Love Cake August 2017 round up

It's been a very quiet month for Love Cake with our theme of A bit seedy. In fact it's just been me that joined in! Since there can always be an excuse to drink tea grab a quick cuppa before I tell you more about my bake for this month.

Are we sitting comfortably? Now let me begin...I first became aware of the existence of caraway cake at a Clandestine Cake Club meeting with the theme of 1950's cakes. Of all the cakes that were on offer that day it was the caraway seed cake that got scoffed first. Since then I've seen it crop it in various places and books. It's not surprising as caraway seed cake has been around for centuries.

In fiction you will find Bilbo Baggins being asked for some by his visitor in J.K.K Tolkien's The Hobbit. It was a good job Bilbo had baked himself two that afternoon for his 'after-supper morsel'. Charlotte Brontë allows her protagonist Jane Eyre a slice of seed cake. Notably this action by Miss Temple is one of the first acts of kindness that Jane has experienced in a long time. In David Copperfield Charles Dickens describes a tea party with Miss Lavinia and Miss Clarissa where they are handed a 'sweet seed-cake'. Finally we have the Queen of the Crime Novel, Agatha Christie having tea and seed cake in luxurious surroundings in At Bertram's Hotel. A bit of shame it all gets interrupted by a murder that Miss Marple has to solve.

Since most seed cakes are baked as a round cake I decided to do mine as Caraway seed loaf cake. As an added twist I've lightened the usual Madeira cake texture by whisking up the egg whites and then adding the yolks in. It obviously means you feel like having an extra slice!

I hope you'll join me in a couple of days with September's Love Cake theme.