Seed Cake – With Caraway Seeds

The Observer/Guardian have been doing a series of 20 Best Cakes, one of which was a seed cake, made with caraway seeds.  It looked very tasty in the article I read and I decided that I would try it out. You can see the original article here: 

The recipe suggested a particular size of loaf tin, smaller than I have and I was fairly sure that the ingredients mentioned would be for two cakes, since I could easily see that my own larger tin would be very full, so one of the size mentioned would not be enough.

Anyway I had two of my 2lb tins to hand, just in case one, even of that size would not be enough.  In the event the cake batter completely filled one tin and I baked it like that.

The fruits of caraway plants, usually called seeds are very pungent, with an anise aroma.  I saw some recipes that suggested using an entire jar(about 38g) of the seeds.  But this recipe only called for 1 teaspoon of seeds, which seemed to be much better, to me, as I didn’t want an over-powering flavour which you would certainly get with 38g.

The recipe itself is quite straightforward, and only has 6 ingredients.  It takes little time to prepare and less than an hour to bake.  So you can have a wonderful fresh cake in less than 90 minutes from start to finish.

The aroma released during baking is always a pleasure and you get a wonderfully sweet smell wafting around the kitchen, which whets the appetite.

The article in the Guardian suggested that the cake is ideal at 11 a.m with a glass of madeira.  Well that doesn’t sit well with me at all.  11 a.m yes, but certainly no alcohol at that time.  So a cup of tea had to suffice, which I must say went very well with the cake, which tasted delicious and just enough caraway seed to give a great flavour.

Ingredients:

• 260g butter, at room temperature
• 260g caster sugar
• 320g self raising flour
• 5 large eggs(extra large in USA)
• 150ml whole milk
• 1 heaped teaspoon of caraway seeds

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160c Fan/350F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
3. In a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment fitted, cream the butter,sugar and together adding the caraway seeds part way through, until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly add the eggs and mix to combine.
5. Sift in the self raising flour and mixt to combine
6. Add the milk and mix until all is combined.
7. Spoon or pour the batter into the lined loaf tin and bake in the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, until golden brown on top and a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
8. Place the tin on a wire rack to allow the cake to cool, for at least 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely.