Orange Queens Cake with Raisins and Cranberries
Hello, Spring is finally here:-)
I’m making Queen Cakes to welcome it and say ‘Goodbye Winter, it’s been good my birth-season friend’, see you next year again.
This is my adaptation of the recipe found (earliest) in 1724 in Robert Smith’s Court cookery: or, The compleat English cookbook. Where he instructed the readers to “Take a Pound of dry’d Flower, a Pound of refin’d Sugar sifted, and a Pound of Currans wash’d, pick’d, and rubb’d clean, and a Pound of Butter wash’d very well, and rub it into the Flower and Sugar, with a little beaten Mace, and a little Orange-Flower Water; beat ten Eggs, but half the Whites, work it all well together with your Hands, and put in the Currans; sift over it double-refin’d Sugar, and put them immediately into a gentle Oven to bake.”
This recipe has been adapted over the years by bakers, with others adding more flour, less or more sugar, with and without currants or raisins and using different cookie cutters. There are also variations with icing and sprinkles.
My first discovery of this ancient treat was through street vendors who sell buckets of scones, muffins and Queen Cakes. They are now sold aplenty by many township entrepreneurs. To me, they looked like the scones we (Africans) eat at funerals, however though, with different vendors, the shapes were different, some looked like little square spongy cakes and others looked like muffins. Suffice it to say, I had to do research about these interesting little cakes to find out the mystery behind the different variations.
The first time I made Queen Cakes, the texture kind of confused me, as I couldn’t tell if it’s muffin like or scone like with its denseness. I the melted the butter and added oil, the result was a moist scone texture, which I liked, very much. I added cranberries, raisins, orange zests and juice, my family finished all in no time, and I hope yours will enjoy these too. I also baked another tray with cranberries and raisins.
Orange Queens Cake with Raisins and Cranberry
INGREDIENTS
260g Cake Flour
70g Butter, Melted
10 Drops Almond Essence
60ml Canola Oil
120g Castor Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
Zests Of 1 Orange
1/2 Cup Black Raisins
1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries
1/2 Cup Orange Juice
