A VERY GOOD CAKE
Digby and other contemporary sources are full of recipes for cakes studded with dried fruits and nuts, and this is no exception. The sack and nutmeg, when the cake is warm give off a heady aroma. The cake is also very tasty at room temperature, but it goes stale quickly, so you want to keep it in an airtight container. Use a high quality sack or sherry, not cooking sherry for this.

Another very good Cake (Digby p212)
Take four quarts of fine flour, two pound and half of Butter, three quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs, a little Mace, a pound of Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good Ale-yeast, a pint of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of eggs; four pound of Currans. When you have wrought all these into a very fine paste, let it be kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the Oven. If you please, you may put into it two pound of Raisens of the Sun stoned and quartered. Let your Oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand therein two hours and a half, before you ice it; and afterwards only to harden the ice. The ice for this Cake is made thus. Take the whites of three new-laid eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar finely beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the eggs, and ice the Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece

.Another Very Good Cake from Digby p212(amounts from original in proportion, just scaled down)
3 1/4 c flour
2 sticks butter, softened
Cut in butter with fork/your hand until mealy (no lumps)
Add 1/3 c. sugar
2 t nutmeg
1/4 tsp mace
1 c currants
2/3 c. golden raisens
3/4 cup ground almonds
mix well to blend.
Beat well together:
1/2 c half and half, warmed to body temp.
1/4 c. sack (Dry Sack, available from the liquor store, NOT cooking sherry!)
1 egg
2 egg yolks
Dissolve 1t yeast in 1/3 cup beer or warm water.. let it sit on the stove with the oven on till it's a bit burbly and warmed up. Add to beaten egg stuff. Mix well with a fork.Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. It's a heavy dough, like cookie dough. Butter and flour a ring mold. Spoon the dough into the ring mold, and cover with a towl. Let rise in a warm place 1/2 hour (it will not apprciably rise). Bake in a 350o oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. Do not overbake...check by sticking with a knife. It will come out damp looking, but not gooey. Remove from ring mold onto a cookie sheet. Let cool slightly. Drizzle with icing of 2 egg whites and 2 cups powdered sugar. Return to oven for a couple minutes to harden icing. Serve warm if possible.

Anything from the 15th? I know baking still wasn't a refined art like it became later, but I still wonder if there are any sweet breads that could pass as cakes.

And of course I'm still trying to justify panforte!!

Gwen

Anything from the 15th? I know baking still wasn't a refined art like it became later, but I still wonder if there are any sweet breads that could pass as cakes.

not yet. My theory has been that baked goods like breads and cakes were the domain of bakers, not cooks (at least in towns and hosueholds where they divided up the labor like that, which wouild be the same cooks thatwould write cookbooks...)

I am finding it difficult to unearth any sort of sweet breads or cakes (but havent given up yet )