Shrewsbury cake recipes

From The Olde Cookery Book

Shrewsbury cakes (or biscuits) were first documented in the 1500s. The ingredients used at this time are unknown, but the cakes were renowned for their texture, being crisp and brittle. A couple of centuries later the Restoration playwright William Congreve used Shrewsbury cakes as a metaphor (“as short as a Shrewsbury cake”) within his play of 1700, ‘The Way of the World’. According to "The Taste of Britain” (Mason & Brown) the earliest written recipe for the cakes is in Eliza Smith’s ‘The Compleat Housewife’ in 1728. You will, however, find older recipes here.

Image:Shrewsbury cake.jpg

	Recipe known since	Published in/by
Colonel Plomer's Shrewsbury Cake	1630-1750	Plomer family
Shrewbury cakes	1860	The Virginia Housewife
Shrewsbury Cake 1796	1796	American Cookery
Shrewsbury Cake 1840	1840	Directions for Cookery
Shrewsbury cakes	c 1808	Domestic Cookery
To make Shrewsbury Cakes	1658	The Compleat Cook
To make Shrewsbury Cakes 1672	1672	The Queen-like Closet

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