Coronavirus chronicles: Errantry cakes?
Errantry, calligraphy by J. R. R. Tolkien
https://www.tolkienestate.com/en/painting/calligraphy/calligraphies/elvish-script-01.html
Lots more at the link
I am going to bake cookies or little cakes based on ingredients in a Tolkien poem. But first, a little backstory:
The backstory is in fact the story of what got me going on the whole Tolkien/Swann song cycle. We were out back watching the bumblebees bumble along in the wisteria and I said, Oh, look, a Dumbledore." Roy said "???????" so I told him it was an archaic word for bumblebee. "?????," he said, so I whipped out my phone and Googled "Dumbledore bee." One of the first hits was to a YouTube video of Errantry. A little more Googling and I found the text of the poem, which excited me in the same way that fine needlework or miniature painting does -- intricacy of rhyme and scansion. According to Wikipedia, Tolkien invented this rhyme scheme, which was so fiendishly difficult to compose in that he never tried it again. I understand that it can also be sung to the tune of "I am the very model of a modern major-general."
The text of the full poem is here: https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Errantry
Independently of my interest in the song cycle -- or maybe not, who knows how the mind works? -- a week or so ago I developed a hankering to play with cardamom as a spice variant for my spent sourdough applesauce cake. Side note: a cardamom/orange oil flavor palette turns out to be quite tasty, especially when the cake is topped with vanilla yogurt and a dollop of marmalade.
But back to Errantry. I played the Elvin/Swann cycle the other day and this time the word "cardamom" jumped out at me. In the first stanza our mariner stocks his gondola with:
a load of yellow oranges
and porridge for his provender;
he perfumed her with marjoram
and cardamom and lavender.
Later, after battling with the dumbledors, the hummerhorns, and honeybees, he returns with honeycomb.
So I am meditating on some kind of porridge-y honeycake infused with orange peel and oil, marjoram, cardamom, and lavender. I wonder if I'll like it. More to the point, I wonder if Roy will like it.
Errantry, composed and played by Donald Swann and sung by William Elvin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye53tRTq_jk&list=PLyXYyeDNdJ1V4AGF7taf9xDzlOWOIzSse&index=5
EDITED TO ADD: The carefully-tested almost-final recipe for Errantry Cake:
ERRANTRY CAKE (based on Allrecipes.com Honeycake III recipe)
Preheat oven to 350F (or 325F for a dark/glass/pan). Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. Sift together these dry ingredients (I am lazy so I whisk them together):
• 2-1/2 c flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 tsp cardamom* [thinking about reducing this]
• 1/2 tsp marjoram*
stir in to the other dry ingredients and DO NOT FORGET THE OATS!!!:
• 1/4 c rolled oats*
• 1/3 c lavender buds*
1 c orange juice (I use reconstituted frozen)
Blend together:
• 1 c white sugar
• 1 c honey * OR a mixture of marmalade and honey to equal one cup* **
• 3 tsp orange zest if not using marmalade *
• 1/2 c vegetable oil [I used EVOO last time and it was surprisingly good]
• 4 large eggs
Blend alternating batches of the dry ingredients and the OJ to the egg/oil/honey mixture. Do not overbeat. Pour into greased/floured 9 x 13 pan and bake in a 350 oven for 45-50 minutes (oven may be too hot for a dark nonstick pan - try 325).
* Mentioned in Errantry (oranges, porridge, marjoram, cardamom, lavender, honeycomb)
** I made it with a cup of honey and fresh squeezed orange juice/zest the first time. I didn't have enough honey this time, so I added enough marmalade to make full cup of sweet wet stuff and skipped the orange squeezing and zest grating.
NOTE: There were no oats, nor any dried lavender buds, in the original recipe to soak up liquid, so the last iteration, while otherwise splendid was just a touch on the dry side. Next time, I will use jumbo eggs instead of large and see what happens.