I’ve always loved the beginning of The Hobbit, when poor Bilbo’s kitchen is commandeered by Gandalf and the dwarves, while they plan their epic journey. Bilbo struggles to lay out a feast that will accommodate their hearty dwarvish appetites, all the while fretting about the damage done to his pantry, and to what lengths he was expected to stretch his hospitality:

They had not been at table long, in fact they had hardly reached the third cake, when there came another even louder ring at the bell.

‘Excuse me!’ said the hobbit, and off he went to the door.

‘So you have got here at last!’ was what he was going to say to Gandalf this time. But it was not Gandalf. Instead there was a very old-looking dwarf on the step with a white beard and a scarlet hood; and he too hopped inside as soon as the door was open, just as if he had been invited.

‘I see they have begun to arrive already,’ he said when he caught sight of Dwalin’s green hood hanging up. He hung his red one next to it, and ‘Balin at your service!’ he said with his hand on his breast.

‘Thank you!’ said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the correct thing to say, but they had begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He like visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes would run short, and then he --as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful-- he might have to go without.

“Come along in, and have some tea!’ he managed to say after taking a 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.…

Poor Bilbo! We can all empathize with his frenzied running to and fro in the midst of visitors. Here is a seed cake for which I hope you will not have to sacrifice your portion, as Mr. Baggins feared.

*Note: see the bottom of this post if you’d like to try a 19th century recipe for seed cake. Includes little to no instruction or measurements. I have also included a recipe from a Boston paper from 1924. I have not tried either yet but will post here when I get to them.

Bilbo Baggins’ Seed Cake

2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups flour (cake flour if you have it)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp caraway seed, more if you like- it’s really up to you

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease a round 8 or 9 inch pan. I lined mine with parchment but you don’t have to. You can also do this recipe in a loaf pan.

Sift four, salt and baking powder together. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in caraway seeds and egg. Add flour mixture and milk. Batter will be sticky, not pourable. Drop batter into cake pan and smooth to meet the edges of the pan. I like to sprinkle sugar over the top; it gives a nice crackly finish. But if you want it more like a pound cake top, skip the sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes. Check with a knife to see if it comes out clean when you insert it in the middle of the cake.

The batter is very sticky. You won’t be able to pour it in the pan; you’ll need to use a spoon or spatula.

I like this nice crackly top you get with the sprinkled sugar. It’s very delicate and has a beautiful crunch.

The caraway seeds give this an interesting but not overpowering flavor. Delicious with a cup of tea!

A beautiful round seed cake “for an after supper morsel.”

Seed Cake Recipe from 1895, found in the Matawan Journal: note that this cake is rolled out and cut in rounds, like biscuits.

Seed Cake- Once cup of butter, two of white sugar, three eggs, half a cup of caraway seeds and flour enough to make a stiff paste. Sprinkle the board with sugar, roll out the dough very thin and cut it in rounds. Bake about fifteen minutes.

Seed cake is also served by Miss Temple to Jane Eyre and her friend, Helen Burns:

Having invited Helen and me to approach the table, and placed before each of us a cup pf tea with one delicious but thin morsel of toast, she got up, unlocked a drawer, and taking from it a parcel wrapped in paper, disclosed presently to our eyes a good-sized seed-cake.

“I meant to give each of you some of this to take with you, said she,”but as there is so little toast, you must have it now”, and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.

We feasted that night as on nectar and ambrosia…

Seed Cake Recipe from 1924, found in the Boston Globe::

Dear Mary Ellen- If the recipe that you asked for is not sent in, perhaps you would like to try the following for seeds cakes: 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup thick cream, 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds, 3 cups pastry flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt. Beat eggs until light, add sugar gradually, caraway seeds, cream and flour mixed and sifted with baking powder and salt. Chill thoroughly, toss on a floured board, pat and roll one half inch thick, sprinkle with caraway seeds, roll one fourth inch thick and shape with a round cutter, first dipped in flour. Bake in a buttered sheet in a moderate oven.