Cattern Cakes
If you're going to have a celebration, you're going to need a tasty treat. Try these simple Cattern Cakes brought to us by our British Isles friends. Cattern Cakes were traditionally made on the lace-maker's holiday, St. Catherine's Day. This feast day happens to fall on my birthday, so I'm particularly fond of making Cattern Cakes. Something like a scone crossed with a biscuit, these a simple to make and well-suited to breakfast or dessert. This recipe is adapted from one my favorite traditional recipe books, The Festive Table, by Jane Pettigrew.
Ingredients
- 3/4 Cup butter softened
- 1 Cup sugar - rapadura sucanat, raw
- 2 Cups flour - I usually use Bob's Red Mill Organic flour so that I can get it unenriched and unbleached
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. allspice
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1 Cup almond meal
- 1 egg beaten
- 2/3 Cup currants or raisins - if you don't use currants try to make your own raisins - I'm not sure why homemade tastes better in this recipe, they just do
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F/200 C.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy in your stand mixer (or by hand).
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices and almond meal.
- Add the dry mixture to the creamed butter and begin to mix slowly.
- Add enough egg (usually one will do the trick) to form a stiff dough.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 3/8 inch thick.
- Sprinkle currants over the dough and roll up the dough, pinching the ends. If you've ever made cinnamon rolls, this part is similar.
- Cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick and lay them flat on a buttered baking pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes until golden.
- Let the tray of cakes cool for a few minutes before you move them too cooling racks. This allows the almond meal to set up and you'll get less breakage.
- Butter and serve warm; though, they're equally good cold!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!