Bag End Seed Cake for supper

[pegkerr]

Last Monday, which I had off work, the girls and I went to Cafe Latte for cream tea with minnehaha B and K. A wonderful time was had by all, partly because the tea was so good, and partly because B and K are such good company. They possess the enviable knack of conversing equally comfortably with both children and adults, a gift which is more rare than you might expect.

Anyway, the girls said rather wistfully that they wish that they could do it again this weekend. I nixed the idea of going back to Cafe Latte, and B and K are (I believe) out of town at this point, but I suggested that we might do a tea at home. I had a recipe for Bag End Seed Cake I was anxious to try. So we went out to the grocery store for various ingredients (where I spent more than I expected; do you know how expensive cardomom is?) and then came home and whipped it up. elisem, I called and left a message suggesting you come over to help us sample it, but I missed you. Anyway, that's what we had for dinner, and delicious it was, too. Bag End Seed Cake with jam. And Earl Grey tea. Yum.

Apropos of nothing, I learned how I have totally corrupted my children when they reported hearing one of the neighbor kids sing a common childhood song, and instead of hearing it as "The Ants Go Marching One by One," they took it to mean "The Ents Go Marching One by One."

Yeah.

Edited to add: Here's the recipe (originally from www.theonering.net)

Bag End Seed Cake

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup brandy or buttermilk
1 1/2 TB caraway seeds, soaked in the brandy if you like.
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
1 tsp orange flavoring or orange zest
1 7/8 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Blend butter and sugar until well creamed. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3. Add brandy or buttermilk, seeds and spices, then blend. Gradually add flour and baking powder until well blended. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan.
4. Bake 50-70 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean.

Buttermilk makes a moist cake; otherwise the cake tends to be rather dry. (Buttermilk substitute: 1/3 cup milk with 1 tsp vinegar or 1 tsp lemon juice.) Excellent with cream cheese, marmalade, jelly or jam. Serves 12.

Comments

[sollitaire.livejournal.com]

"Apropos of nothing, I learned how I have totally corrupted my children when they reported hearing one of the neighbor kids sing a common childhood song, and instead of hearing it as "The Ants Go Marching One by One," they took it to mean "The Ents Go Marching One by One.""

I think I like their version better :)

[splagxna.livejournal.com]

but cardamom is SO so good.

share the recipe?

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

ooohhhh thank you for posting the recipe! I need to have a proper Hobbit Style Tea!

[splagxna.livejournal.com]

i am a dork. missed the recipe hyperlink completely.

[amethistdolphin.livejournal.com]

That is not corrupting, that is educating!!!

[vass]

"The Ents Go Marching One by One."

The Ents go marching one by one, hoom-hoom, hoom-hoom...

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

That seed cake recipe looks good! And yes, cardamom is costly -- and around here, it's not that easy to find, except at Christmas. I buy a bottle of ground cardamom every Christmas, because we use it for the mass production of Swedish Coffee Bread, and then I dole out the rest in recipes over the course of the next year.

And re: the Ents Go Marching -- I can only hope we corrupt Meg in the same way. ;)

[expetesso.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recipe link; aeditimi and I will try it next month and I'll be sure to share our opinions on it.

I think I prefer your method of corruption to any other. :-D

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

We're still in Minneapois. We don't leave for Amsterdam until Wednesday, although I am going to San Francisco on Monday.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

We would be happy to join you and your charming offspring for tea any time. The nieghborhood little girls were over kicking the snow off the playhouse the other day and I remember how much fun it was to have your kids here for picnics and e-mail last summer.

K.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When I was small, my dad and I had a song we would sing together, to the tune of "The Girl from Ipanema": "Tall and green and young and sappy, the boy from Ent-anema is happy, and when he passes, each tree he passes sighs, ahhhhh...." But we also did the Ents go Marching, too: "The ents go ma-arching five by five, the little one stops to find his wife, and they all go marching down...."

Ents go marching

[carbonel]

Maybe they're actually singing this version:

http://crism.maden.org/writing/entmarch.html

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That was great.

[ashabeth.livejournal.com]

That recipe is GONE :O

Please post it so some of us can have it.....

Ty tytytytytyty.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I have re-edited the original entry to add the recipe. If you try it, let me know what you think of it.

[ashabeth.livejournal.com]

Looooooooks fabulous! Ty.

I will make this.

:D