1 of 6 photos

Photo by:

Add this recipe to your:

Send this recipe:

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 Cattern Cakes 59g Recipe makes 12 Cattern Cakes)
Calories 252
Calories from Fat 96		(38%)
Amount Per Serving		%DV
	Total Fat 10.7g	16%
	Saturated Fat 5.2g	25%
	Monounsaturated Fat 3.7g
	Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0g
	Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 35mg		11%
Sodium 60mg		2%
Potassium 113mg		3%
Total Carbohydrate 36.0g		12%
	Dietary Fiber 1.6g	6%
	Sugars 17.7g
Protein 4.1g		8%
how is this calculated?

Lacemaker's Cattern Cakes - English Spiced Sugar Cookies

Recipe #266901 | 20 min | 10 min prep | add private note

⁽¹⁾ RATE IT NOW Print Recipe

By: French Tart
Nov 20, 2007

"Cattern cakes" are spiced with cinnamon, lightly fruited and flavoured with caraway seeds; they are traditionally made by the English Nottingham lacemakers for the festivities on their special feast day. The recipe goes back to Tudor times, and has changed little over the centuries, although they are sometimes made with yeast dough. Also known as Catherine Cakes (after Catherine of Aragon, whom whilst imprisoned locally at Ampthill, heard of the lacemaker's financial plight, and destroyed all of her lace only to commission some more and give work to the local industry). They are specially prepared for St. Catherine's Day - the patroness of spinners, lace-makers, rope-makers and spinsters - on the 25th November, which is the lacemaker's special day. They are traditionally washed down with Hot Pot - a hot mixture of rum, beer and eggs. I find that I prefer mine with a cup of tea! These delicious little cakes are more like a soft and slightly chewy biscuit or cookie.

12 Cattern Cakes (change servings and units)

Ingredients

9 ounces self raising flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 ounces currants
2 ounces ground almonds
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
6 ounces caster sugar
4 ounces melted butter
1 medium egg, beaten
extra sugar, for sprinkling
extra cinnamon, for sprinkling

Directions

1
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl: flour, cinnamon, currants, ground almonds, caraway seeds and sugar.
2
Add the melted butter and the beaten egg and mix well to give a soft dough.
3
Roll the dough out on a floured board, into a rectangle about 12" x 10" - 30cm x 25cm.
4
Brush the dough with water and sprinkle with the extra sugar and cinnamon to taste.
5
Gently roll the dough up like a Swiss roll, not too tightly, and then cut the rolled up dough into 3/4" - 2cm slices.
6
Place these slices on to a well greased and lined baking tray or biscuit/cookie sheet, making sure that they are spaced well apart.
7
Bake in a pre-heated oven 200C/400F/Gas 6 for about 10 minutes, or until golden and crispy to the top.
8
Allow the cattern cakes to cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle with extra caraway seeds, sugar and cinnamon if you like.
9
Store in an airtight tin for up to 7 days.

Questions about this recipe?

Spot an error in this recipe?

Submit a correction

More recipes like this one:

Sweet and Spicy Tomatoes

Sugar, Salt & Vinegar Red Tomatoes

Curried Carrot and Coriander Soup

Apple Coffee Cake With Crumble Topping

Cherry Cola Float

Featured Reviews for This Recipe

From: Queen Dana

On Dec 14, 2008

These were very good, especially right out of the oven. I used raisins instead of currants, but it would have been better with currants because the raisins are a little too big. I made a double batch and the second patch rather than rolling the dough and slicing I rolled the dough into balls and dipped in the sugar cinnamon mixture like snickerdoodles and that worked ok but they weren't as pretty. I found that after these had been stored for a few days the caraway seed flavor got stronger, so eat these while they're still fresh.

1 person found this review helpful

Was this review helpful to you? YES | NO

Read all 1 reviews