It’s Autumn! Hooray!!

Today is Hobbit Day! It’s Bilbo’s birthday! It’s Frodo’s birthday! Hooray for Hobbit Day!

I have been meaning to make a seed cake in honor of Bilbo’s birthday for several years, and every year I have not gotten it made on the proper day. Somehow it seemed wrong to make it on a day other than Hobbit day, since in my head a seed cake is the cake Bilbo’s makes and so should be made on the proper day or not at all (at least the first time).

I had never had a seed cake before and had no idea what sort of cake it was when I read (or was read to) about Bilbo having just made a pair of lovely seed cakes at the beginning of The Hobbit. Turns out a seed cake is flavored with caraway, mace, and nutmeg.

I quite like this cake, as did Mom, Raven, and our friend Jim when we cut into it after dinner. It is not too sweet, and quite a nice way to welcome in Autumn when combined with a warm mug of tea.

The recipe I found (which was based on an older classic British recipe) made two cakes, although it said to put the batter into a greased and lined pan (singular), but when I tried a single pan it was full with no room to rise without climbing out of the pan, so I divided it into two pans. It is a British recipe, but unless British cake pans are taller than American cake pans, I think two cake pans are actually needed to make this recipe or else it might climb its way out of the pan and all over the oven while baking.

The recipe said to serve this cake with tea (I tried the sweetened milky tea it recommended, but on the second mug and slice I went back to my normal unsweetened and un-milky tea). I must say that it is indeed quite good with a nice black tea (yes, that is a Wind in the Willows mug). I do not think that coffee would go with this cake nearly as well. I think coffee and caraway might clash a bit, but that’s my own taste.

Happy Birthday Bilbo and Frodo!

Welcome Autumn!