate for himself and his Kaylee, and fish to trade for it*

It looks wonderful :D I have a recipe for seed cake in my Unexpected Cookbook on my Kindle, and I haven't tried it yet - this may be it. :) The lemon glaze was definitely suggested in there.

[ermingarden]

Thank you! It's probably not the exact same recipe - I put this one together after looking at a few different caraway cake recipes I found on Pinterest. I'd be interested in knowing what the Unexpected Cookbook suggests!

[kayleearafinwiel]

I was going to type the whole thing out - but then I remembered that I'd *also* seen the Unexpected Cookbook in blog posts, and found the link instead! http://kitchenoverlord.com/hobbit-week-shire-tastic-seed-cake/ (I was wrong, by the way, this glaze isn't lemon - but it probably would be just as good with lemon as with this simple sugar glaze)

[ermingarden]

That's very similar, wow! I think the main difference is that this recipe uses some almond meal - a good idea, I just didn't have any - and doesn't have cinnamon or nutmeg. Also, for all that the blogger comments on how much butter is in that cake, my recipe uses even more! Thank you for sharing!

[kayleearafinwiel]

Unless the blogger is also the author of the book (which they may be, I didn't check), it's the author's commentary. It's the exact same as my Kindle copy. So it's their opinion on how much butter it is, lol. And you're welcome! :)

(I learned recently that pound cake is called that because it used to be made with a pound of each of its ingredients, including butter! I wonder if the seed cake is similar to a pound cake?)

[ermingarden]

It's somewhat similar...but "only" half a pound of butter! Then again, it also called for around half a pound of flour...less than half a pound of sugar, though. I suppose it's more or less a pound cake halved, but less sweet.

[oloriel]

This looks and sounds delicious - thank you for sharing!

[ermingarden]

Thank YOU for reading, and for the compliment!

[zdenka]

That looks delicious! And so pretty!

[ermingarden]

Thank you!

[hhimring]

Splendid!
I can see Thorin & Company queuing up for a share of your cake!

[ermingarden]

Thank you! I wish they would - my university is on spring break this week and I'm one of the only people still in my dormitory, so my usual baked goods disposal method is unavailable, and I've got far too much cake left for just me!