Little Women: Caraway Seed Cake
Little Women: Recipe #6
When Jo moves out to New York City to make an independent woman out of herself, she takes a position caring for 2 small girls, whose family runs a boarding house. At one point, the children are playing “menagerie” with Mr. Bhaer and his 2 young nephews - during which, one of the girls feeds the “animal” boys seed cake through the “bars” of a chair. After some research, I found that a popular type of seed cake during the time period was caraway seed cake - a recipe that originated in Ireland and England. I had never tasted caraway seed before, so I thought it would be a fun experiment. The caraway seed is related to cumin and fennel, but is sweeter and milder than both. This cake was quite tasty and went splendidly with my afternoon earl grey. I will decidedly be making it again.
Serve with coconut cream whipped cream.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup vegan butter
1.25 cups sugar
3 eggs’ equivalent of egg replacer (I used Bob’s Mill Egg Replacer. For 3 eggs’ worth, mix 3 Tbsp egg replacer with 6 Tbsp warm water. Set aside and let sit until goopy.)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tbsp caraway seeds (plus more for garnishing)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
Cream together vegan butter and sugar. Keep mixing while slowly adding in prepared egg replacer. Mix until incorporated.
Add lemon juice and zest and continue to mix.
Gradually add flour and caraway seeds, and mix until incorporated.
Add water and oil and mix until incorporated.
Pour mixture into prepared pan, and sprinkle a few caraway seeds on top.
Bake for one hour until nicely golden browned, and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Serve with vegan whipped cream or vegan clotted cream (or as is!).
Enjoy!
