Mrs Vincents Cake

This cake recipe comes from the mid-to-late 17th century England, a period marked by domestic cookery manuscripts circulating among the gentry and landed classes. The source, attributed to the Cromwell family (possibly related to the famous Oliver Cromwell), reflects the well-stocked pantries and kitchens of the era, where spices and sack (fortified wine) demonstrated affluence and connections to global trade. ‘Cake’ in this period often meant a rich, yeast-risen bread enriched with dairy, eggs, and dried fruit, functioning as much as a celebratory bread as a sweet treat. The recipe captures the transition from medieval spiced breads to early modern cakes, before the widespread use of chemical leaveners like baking powder. Mrs. Vincent’s Cake would likely have been baked for special occasions or gatherings, symbolizing hospitality and status.

Back in the 1600s, this cake would have been made with large mixing bowls of wood or earthenware, and the butter rubbed into flour by hand. A strong wooden spoon or hands would be used for mixing and kneading. The dough would be placed in a round pan—often a deep hoop or wooden hoop—lined with buttered paper, and secured with string or additional paper ‘bound about it.’ Baking would be done in a wood-fired oven, likely in a communal bakehouse or a large household’s brick oven, with careful temperature management using coals and ash. A mortar and pestle would have been used to grind the spices and grate the nutmeg freshly. The use of brewer’s yeast means alehouses or home brewing would supply the necessary leavening.