Bilbo's Seed Cakes Recipe

"Come along in, and have some tea!" he managed to say after taking a deep breath. 

"A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my good sir," said Balin with the white beard. "But I don't mind some cake-seed-cake, if you have any." 

"Lots!" Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he found himself scuttling off, too, to the cellar to fill a pint beer-mug, and to the pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.  

Creating this recipe brought me back to the time when I first read The Hobbit and I just couldn't get out of my mind what on earth a seed cake was.  This delicious treat was brought back to my attention when I created a Lord of the Rings dinner for the restaurant I worked in a few years ago.  The addition of caraway seeds were fascinating to me and it brought me more surprise when I found out that seed cakes date back to the 16th - 17th century.

With so much history, I didn't want to simple create a pound cake with caraway seeds.  The traditional recipe was more bread like and was round to look like a round shield.  This recipe I have here for you today is baked in mini loaf pans but for authenticity, feel free to bake it in a round cake tin.  This recipe is similar to a tea cake and the addition of caraway seeds makes this a great pairing with tea in the afternoon.

I hope you enjoy this really simple recipe for seed cakes. I hear it's a hit with the dwarves!

Bilbo's Seed Cales Recipe

Bilbo's Seed Cakes Recipe

by Feast of Starlight April-30-2015

A recipe for Bilbo Baggin's Seed Cakes from Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Ingredients

• 180g butter, room temp.
• 180g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large lemon zest
• 200g all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 100g almond meal
• 1 1/2 tbsp caraway seeds

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F2. With paddle attachment, mixer butter and sugar until pale.3. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract. Mix and scrape.4. Add the almond meal in two additions.5. Add the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt in three additions. Make sure to scrape the bottom and side of the bowl in between each addition.6. Add your caraway seeds and mix until combined.7. Scoop the batter into lightly greased mini loaf pans, or small cake rounds, until it/s 3/4 of the way full.8. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.9. Cool on cooling rack and serve with some fresh cream and jam.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 8 mini loafs

The Lord of the Rings: Lembas

The Lord of the Rings: Lembas

Lembas is easily one of the most popular recipes from The Lord of the Rings so when I created a recipe for it I wanted it be perfect. There is an incredible amount of history tied to lembas and creating this recipe felt like I was digging a recipe out of the history books.

"Lembas, Elvish waybread. One small bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man"

Lembas translates to journey bread and has said to leave a man filled for an entire days journey.  This waybread is supposedly tastier than cram and the recipe was closely guarded and was only given to outsiders once, the fellowship.  

The leaves from the Mallorn tree in Lothlorien wraps and keeps the lembas fresh for days if kept unbroken.  Mallorn trees grew in Lothlorien and the leaves turned gold in the autumn.  In this recipe I decided to use banana leaves because it helps keep the lembas fresh longer and and it helps impart flavor.  Keep reading to see how I wrapped the lembas.

The Hobbit Inspired: Cram

Cram, Inspired by The Hobbit

Far over the Misty Mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away ere break of day,

To find our long-forgotten gold

- Misty Mountains

 Tolkien described cram as a biscuity type of food that was suppose to sustain you for very long journeys.  It wasn't the tastiest of foods and it was described as chewy but the important thing was that cram was able to help sustain and energize you.  So much so that the dwarves took some with them on their journey to The Lonely Mountains.

“If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don’t know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise.” - Tolkien 

Though cram was very similar to lembas from the elves, it was supposedly not has flavorful. What immediately came to my head was that these sounded like energy bars.  It's suppose to be jam packed with ingredients that would fill and sustain and grown man or in this case, a dwarf.  While these are quite flavorful, I felt it fit the guidelines of cram.  It's sustaining, chewy, and has a long shelf life. Enjoy!

The Hobbit Inspired: Beorn's Honey Cakes

The Hobbt: Beorn's Honey Cakes

The Hobbit Marathon

 On Monday, December 15th, I got to watch the premiere of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies!!! As I've said in previous posts, my love for Tolkien and his stories go deep and when I saw the chance to see The Hobbit movies in the IMAX theater, I jumped at the chance.  I was in heaven!  I was surrounded by Middle Earth enthusiasts like myself in the first marathon showing of the three movies.  I'm not going to go into reviews or anything like that because I want everyone to experience the movie without somebody's point of view in the their mind.

Happy December!

Happy December, everyone! I hope those that celebrate Thanksgiving had a great one filled with love and good food.  However, as fast as Thanksgiving came, it has now past and I can't believe we are now in the start of December.  As stressful as December can get, it's important to leave time for yourself this month.  Before writing this blog, I put together a short list of some of the things I'm most looking forward to this month.  Hopefully, this list will pile on and on but it's nice to have a few things to look forward to.  Let me know if anyone has something they're most excited to do for themselves in the month of December!