Wassail Cake
“Be
of Good Cheer!” and “I wish you a good health and bountiful harvest to last you
through the winter” is basically what Wassail means.
The Wassail Cake contains whatever fruit, nuts and seeds are to hand so
it is potentially the forerunner of what we know today as Christmas Cake.
At a
Wassail Event, the cake is cut into small portions and a dry butter bean
inserted into one portion. These are
handed around to the assembled company and whoever gets the bit with the bean in
(and you try to ensure that a man gets it) is appointed King of the Bean to lead
the event.
This
basic tea bread recipe is the one concocted for the HMG stand at Blackmoor Apple
Day this year. You may prefer to add nuts
and seeds and adjust the ingredient amounts depending how many people the cake
is to serve.
400ml
cold tea (mine is a mix of Assam and Earl Grey teas*)
6oz (180g) Dark
Brown Muscovado Sugar;
1lb (500g) Dried Mixed Cake Fruit
3 teaspoons of
powdered Cinnamon.
Mix all ingredients
well together and
leave overnight.
On
Day Two Mix 3ozs (90g) butter and 3 medium size beaten eggs into the fruit mix
and add the lot to 12ozs (225g) Longbridge Stoneground Wholemeal Flour.
Stir until all the flour is absorbed.
Put the
mixture into a large baking pan which you have greased and lined with
greaseproof paper.
Bake
for 1.5 hours approx in a medium oven.
When cooked, leave it to cool before turning out onto a wire rack.
It is a very rich cake but can be served with butter.
However, it’s very heavy so don’t go swimming afterwards!
*Half
a packet of Earl Grey is mixed with a whole packet of Assam.
3 teaspoonfuls are used for afternoon tea in a standard sized teapot.
