With Mother’s Day fast approaching, have you decided what to do for that very special lady in your life?
Taste of Shetland member businesses have a host of treats on offer for deserving mums in the Isles and beyond. If you’re lucky enough to be in Unst, why not book afternoon tea at Victoria’s Vintage Tearooms? In fact, there are numerous purveyors of fine cake up and down the archipelago, making everything from bouquets of floral cupcakes to giant cookies. Personalisation is a possibility if you’re quick and get your order in sharpish. The Peerie Shop Cafe do cakes to order and The Original Cake Fridge and Tearoom in East Burrafirth is a great place for a walk at the Burn o’ Lunklet and something from the fridge, or put in a personalised pre-order. Valleyfield Guest House in Brae is doing special Mother’s Day cupcakes and their popular Afternoon Tea Boxes. Lateral thinking gift-givers out there may plump for a hamper of goodies from a favourite local bakery to make Mother's Day an event for all the family. Even the Lerwick Brewery has a great offering this year for mothers who enjoy a pint or two. Selecting a mini keg and a selection of their merchandise might just make you Mum's favourite child this year!
Caraway - Carum Carvi
If, like me, you're running late in organising something special for Mother's Day or still prefer to stay ‘hame-aboot’ for the time being, here’s a recipe for an easy cake you can make as a Sunday treat. Once a staple product for all the isles’ bakers and a common feature on tea tables across the Isles, Seed Cake is a delicious addition to seasonal celebrations. Although not strictly speaking a Shetland recipe, traditional caraway seed cake was certainly more widely available here, till a much later date, than in many other parts of the country.
Indeed, though we may now think of caraway as an exotic spice, it is in fact a plant that can and does grow wild in Shetland. Commonly called caraway seeds, or carvi seeds in dialect, they are actually the dried fruits of the Caraway plant (Carum carvi), a member of the carrot family. There are places where you will still see this plant growing around the entrances of rural Kirks. Notable numbers of churchgoers would chew on them to aid their digestion of the week’s sermon and then empty any loose seeds from their pockets as they left church. Although the modern fervour for strimming and verge clearing has done much to eradicate them.
The seeds have a warm aromatic anise flavour not dissimilar to cumin and are used in sweet and savoury dishes across the world. The humble seed cake is basically a fairly plain sponge, similar to a Madeira cake in texture, with the addition of aromatic caraway seeds. In many parts of the British Isles it was traditional to make caraway seed biscuits to celebrate the sowing of spring wheat at this time of year, and over time this morphed into a tasty tea bread. This type of seed cake was popular throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and featured in many seminal culinary works, such as Isabella Beeton’s original Book of Household Management, in 1861.
Seed Cake is one of those divisive dishes, a bit like marmite, which you either love or hate. With the recent rise in popularity of all things amply iced, this plainer offering has become something of a forgotten treasure. This is the cake for you if you hanker after simpler times, when cake was naked and always in goodly supply ‘in da press’ for unannounced visitors 'drapping alang'. Eat it thinly sliced with a good strong cup of tea, and a veil of Shetland Farm Dairies Butter if you’re feeling decadent.
Don’t get carried away with this cake! Less is more, and a pleasing seed cake is about tasting the flavour of the seeds. Add too many, and your cake will take on a medicinal flavour. The other watchword is quality. As this is a simple cake your ingredients must be excellent quality and as fresh as you can get them - local eggs, butter and milk are a must, as are decent quality flour and ground almonds. If they have been festering at the back of your cupboard for a year or more, your mother won’t be best pleased with her treat, no matter how much effort went into it!
Caraway Seed Cake
Ingredients
120 g Shetland Farm Dairies butter, at room temperature
120 g caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 level tsp caraway seeds
170 g self raising flour
50 g ground almonds
2 tbsp milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3. Line a small loaf tin (20cm x 9cm) with baking parchment.
Lightly toast the caraway seeds in a small pan over a low heat for a couple of minutes. This helps to release their aroma. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Get oot di best lem!Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the beaten eggs a little at a time, beating well between additions. You can add a spoon or two of the flour with the last of the egg to stop the mixture curdling.
Add the caraway seeds, the rest of the flour and the ground almonds. Mix well to combine, adding the milk to loosen the mixture to a dropping consistency.
Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake for an hour. To check if it’s cooked, insert a skewer into the cake. If it is clean when you remove it, the cake is ready.
Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack.
The cake will keep for up to a week in an airtight container.
Written by Osla Jamwal-Fraser for Taste of Shetland.
Taste of Shetland member businesses have a host of treats on offer for deserving mums in the Isles and beyond. If you’re lucky enough to be in Unst, why not book afternoon tea at Victoria’s Vintage Tearooms? In fact, there are numerous purveyors of fine cake up and down the archipelago, making everything from bouquets of floral cupcakes to giant cookies. Personalisation is a possibility if you’re quick and get your order in sharpish. The Peerie Shop Cafe do cakes to order and The Original Cake Fridge and Tearoom in East Burrafirth is a great place for a walk at the Burn o’ Lunklet and something from the fridge, or put in a personalised pre-order. Valleyfield Guest House in Brae is doing special Mother’s Day cupcakes and their popular Afternoon Tea Boxes. Lateral thinking gift-givers out there may plump for a hamper of goodies from a favourite local bakery to make Mother's Day an event for all the family. Even the Lerwick Brewery has a great offering this year for mothers who enjoy a pint or two. Selecting a mini keg and a selection of their merchandise might just make you Mum's favourite child this year!
The seeds have a warm aromatic anise flavour not dissimilar to cumin and are used in sweet and savoury dishes across the world. The humble seed cake is basically a fairly plain sponge, similar to a Madeira cake in texture, with the addition of aromatic caraway seeds. In many parts of the British Isles it was traditional to make caraway seed biscuits to celebrate the sowing of spring wheat at this time of year, and over time this morphed into a tasty tea bread. This type of seed cake was popular throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and featured in many seminal culinary works, such as Isabella Beeton’s original Book of Household Management, in 1861.
Don’t get carried away with this cake! Less is more, and a pleasing seed cake is about tasting the flavour of the seeds. Add too many, and your cake will take on a medicinal flavour. The other watchword is quality. As this is a simple cake your ingredients must be excellent quality and as fresh as you can get them - local eggs, butter and milk are a must, as are decent quality flour and ground almonds. If they have been festering at the back of your cupboard for a year or more, your mother won’t be best pleased with her treat, no matter how much effort went into it!
