Just what are Shrewsberry Cakes?

I think I would be scared to cook in a fire.

The party book says just to use sugar cookie dough and sprinkle it with rosewater (which QNPooh will tell you is an equared taste). When they say "cakes" they mean "cookies." Cookies were brought to America by the Dutch who called them, you guessed it, cakes.

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 25, 2005 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Felicity+Addyfan ]</font>

If you do a search in the archives of this board, you'll find several different Felicity recipes for Shrewsbury cakes. The bundt type cake is a Queen Cake which is kind of like a fancy muffin. I have Lissie's cookbook and can scan photos if people want to see.

Here's the recipe for Felicity's Shrewsbury Cakes. Pictures are in my Tea Party and Holiday albums. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for the recipe. Rose water. What a strange thing to put in a cookie. I might have to just skip that part. I bet it's expensive to get just for making cookies.

The rosewater I used wasn't that expensive (about $3?) and it added a nice flavoring to the cookies--subtle, but a nice addition.

Yum, I want some of those cakes now!

It also makes me really appreciate the technology we have. Isn't it great to be able to buy flour, sugar, premeasured butter, etc. AND have an oven which we can PREHEAT, and know just exactly how long to bake?

So that recipe would come out looking like English biscuits because they'd be round and flat, baked on a tin (cookie sheet). The pricking would keep them from rising like what we think of as a cake.

When I was 10 we went to the Amish country in PA -- around Bird-in-Hand -- and I bought a cook book there. I was totally surprised when it talked about how high the fire should be instead of what degree Farenheit to set the oven! I am very glad I don't have to cook like my great grandmother did, with a wood or coal stove in the kitchen! I've been reading her diaries. She didn't get a gas stove until 1946! My mother remembers that their dog used to love to sleep under the old stove because it was always warm there.

That's right rosewater isn't expensive. I used it for the chocolate cakes I made for my niece's birthday the past two times. Instead of vanilla I used rosewater, and I filled the cake with two layers of whipped cream which also had a couple of drops of rosewater added. Then just plain chocolate fudge icing.

First time I decorated it with candied violets - they are more on the expensive side but get you lots of ooohhhs and aaahhhs. I had wanted to get candied rose petals but they were out that time. The last time I decorated the cake with frosted berries.

I know in England you can get it at grocery stores like Sainsbury's, Tesco or Safeway, in the aisle where you find all the baking supplies.

I might try and go hunting for some rose water. I'm not sure where I'm going to find it. I might call a few specialty stores before I go out just to make sure they have it.