Events Leaflet
The Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library
Words and Music!
An evening of entertainment at St Mary’s Church, Church Street, Maldon, on Saturday 10th March 2012 at 7.30pm
We will be entertained with music from St Mary’s Church Choir under the direction of Colin Baldy and readings from the Plume Library
Refreshments provided by the committee and by those who enter the competition for the best seventeenth century cakes or biskets (sic). See recipe sheet below.
Tickets at £8 each from:
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Mr Martin Wells, 34, Beeleigh Road, Maldon, CM9 5QH.
I enclose my cheque for £……..for .……ticket(s). I also enclose a stamped, addressed, envelope.
Name……………………………………………………………
Address………………………………………………………….
Competition for the best plate of Seventeenth Century Cakes
10th March 2012
The following recipes have all been taken from:
This book has recently been acquired by the Friends to replace that missing for many years from the Plume Library. Mrs Woolley (or Wolley as she is more properly known) was the first woman to make her living from her writings. She was a seventeenth century Mrs Beeton. A few of the simpler of her recipes are listed below and you are invited to join in a friendly competition at our 2012 social evening. If you decide to enter, please phone Tony Doe on 01621 853582 a week beforehand, so that space can be allocated if necessary.
Rules
1. No more than 10 small cakes or biscuits of one recipe are to be entered.
2. They will be judged on taste and appearance
3. The judges’ decision is final
4. A Book Token for £10 will be awarded to the winner.
5. The Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library will not be responsible in any way for any problems resulting from this small competition.
The Recipes
As you will see, the recipes give you very little guidance so a degree of experimentation may well be needed. I have endeavoured to give modern equivalents to some of the terms used. Baking cakes seems to have been done in the bread oven, after the bread was baked.
Page 20
33. To make the best Bisket Cakes
Take four new laid Eggs, leave out two of the Whites, beat them very well, then put in two spoonfuls of Rosewater, and beat them very well together, then put in a pound of double refin’d Sugar beaten and searced [sieved] and beat them together one hour, then put to them one pound of fine Flower [flour], and still beat them together a good while; then put them upon plates rubbed over with Butter, and set them into the oven as fast as you can, and have a care you do not bake them too much.
Page 24
42. To make Sugar-Cakes
Take a pound of fine Sugar beaten and searced [sieved], with four ounces of the finest Flower [flour], put to it one pound of Butter well washed with Rosewater, and work them well together, then take the Yolks of four eggs and beat them with some spoonfuls of Rose-Water, in which hath been steeped two or three days before Nutmegs and Cinamon [sic], then put thereto so much Cream as will make it knead to a stiff paste, and rowl [sic] it into thin cakes, and prick them, and lay them on Plates, and bake them; you shall not need to butter your Plates, for they will slip off of themselves, when they are cold
Page 39
82. To make Shrewsbury Cakes.
Take four pounds of Flower (flour), two pounds of Butter, one pound and an half of fine Sugar, four Eggs, a little beaten Cinamon (sic) a little Rosewater, make a hole in the Flower, and put the Eggs into it when they are beaten, then mix the Butter, Sugar, Cinamon, and Rosewater together, and then mix them with the eggs and Flower, then make them up into thin round cakes, and put them into any Oven after the Houshold bread is drawn; this quantity will make three dozen of cakes.
Page 42,
89. To make plain Bisket Cakes.
Take a Pottle [4pints – see below] of Flower, and put to it half a pound of fine Sugar, half an Ounce of Caraway seeds, half an Ounce of Aniseeds, six spoonfuls of Yest, then boil a pint of water or little more, put into it a quarter of a pound of butter or little more, let it stand till it be cold, then temper them together till it be as thick as Manchet [the finest kind of wheaten bread], then let rise a while to rise, so roul them out very thin, and prick them, and bake them in an Oven not too hot.
Page 65
To make very pretty cakes that will keep a good while
Take a quart of fine flower and the yelks [sic] of four eggs, a quarter pound of Sugar and a little Rose-water, with some beaten spice, and as much cream as will work it into a paste, and work it very well, and beat it then rowl it as thin as possible, and cut them round with a spur such as pastry cooks do use; then fill them with currans [sic] first plumped in a little Rose-water and sugar, so put another sheet of paste over them, and close them, prick them, and bake them, but let not your oven be too hot; you may colour some of them with Saffron if you please, and some of them you may ice over with Rose-water and Sugar, and the white of an egg beaten together.
Notes
1. In Mrs Woolley’s day, sugar always came to the kitchen in a large solid ‘loaf’, so it had to be broken up before use and sieving was essential to get an even size.
2 .I don’t know if her spelling was poor or if these odd miss-spellings were typical of the usage in her day. She always spelt ‘currans’ without the ‘t’.
3. At that time grain and flour were often measured by volume rather than by weight.