Shrewsbury cakes // 18th century recipes
Recently I was flipping though one of the older cookbooks in my collection when a recipe caught my eye. Which to be honest isn’t hard to do if it has cinnamon in it. The recipe in question was for Shrewsbury cakes. Seeing that I had never heard about them, it seemed like a good excuse as any to learn a bit about them and attempt to bake the cakes.
To our contemporary ears Shrewsbury cakes have misleading name, because they are not cakes at all, rather a biscuit. They are usually made with flour, sugar, eggs, butter and different flavourings (more of which later) and are round in shape. The first mention of the cakes was recorded in the 16th century, but sadly no recipe survives from that time, however it is known that they were well loved for their crisp and brittle texture. The oldest recorded recipe can be found in The Queens Closet Opened published in 1656, and over the next two and a half centuries different versions for Shrewsbury cakes appear in many cookbooks, particularly from the 18th and early 19th centuries.
The most well known name associated with the Shrewsbury cakes is that of Mr. Pailin from Shrewsbury, Wales. He was a bookseller and a bakery owner, where he sold these cakes. They were said to be so excellent that the author of The Ingoldsby Legends included a rather high praise for them in one of his stories.
““Mr Palin, prince of cake compounders
The mouth liquifies at thy very name!””
Later his biscuit recipe was acquired by a manufacturer Thomas Plimmer & Sons, who trademarked the name Pailin’s Original Shrewsbury Cakes. They were sold until the onset of WWII when due to butter rationing the manufacturing ceased and was never restated.
I first came across Shrewsbury cakes in The Compleat Housewife or Accomplished Gentlewomens Companion by Eliza Smith 1739 cookbook edition. There Ms Smith uses nutmeg and cinnamon, however upon looking through some of my other cookbooks the flavours can vary. Along with the aforementioned spices, caraway seeds and rosewater are mentioned as well, often in different combinations. Currants also appears in late 19th century cookbook as a substitute for caraway seeds and in some cases sack (the closest modern substitute is dry sherry) was added along with, or in place of rosewater. Not being able to pick one recipe I decided to bake three - all different in flavour, ingredients and manner of making.
Spoiler! I ended up making 4 versions. For science sake of course.
Eliza Smith Shrewsbury cakes from 1739
So I started with the recipe from the Eliza Smith cookbook. It made a slightly floury and dry biscuit but it wasn’t was as crumbly as a shortbread. The spices were nice and it wasn’t overly sweet. For some inexplicable reason I decided to use ice-cream scoop to portion out the biscuits, instead of rolling the dough out and then cutting the desired shapes. This turned out to be mistake, more about that in the Maria Eliza Ketlby Rundell recipe description below. I kept changing my mind whether I liked it or not, mainly because of the slight floury taste on the tongue and the dense chewy middle however my boyfriend did enjoy them. I also ended up dividing the ingredients by a third as the recipe had a very high yield. If I would make these again I think I would make the biscuits a little thinner and most definitely reduce the amount of flour and butter and see where that would lead.
The Compleat Housewife or Accomplished Gentlewomens Companion by Eliza Smith (1739)
150 grams caster sugar
450 grams flour
1 tsp cinnamon powder and grated nutmeg (each)
1 egg
225 grams melted butter*
*The original recipe doesn’t indicate the butter amount, it only said to add butter until it forms a paste, i.e. it comes together. In my case that was 225 grams of butter.
I followed the instruction by mixing dry and wet ingredients separately and then together. To shape the biscuits I used an ice-cream scoop to portion the dough and then slightly squash them. They were baked at 160°C for 12 minutes. While edible they weren’t the best biscuits I have made.
Francis Collingwood & John Woolams Shrewsbury cakes from 1798
The next recipe on my little Shrewsbury cake journey comes from the 1798 cookbook The Universal Cook and City and Country Housekeeper written by Francis Collingwood and John Woollams who were the principal cooks at the The Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. The same recipe almost word for word can also be found in Elizabeth Raffald cookbook The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769). Here the choice of spice is caraway seeds, which I found quite exciting. Firstly because as a Latvian it is a matter of our a national pride to try to sneak caraway seeds into as many dishes as we possibly can. Secondly I have read similar biscuits flavoured with these seeds was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. I didn’t change the recipe here as the amount it produced seemed manageable to eat within a week or so. These came out much better than the previous recipe. The texture was similar to a shortbread biscuit, if slightly less crumbly and little more chewy. I liked them very much and to my surprise so did my boyfriend (he doesn’t really like caraway seeds). However next time I will reduce the sugar, they were too sweet.
The Universal cook and city and country housekeeper by Francis Collingwood and John Woolams (1798)
225 grams butter
180 grams caster sugar
an egg
225 grams plain flour
15 grams caraway seeds
I creamed the butter until light and fluffy, then incorporated sugar before adding the egg and lastly mixed in the dry ingredients. The dough was quite sticky, so I used the ice-cream scoop again to measure out a ball and then flattened it with my palm. These biscuits spread quite a bit so ended up being quite thin anyway. The cakes were baked at 160°C for 12 minutes or until the edges started to turn golden brown.
Hannah Glasse Shrewsbury cakes from 1747
I choose this recipe because it was the only one that used a little bit of cream instead of butter and was flavoured with only rosewater. Of all the recipes I tested this was the least successful, read edible. The texture of the biscuit was quite leather-like and very unpleasant. I am not sure what I did wrong but suspect the lack of butter is partly to blame. This recipe almost word for word can be found in Richard Briggs cookbooks The English Art of Cookery (1788). The ingredient quantity was quartered.
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse (1747)
225 grams plain flour
110 grams caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp cream (I needed extra two teaspoons)
1/2 tbsp rosewater
Mix together flour and sugar and set aside 56 grams to roll the biscuits in. Beat together the egg, rosewater and cream and mix in with the dry ingredients. My dough was very dry so I added extra 2 teaspoons of cream for it to come together. Because the dough was very dry I didn’t need the extra flour to roll it in. As with the other recipes the biscuits were baked at 160°C for 12 minutes or until the edges started to turn golden brown.
Maria Eliza Ketlby Rundell Shrewsbury cakes from 1806
In the end I decided to make one more version and I am glad I did. This is a very similar recipe to the Eliza Smiths version but with rosewater added. I decided to reduce the amount of butter by 25 grams to 200 grams (see the first recipe) and roll the dough instead of using the ice-cream scoop. That improved the biscuits greatly. Each sheet of biscuits were rolled at different thicknesses and I found that the thinner you rolled the dough the better the end result was. Yet again the recipe has divided by three and it still yielded quite a generous amount.
A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Eliza Ketlby Rundell (1806)
150 grams caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
450 grams plain flour
1 egg
1 tsp rosewater
200 grams butter, melted
Mix together all the dry ingredients. Beat together the egg with rosewater and pour it and the butter in the flour. Mix until everything has been incorporated. Roll the dough as thin as you please and bake. My preference was about 3mm thick biscuit baked at 160°C (fan) for 12 minutes or until the edges start to change colour.
This is most definitely the biscuit I liked the most and will be writing down in my recipe notebook. If you have tried any of the recipes above do tell me about your experience in the comments below, I would love hear from you.
Disclaimer! I live in a small city apartment and cook on a electric stovetop and oven. The recipes have been recreated with modern appliances and ingredients from my local grocery shop as that is what was available to me at the time of writing. I only recently have started to cook from old cookbooks and still have much to learn so it is very much possible that I have misinterpreted a recipe and the fault is mine and not the recipes.
Sources
BOOKS
The Queens Closet Opened by Hannah Woolley (1656)
The Compleat Housewife or Accomplished Gentlewomens Companion by Eliza Smith (1739)
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse (1747)
The Universal cook and city and country housekeeper by Francis Collingwood and John Woolams (1798)
A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Eliza Ketlby Rundell (1806)
Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery by Cassell Petter and Galpin (1892)
The Taste of Britain by Laura Mason and Catherine Brown (2006)
INTERNET SITES
https://blog.invinic.com/en/can-you-still-buy-sack-wine
https://palinfamilyresearch.blogspot.com/2016/01/week-three.html
