English Caraway Cake

  4.7 – 12 reviews  • English

The origin of this seed cake dish, which has a pronounced caraway seed flavor, is Great Britain.

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins
Total Time: 1 hr
Servings: 10
Yield: 1 8-inch cake

Ingredients

  1. 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  2. 1 teaspoon baking powder
  3. salt to taste
  4. ¾ cup white sugar
  5. ½ cup butter, softened
  6. 1 large egg
  7. 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
  8. ½ cup milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F ( 175 degrees C). Grease and flour the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan.
  2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer in a large bowl until creamy. Mix in egg and caraway seeds. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with milk, beating well after each addition. Pour batter into the prepared cake pan.
  4. Bake in the preheated oven until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Reviews

Kathleen King
Caraway is supposed to help increase milk supply while nursing, so I gave it a go. I prepared it as written but cooked it in a loaf pan since that’s easier to slice to share and store. ~55min in my 450 oven did the trick. I found it to be delightful! Not too sweet and not overly dense, it is not a runny cake batter but that was clear from reading the recipe since it contains little liquid, similar to a quick bread. I really enjoyed the taste and will definitely make it again even if it doesn’t help with my intended purpose!
Amanda Gomez
Great Recipe. 1. I didn’t have castor sugar so I used fine white sugar, it works 2. I didn’t have demerara sugar or light brown and I didn’t want to use jaggery, so I used icing sugar. 3. I used a loaf tin (about 13 x 23 cm), it works
Edward Gray
Very tasty basic cake recipe, I added 1 tsp vanilla to ensure the flavor wasn’t too bland. Family loved it!
Melanie Jones
I’ve been making this for years – SOOO delicious! Not super sweet, which is something I love about it! Yes, the dough is quite stiff, so you need to use a spatula to scoop it out and spread it into your pan – but that’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s best eaten in the first day or two or it gets stale – but if that happens, use it to make a trifle with! 🙂 One hint is not to go overboard with the caraway seeds. I also grind them in a coffee grinder before adding them – it makes them not quite such a surprise to bite into when you’re eating your seed cake and makes the flavor all throughout the cake. I very often have people try to guess what flavors the cake and NO ONE ever can – they’re always shocked to hear that it’s caraway! And then they always ask for the recipe! 🙂 This one is absolutely one of my GO TO favorites!!!
Anthony Simmons
Great cake. Require a bit more sugar.
Tina Franco
I found this recipe — identical to that which appeared in the late 1960s Time Life book on British Cookery, from which I tried it — turned out odd. It produced not a batter but a dough, so I second the comment that “pouring the batter is impossible”– it made not so much a cake as a mildly sweet bread. I suspect that the recipe has an error in it and that it calls for too much flour for the butter and sugar. Of course, very old recipes for Seed Cake sometimes made more of a bread than a cake, and perhaps I was expecting a more Victorian product. I was tempted to add some mace or even vanilla (both of which are ingredients in other recipes for Seed Cake); I also used some ground caraway along with the whole seed. On the whole, this recipe as stated makes a pleasant somewhat sweet dense bread which is nice with tea or coffee.
James Meyer
This was very good, but where I come from this isn’t exactly a cake and is a little too sweet to call a biscuit, but more like a big round scone. It is really good with coffee or tea, heated with butter.
Eric Thompson
I had never gotten use out of the caraway seeds in my spice rack, so I searched this site for a recipe that utilized them. I made this super easy cake as an afterthought after cooking dinner one night. It tasted great! I think of it more as a sweet bread, and it’s very tasty with butter. I’m glad to have added this to my recipe box!
Jennifer Colon
Delicious recipe! It was perfect. I must say though, that “pour into pan” is impossible. You have to pat it in like biscuit dough. The texture was fabulous, very tender, with a lovely crust. I’ll be making this again and again!
Shelly Conrad
This is memories from my childhood. My mom has misplaced her recipe so I was glad to find one. It’s flavour was perfect, and I went heavy on the caraway seeds, but I found it dry. Next time I will add a bit less flour and see if it helps.
Erin Hoffman
As a kid I hated this. As a grown up I love it! Every cake shop in England used to sell it, but I haven’t seen any commercially for decades. Do try it. You’ll either hate it or love it.
Courtney Jones
I had this cake as a child, it is excellent. All ages will enjoy this cake.

 

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