Tea-Cakes
INGREDIENTS for 8 teacakes.-2 lbs. of flour, ½ teaspoonful of salt, 1/4 lb. of butter or lard, 1/4 egg, a piece of German yeast the size of a walnut, warm milk. AVERAGE COST, 8a. INGREDIENTS for 8 tea-cakes.—2 lbs. of flour, 1/2 teaspoonful of salt, 1/4 1/4 lb. of butter or lard, 1 egg, a piece of German yeast the size of a walnut, warm milk. AVERAGE COST, 8d.
Put the flour (which should be perfectly dry) into a basin ; mix with it the salt, and rub in the butter or lard; then beat the egg well, stir to it the yeast, and add these to the flour with as much warm milk as will make the whole into a smooth paste, and knead it well. Let it rise near the fire, and, when well risen, form it into cakes; place them on tins, let them rise again for a few minutes before putting them into the oven, and bake from 1 to hour in a moderate oven. These are very nice with a few currants and a little sugar added to the other ingredients; they should be put in after the butter is rubbed in.
These cakes should be buttered, and eaten hot as soon as baked; but, when stale, they are very nice split and toasted; or, if dipped in milk, or even water, and covered with a basin in the oven till hot, they will be almost equal to new.
TIME. to hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
A plain enriched yeast dough, mixed stiff enough to knead and baked as flat round cakes rather than loaves. Nothing here is difficult, but two of the numbers need translating before you start.
- German yeastThis is fresh compressed baker's yeast, not a dried or brewer's yeast. A piece "the size of a walnut" is usually reckoned at somewhere between 1/2 and 1 oz / 15-30 g; as a starting point, about 2 teaspoons of instant dried yeast will serve for this quantity of flour.
- Quantities2 lb of flour is about 7 to 8 cups, with 4 oz (1 stick) of butter or lard. The warm milk is left to judgement because flour absorbency varies; expect somewhere near 1 pint, added gradually until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky but kneadable.
- Oven heatA moderate oven in this period means 350-375F (180-190C). Cakes of this size and shape take roughly 15-20 minutes; the stated baking time in the text has lost its fraction and should not be followed literally.
- Milk temperature"Warm" means blood heat, around 100F. Hotter milk poured onto yeast that has already been beaten into egg will kill the yeast and slacken the egg.
- The second riseThe instruction to let the shaped cakes rise "for a few minutes" is short by modern standards. Give them 20-30 minutes in a warm place until visibly puffed, or the crumb will be dense.
- Shaping and yieldEight cakes from 2 lb of flour gives large tea-cakes of roughly 6 oz each. Flatten them to about an inch thick so they bake through evenly; left as high rounds they will be raw in the centre when the crust is set.
- The currant versionThe fruit and sugar go in after the fat is rubbed in, as the recipe directs, which keeps them out of the way while the butter is worked into the flour. About 6 oz of currants and 2 oz of sugar suits this quantity.
- Reviving stale cakesThe trick of dipping in milk and covering with a basin in the oven is steaming under a cloche, and it works: a few minutes at 300F under a heatproof bowl softens a day-old cake without drying it.
Tea-cakes of this kind were common everyday yeast baking in British households in the second half of the nineteenth century. The reference to "German yeast" reflects a real trade: compressed fresh yeast was imported from the Continent from around the middle of the nineteenth century onward, and English bakers distinguished it from the older, liquid brewer's barm, which was less reliable and often bitter. The closing note about splitting, toasting and reviving stale cakes is in keeping with Beeton's household economy, and the buttered, toasted tea-cake survives in Britain today largely in the fruited version described here as an optional variation.