Rose Cakes

I decided to try a few more historical cookie recipes today. This one comes from Shakespeare's Kitchen. The modernized version makes a few changes from the original. I opted to follow the up-dated recipe today, but I'll include both below for reference.

This recipe was found in Mistress Sarah Longe Her Receipt Booke. A handwritten, personal recipe book that seems to have been written sometime around 1610.

To make sugar Cakes
Take a pound of butter, and wash it in rose-water, and halfe a pound of sugar, and halfe a douzen spoonefulls of thicke Cream, and the yelkes of 4 Eggs, and a little mace finely beaten, and as much fine flower as it will wett, and worke it well together then roll them out very thin, and cut them with a glasse, and pricke them very thicke with a great pin, and lay them on plates, and so bake them gently.

1610 Rose Cakes
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/8 tsp. ground mace
1/4 c. rose syrup (or 1 tsp. rose water mixed with 3 Tbsp. honey and 1 Tbsp. water)
2 Tbsp. cream
2 large egg yolks
2 c. pastry flour
2 Tbsp. crushed candied rose petals (optional)

At a glance, the modern version seems to have halved the recipe: 2 egg yolks and 1/2 c. sugar (which should weigh about 1/4 lb.). However, a half portion of "sugar cakes" would want half a pound of butter, or 1 c., not the 1/2 c. listed. I'm not sure why the butter is quartered when everything else is halved. I may try making these cookies according to the original recipe at some point, just to see how they compare.




The modern version also suggests a cookie press rather than rolling and cutting the cookies out. Two cups of flour is sufficient to make a dough for dropping from spoons or using in a cookie press, but I don't think it would've rolled very well. As I don't have a cookie press, I just dropped mine from a spoon and pressed them flat(ish) like thumb-print cookies.

These cookies were good, but not great. I wasn't a huge fan of the honey here. Maybe it would've been better if I'd had actual rose syrup on hand. However, I'd also be interested to see how they'd come out if made simply with rosewater as indicated in the original recipe.


I accidentally doubled the mace (1/4 tsp. instead of 1/8), but I didn't find the mace came through that strongly anyway. Using freshly ground mace would probably give it a bit more presence.

I'm not going to write this recipe off completely, but I definitely wasn't bowled over by this version of it. I'll probably make this again sometime, but I'd do it a bit differently to see if it can be made into a more wow-worthy dessert.

Modified Rose Cakes
1 c. butter
1/2 lb. (227g) sugar
1/4 tsp. ground mace
1 Tbsp. rosewater
3 Tbsp. cream
2 large egg yolks
~3 c. pastry flour

Given the increased quantity of butter, I'm not sure how much flour the new dough will actually wet. I'd probably add it half a cup at a time until it got to a roll-able consistency.

Maybe I'll try a rose cake re-do next weekend...