Caraway.....

Best flavouring seed ever! Fortunately I live in a country (Czech Republic) where bread routinely contains caraway seeds. They don't have seed cake though. You can still get seed cake from some local bakers in the UK and there are many recipes on line.

Poppy seed is also much used in baking here in the CR but sadly, though I love it, I am allergic to it.

Yes Caraway seeds thank-you. I love poppy seeds on bread rolls.

Caraway for certain. my mum used to make them and it is the seed cake fancied by Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit.

I have my grandmother's "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management" that probably has a recipe for seed cake. I remember "A Good Plain Cake Suitable For Sending To Children At School", and "Soup For Charitable Purposes". That recipe started with a direction to fill a copper (the sort used for laundry) with water and add sawn up bones. I used to love looking at this book when I was a kid - my Mum and I used to play a game where she was the mistress of the house and I was the general servant - based on the daily routines Mrs Beeton lays down for all the servants in a household. I didn't last long as a "slavey" though! :-)

Thanks SBG my mum used to make it to. A good plain cake is right Beattie but I liked the taste a sort of aniseed taste? But the seeds were uncomfortable to eat.

There are three recipes for seed cakes, which all use caraway seeds, and there are seed biscuits too. Any takers? I'll type out the "Seed Cake, A Very Good" recipe if anyone wants it. :-) ("Average cost 2/-, Seasonable, at any time.")

I've just checked - the cake suitable for sending to children at school is "Cake, Common" Average cost 1/7d
And it contains caraway seeds too, as well as allspice and currants.

Id love a plain seed cake recipe B

Here we go then - Isabella Beeton's finest!
*Seed Cake, A Very Good*
Ingredients for good sized cake -
3/4 lb of butter
4 eggs
3/4 lb of sifted sugar
pounded mace and grated nutmeg to taste
1lb of flour
3/4 oz of caraway seeds
1 wineglassful of brandy

Average cost 2s

Beat the butter to a cream; dredge in the flour; add the sugar, mace, nutmeg and caraway seeds, and mix these ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs, stir to them (sic) the brandy, and beat the cake again for 10 minutes. Put it into a tin lined with buttered paper, and bake it from 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (There's no indication of oven temperature, I suggest about 170 C or a bit less). This cake would be equally nice made with currants, and omitting the caraway seeds.

I'm not sure about beating the cake for 10 minutes after adding all the ingredients, I think it would make the gluten in the flour harden the cake, but that's what Mrs B says!

What a good job I didn't offer "Seed Cake, Common". It starts by getting a quartern of dough sent in from the baker's. And "Cake, Common" (the one for kids at school) uses fresh yeast and clarified dripping.

Love the recipe Beattie my wife has asked for this to be printed out and we will try will let you know the results

Horrid horrid taste caraway. I think it was in babies gripe water too - or was that fennel - yuk.

I make seed cake and bread. I make a plain madeira mixture and just add the caraway seeds. I do the same with bread. I add enough seeds to taste, usually about 1 1/2- 2 teaspoons of seeds, and about 1 teaspoonful in my bread mixture. We love it. Yes Cammomile, it is in gripe water, and I still love that too. Lol. It's Fennel, that has the Aniseed flavour. Yummy hahaha. Brilliant recipe Beattie, never had it with Brandy though. :o))

Didnt know there was brandy version Beatie! Your plain madeira sounds like the one I remember Lindalooloo? Yes I too like the taste of gripe water.

Utterly disgusting taste!

Thats what my brothers thought OB.

I confess I've been making seed cake for years - my kids loved it, that and cherry cake (the cherries never sank to the bottom, grandma's recipe) and coconut cake, but funnily enough, they all loved the seed cake most. Made as Lindalooloo makes, madeira cake recipe, essentially, with caraway seeds added.

I adore caraway, aniseed and fennel and every night I drink a cup of German Fenchel, Anis, and Kümmel tea - known in the family as f--ck tea since that's how the three initials are pronounced......

I keep meaning to try making a seed cake and shall definitely have a go now. Shan't spoil it with mace, nutmeg and brandy though :-(

As Bamboo said, all you need is a basic Madeira cake recipe, and add whatever seeds you like. I too love cherry and coconut cake. Funny thing is, when I was a child, my Mother wouldn't make seed cake. Wait for it; She used to say caraway seeds looked like mouse droppings.Lol. and if we wanted it, we had to go to my Nans. haha. :o))))

I remember serving cabbage with a spoonful of caraway seeds stirred in (a Polish dish, I believe) to my OH not long after we first met. It was refused with disgust saying "It's got bugs in!" - couldn't be convinced it was OK to eat. I've never served it again :-(

That was over 30 years ago....

My son won't eat anything with caraway in because when he was small he found what he thought was a glass jar full of chocolate hundreds and thousands in the kitchen, tipped a whole load in the palm of his hand, and then ate it.....it was caraway seed! I have to disguise the caraway that goes into the Christmas Day cabbage salad by grinding it......

Thanks everyone that was an interesting response a love it or hate it Cake!

Agree with you Drc, definitely a love it or hate it cake. A bit like Marmite. Lol hehehe. :o)))))

Marmite brings me out in a rash round my mouth but Twiglets dont! Lol.

Maaaaarmite. Mmmmmm. Lol. :o)))

Marmite is one of things that expats import into the Czech Republic - I've managed to convert several Czech friends into avid consumers after they initially wrinkled their noses at it :-)

They would love the snack Twiglets then Cestina -can you get them?

Not over here, but I do bring a selection of marmite-laden things over with me - didn't like the last things though: Marmite Cereal Bars. Must remember to pass them on to my Marmite-loving friend visiting this weekend....hope she likes them.

Lol lets hope you stay friends after that!

Agree with you Drc. Wonder too if they'll stay friends. Lol. I love marmite, but not sure I'd fancy cereal bars flavoured with marmite. :o)))

I can assure you that you wouldn't Lindalooloo - they are completely disgusting!

Thanx Cestina. Will not bother buying any then. Funny really, I love bananas, but do not like anything, banana flavoured. Although years ago, you could buy Toffee, called Banana Split Toffee, and that was delicious. ;o)))

I love bananas, but only when they're yellow with a touch of green, once they ripen and get brown spots, oh, yuk, horrible texture, and I also hate anything with cooked bananas - just tastes like over ripe bananas to me, so I'm with you, Lindalooloo.

Over in the Czech Republic many people own fruit dryers, which they often use for drying mushrooms but also various other types of veg and fruit. I have one and mainly use it for making banana crisps - we slice them very thin and dry till completely crispy. They are gorgeous and much loved by small children as well as adults.

Bananas are on of the things that bring on a Migraine, but then a dietician told me ripe bananas wouldnt and she was right, so occasionally I get to have a really ripe one.

I saw a programme with fey Alys from Gardener's World where she collected wild fruits with a foreign lady and then went back to the lady's house to slice them ready for the dryer the lady had - I'd never seen one before. She called the fruits produced leathers.

Lol well then the foreign lady didn't do them very well! Strawberries and cherries work beautifully, so do plums and apples. Pineapple too, but the bananas are our favourites.

Well, apart from the wild mushrooms that is......

My Father-in-law, was Estonian. They collect or grow everything they can, and then preserve it, one way or another. I think, to them, it's a way of life that they grew up with, and passed on to their families. Uncle Georgi, is 73, and still goes to collect wild mushrooms, and preserves them. I'm amazed at how self sufficient they still are. Drc, I've suffered from Migraine, since I was a teenager. I never knew bananas triggered Migraines off. As it is, I eat bananas on a regular basis. Having said that, I don't get the Migraines as regularly as I used to. (bet I will now that I've said that). I've actually been admitted to hospital on two occasions, where they thought I'd had a stroke, but after tests, they put it down to Migraine. They're quite scary headaches. :o)

You have my sympathy Lindal. The hospital thought I had had a stroke at 19 when I lost the use of 1/2 my face and one arm that was a migraine. Unripe bananas, coffee, dark chocolate and cheese bring on migraine for me so I avoid them like the plague. On a walk last year we stopped for a drink and I had one cheese scone never again!

Same symptoms here. 1st time it happened to me, I had just got home from busy day in work. Lost the use of my right side almost completely. Hubby phoned Doctor, he sent me to Hospital, cos he thought it was a stroke, but they did brain scan, and said they thought it was just Migraine. Very reassuring to say the least. You worry then, when it may happen again. I don't eat too much in the way of dairy. Fluorecent lighting does it to me as well and my old boss couldn't eat an orange, or even smell one being peeled. :o)))

It never happened to me again but as you say scary. Lights can do it to me too.

2nd time it happened, was a bank holiday Monday. Went down road to local to watch band playing. Only just got there, hubby asked what I wanted to drink, and I couldn,t answer him. He asked if we should go back home, and I must have nodded. We got home, he phoned Doc, and I ended up back in hospital. No scan that time. They just said must be Migraine again. :o))

scary.

Lord, how frightening. Have friend who's son cannot go longer than 4 hours during the day without food, or he has a serious migraine. And I think the triggers are different for everyone - I find close patterned wallpaper may well trigger one off for me, thank god the laura ashley wallpaper phase is over. I get visual disturbance, so have to just sit and wait for half an hour till it passes, wherever I am and whatever I'm doing - got one once while taking dictation in the office, boss had to wait for it to pass to finish his letters, lol! Needless to say, I take the heavy duty painkiller immediately the flashing lights start...

Another migraine sufferer here. Bad, bad 'uns :-(((((((((((((((((((
I've run the gamut trying to find triggers/causes but the one and only thing that's consistent in their trigger is ..... tiredness :-/

Yes me too Bamboo, my auras are like the edge of a bright saw or the first letter of each word is missing when reading and recently I have had just the eyes change on the screen. So Agree with you about tiredness Louise though never got them at work but on my day off oh yes

Yes Drc. I get the saw effect. Mine is like a half moon shape with a sawlike edge, all colours flashing like a rainbow. Yes Bamboo, I can't do stripes, especially narrow ones, and certain coloured ones. Biggest laugh was when I decorated my front room a while back. We bought lovely wood fire surround, bought a nice slightly raised wallpaper, and painted it with one of these hint of colours, keeping it plain but bright, bought a lovely marble hearth, when it came to the carpet, everyone was saying to see If I could get an old fashioned pattern like the old turkey red (if anyone can remember the one I mean). Managed to get it, in House of Fraser, cost a bomb,had it laid, and can't go into the room now, cos the pattern is bouncing off it in my face. The backround is bright red, but the greens and blues in it are just dazzling off it. I also get the numbness in the fingers, and strange, it seems to attack one finger at a time. It starts in the tip of little finger, works down, by the time it reaches the base, it starts tip of next finger and so on. When my finger is numb, I could if I had to, bite it off, thats how numb it gets. I don't very often get the sickness, now though. :o(

It certainly a horrid thing. I get it much less now I am older Lindaloo or it might be that I keep well clear of the triggers?

I'm treading gently here, as I'm saying aloud, I don;t get them so often now, but whenever I say that, I end up having one. My auras get so bad when I have an attack, I have to sit in dark room, or go to bed, cos I can't see anything. I've tried every tablet there is over the years, and the one I take now is Nurofen, but the capsules, cos they dissolve in the stomach quicker. the casing of them is like a gel. :o)))

I don't know, the things we all put up with - you always think everyone's really healthy and never gets much wrong, but actually, its not true at all. Still, could be worse, I've got arthritis migraine, etc., but my son's epileptic - there's some suggestion that epilepsy and migraines are linked in some way. I suspect they might be a different expression of a similar problem, whatever the problem is -neurology is one of those fields where what they know for sure comprises about 2% and the rest is anybody's guess.

I think you are right about neurology Bamboo a much bigger subject than most people realize.

Huge sympathy for all you migraine sufferers - praise be I don't even normally suffer from mild headaches. I do however have four friends in the CR and Germany who suffer badly from migraine -one of them discovered Veganin whilst living in England and for years I have carried it over for her since that exact combination of painkillers is not available in Germany.

I also suggested it to the two Czechs with the result that I now travel with at least a dozen boxes of Veganin each time I cross the channel since they all say it's the most efficaceous remedy for them if they can take it quickly enough at the start of an attack.

I wonder if any of you have tried it?

Sorry to hear about your son Bamboo, but I suppose it could be possible, there is a link. I remember when my elder Daughter was young, she had a terrible headache and bad tummy. So ill, I phoned the Doctor next day. She was already suffering with Migraines, which they said was due to her age, and exams in school stressing her. When Doc came, he examined her, and said the Migraine headache had gone to her stomach. i was gobbsmacked. But he was the Doctor, who was I to argue. She was ill like that for a whole week. Still don;t know if he was right, but was told it's hereditary. My Mum, myself and both my Brothers suffered, along with my Daughter, and looks like my elder Granddaughter and my Grandson have started suffering. :o(

I take soluble co codomol, works in ten minutes Cestina - veganin is the same recipe but has a bit of caffeine added for speed of action - and costs a lot more!

Is it available without prescription Bamboo? If so I might try them on a couple of packets. Though it's not me that pays, it would be nicer if it were all a bit cheaper, especially for the Czechs.....

The codeine in co-codamol makes some people sick, I suggest trying it out before getting a whole lot of it.

Cestina, Veganin appears to have 500mg. paracetamol, 30 mg. caffeine, 8 mg codeine - Superdrug make their own Co codomol which has the same ratios of paracetamol and codeine, but without the caffeine, and in a soluble form, which makes it as quick as the veganin with caffeine. Might be worth buying a box for them to try (I say superdrug's own soluble because its not too unpalatable - Boot's own version tastes foul). Only thing is, there's rules about how much you can buy at once, I think you're only allowed one box of 32, or possibly two, but certainly no more, though you can go in the morning and buy one and then go back in the afternoon and buy another (I know, ridiculous, Government legislation to stop people trying to kill themselves with paracetamol - ridiculous, I can't think of a less efficient way to kill yourself, takes a week, very painful and often doesn't even actually kill). I'm wondering how you get hold of so much Veganin at once!
I say buy it for them to try, I'm sure it'll be much cheaper, but check, tho I wonder whether the caffeine element also has some impact on migraine in its own right, it'll be interesting to see, but I do know that caffeine is usually added to make the other contents work quicker by speeding up the metabolism. Guess they could drink a cup of coffee at the same time as the co codomol if its significantly cheaper, lol!
and Beattie, if they're already using Veganin with some success, they won't have a problem with co-codomol as the codeine content is the same.

Are there not rules about taking this amount out/into a country especially if not for personal use?

Box of 32 isn't much, Drc - in a bad week, it wouldn't last me that long, only about 5 days, so I can't imagine there'd be a problem with 5 or 6 boxes if you were away for longer.

I was thinking that myself. My Brother-in-Law, has a bad heart. He's on prescribed medicines, but also takes Garlic capsules. Obviuosly the Garlic is not prescribed. He takes those for his own accord. What made me laugh was, when we went to Mexico with them on Holiday, as were going through the x-ray section thing, he got stopped, and was questioned about his medication. He was carrying his meds for the long plane journey. They wanted to know what the Capsules were. He told them Garlic, and they politely told him to bin them because they were capsules. My hubby takes medication, and two lots of his are in capsule form. Luckily for me, I had the presription repeat in my hanbag for hubbys meds. :o)))

Well good lord, what a nonsense - that presumably means my Vitamin E capsules wouldn't get through either. Thank heavens I don't go abroad any more, what with being covered in tiny magnets and needing pre filled syringes (can you imagine the fuss over needles?) they'd never let me on a plane.

Lol. Bamboo. Our Mexican holiday was 3yrs ago, and that was flying out of Cardiff Airport. 2yrs ago we flew from Gatwick to Estonia, and they weren't so stringent. Having said that, we had to bin any foodstuffs we were carrying before entering the departure lounge. :o)))

Presumably the capsules were in hand luggage? They would count as liquid.....
But they could have happily travelled in the hold baggage.

I don't have a problem with taking the tablets out of the country because I drive and there is no customs control anymore between borders. Very occasionally one gets stopped coming back into the UK, but not usually if one is an innocent-looking pensioner :-)

As far as buying them is concerned Bamboo, you don't even have to wait till the afternoon. You can go out of the door and back in again and they will sell you the next packet. I buy the packets over an extended period and stockpile them ready for the next trip. Or you can hand the money to a person with you, they give it to the shop assistant, she gives them the pills and they at once hand them on. No problem. Just bonkers......

One of the migraine Czechs is coming for a visit tomorrow (the Marmite-lover) and I'll talk to her about the co-codomol and perhaps get son to bring a couple of packets when they visit the week after next. Thanks for all the info.....

If you ask for co codomol you can get it in ordinary pill form too,and its a lot cheaper, but that does take longer to work. Whatever you do, don't let them sell you Solpadeine or Panadeine Co., all very expensive in comparison, probably about the same as Veganin.

Don't remember ever trying Veganin, but used to take Solpadeine, because they did chewable ones. I kept them in my handbag for emergency. I found them handy if you didn't have a drink to hand, and they weren't that nasty to chew.