Jane Eyre’s Delightful Caraway and Strawberry Cake

We at Enjoy the Traffic are starting a new blog project where we will share our love for books, art and food. Our goal is to pair a delicious recipe with a classic book or a piece of fine art we love.

The main purpose of these posts is not to be precise about the kind of dishes and recipes that those artists, authors and characters ate or liked at the time. We are not scholars and do not have the means to do such accurate research. But, we will strive to use a simple and subjective way to pair easy and delicious recipes with books and fine arts that inspire us.

Jane Eyre's delightful caraway and strawberry cake - by enjoy the traffic

Our first post is about Charlotte Brontë (1816 - 1855) an English novelist and poet, whose novels have become classics of English literature. Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre in 1847 in London, under the male penname “Currer Bell.” Jane Eyre revolutionized the art of fiction. The novel contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of morality, but it is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of its time. The novel is a first - person narrative from the perspective of the title character. Jane Eyre is a little, plain, provincial, sickly-looking child / governess. Yet she is full of passion and fire that delight the readers of the book.

Inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre, we have created this delicious cake we called: “Jane Eyre’s Delightful Caraway and Strawberry Cake.”

​ Jane Eyre's delightful caraway and strawberry cake - by enjoy the traffic

This recipe is very simple and easy to make. It is a sponge cake with caraway seeds, topped with homemade strawberry jam.

You can find on the web many recipes of caraway-seed cake or caraway-seed sponge cake inspired by this passage in the book where Jane Eyre and her friend Helen eat the seed cake.

“Having invited Helen and me to approach the table, and placed before each of us a cup of 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 evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied."

But we felt like it was too plain for such a passionate Jane Eyre and decided to give it a sizzle in the recipe. We without shame added the sweet strawberry jam on top of the caraway seed cake. We loved it and hope you will to. To Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, and many other women ahead of their time!

​ Jane Eyre's delightful caraway and strawberry cake - by enjoy the traffic

Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs separated, room temperature

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup of sugar, separated in two 1/4 cups

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp caraway seeds, separated

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 325 degrees F., buttered four 6-ouces ramekins.

2. Mixed the flour and baking powder and set aside.

3. For the meringue base, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add 1/4 cup sugar gradually until egg whites are stiff.

4. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar until foamy and thickened.

5. Fold beaten egg yolks into the beaten egg whites along with the vanilla and 1 tbsp caraway seeds for only a few turns. Slowly and gradually folding in the flour and baking powder mixture very gently by hand using a rubber spatula until just incorporated into de meringue mixture. Do not over mix.

6. Divide the batter among the 4 ramekins, and sprinkle some caraway seeds on top of each one.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until center springs back when touched. Cool complete in the ramekin, this prevents the cake from shrinking as it cools.

8. When completely cooled run a small sharp knife around the outside edge of the ramekins to release the cake.

10. Add strawberry jam on top, serve with fresh strawberries. Sprinkle some caraway seeds (for decoration - optional).

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients:

1/2 pound fresh strawberries

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, crush strawberries.

2. In heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring mixture to a full rolling boil. 3.Boil, stirring often, until mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C).

We served the cake with earl gray tea, but it will taste great with fresh coffee. Enjoy!

“Finished Jane Eyre, which is really a wonderful book, very peculiar in parts, but so powerfully and admirably written, such a fine tone in it, such fine religious feeling, and such beautiful writings. The description of the mysterious maniac’s nightly appearances awfully thrilling. Mr Rochester’s character a very remarkable one, and Jane Eyre’s herself a beautiful one. The end is very touching, when Jane Eyre returns to him and finds him blind, with one hand gone from injuries during the fire in his house, which was caused by his mad wife.”

(Queen Victoria’s Journal - Comments on “Jane Eyre” - November 23rd 1880)

​ Jane Eyre's delightful caraway and strawberry cake, my son couldn't wait anymore to try the cake and tea... enjoy!