Jane Eyre's Seed Cake

This time it is...Jane Eyre! I've been reading and watching Jane Eyre for the past few days, and I fell in love with it. I mean I thought Jane Eyre was just about a girl in a dark bonnet and cape who goes crying and stumbling through the English marshland. Not that anything is wrong with that. But it turns out the book contains so much more - I especially enjoyed reading Jane Eyre's analysis of other characters through her keen eyes. But I'd say the book is way better than the movie (the book is almost always better than the movie lol) because the movie didn't capture all of the significant feelings from the book.

For instance, in the book, Jane Eyre is an orphan who is mistreated at her aunt's home. Soon she is sent away to a girl's boarding school, where she meets Helen Burns. Helen Burns is a saint-like character who never rebels or harbours ill feelings towards the teachers that mistreat her. Here we see a contrast between Jane Eyre, who believes when someone wrongs you you must strike them back, and Helen, who bears everything peacefully because she does not look towards the worldly things but of things above. It turns out Helen had an illness, and one morning the teachers find two girls snuggled against each other on a bed, one dead and the other - Jane Eyre - alive. Helen is supposed to be content as she dies, because she is "going back to her Father", but the movie only portrays her as a kind girl who dies with her eyes open. :(

Okay but I'm not here to complain about how the movie differs from the book, so let's get on with the seed cake. At the girl's boarding school, there is one kind teacher called Ms. Temple. She treats Helen Burns and Jane Eyre to a tea party:

Having invited Helen and me to approach the table, and placed before each of us a cup of tea with one delicious but thin morsel of toast, she got up, unlocked a drawer, and taking from it a parcel wrapped in paper, disclosed presently to our eyes a good-sized seed-cake.

"I meant to give each of you some of this to take with you," said she, "but as there is so little toast, you must have it now," and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.

We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.

So today, that is the seed cake which I baked. Basically though, I made an old-fashioned sponge cake and sprinkled some caraway seeds into the batter and on top of the cake. Seed cake has such a unique flavour that reminds you of a forest. I enjoyed the baking process too, thinking about Jane Eyre, and Mr. Rochester, the rich people whom he invited to his party, and St. John, and all the people that became real to me as I read.

Oh, I just got reminded, seed cake comes out also in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, right in chapter one. Bilbo Baggins has an unexpected party where a bunch of dwarves barge in to his home and demand food, along with some seed cake. I imagine seed cake comes out in a lot of books that are set close from the 1700's to the Victorian era.

You can watch this video to see how to make it!

JANE EYRE'S SEED CAKE (MAKES ONE 8-INCH CAKE)

Ingredients

5 eggs (separated)

250g white sugar

150g self-rising cake flour

a small handful of caraway seeds

sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan.

2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and the mixture falls in ribbons.

Preheat your oven at this point to 350 degrees F.

3. In another bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

4. Sift a quarter of the flour over the egg yolks and fold with a spatula. Add a spoonful of the egg whites and fold. Repeat until all of the flour is folded in.

5. Fold in the rest of the meringue along with the small handful of caraway seeds and pour the batter into the prepared pan.

6. Sprinkle a little more caraway seeds and granulated white sugar over the top as well.

7. Bake for about 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cake is golden brown.

8. Immediately remove cake from pan and sprinkle some more sugar on top if you wish. The top is crisp and adding sugar makes it crispier.

Enjoy with tea!

Note: Don't overdo it with the seeds, you only want a very small handful of it because they have a strong smell/taste like a type of spice.

Recipe adapted from Poir au Chocolat: http://www.poiresauchocolat.net/2013/04/seed-cake.html

#bakingfrombooks #spongecake