To make little plumb cakes is a traditional British recipe, based on Hannah Glasse's recipe of 1747, for classic cakes made from a flour, sugar, butter, egg and cream batter containing currants where the dough is shaped into cakes and oven baked. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: To make little plumb cakes.
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This is a traditional British recipe redacted from Hannah Glasse's 1747 volume The Aft of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, the classic Georgian cookbook.
To make little plumb cakes
TAKE two pounds of flour dried in the oven, or at a great fire, and half a pound of ſugar finely powdered, four yolks of eggs, two whites, half a pound of butter waſhed with roſe-water, ſix ſpoonfuls of cream warmed, a pound and a half of currants unwaſhed, but picked and rubbed very clean in a cloth ; mix it all well together, then make them up in cakes, bake them in an oven almoſt as hot as for manchet, and let them ſtand half an hour till they are coloured on both ſides, then take down the oven-lid, and let them ſtand to ſoak. You muſt rub the butter into the flour very well, then the egg and cream, and then the currants.
Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl. Dice the sugar, add to the flour and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, cream and rose water. Add this to toe flour and butter mix and work it in to form a paste.
Pick over the currants and add to the mix and stir or knead to combine thoroughly. Take pieces of the dough and shape into small cakes. Arrange these on a greased baking tray then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 160°C and bake for about 30 minutes, or until coloured golden brown and cooked through.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack before storing or serving.
