The World That Was - Palace Cakes from Ur

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!

Today, I'll be recreating a sweet treat recorded on some cuneiform tablets excavated from the site of the palace complex at Ur in modern-day Iraq. This is one of the few recipes from Sumerian cuisine where we have some measures for the ingredients! In this case, the sila is quoted, but a single sila is believed to be about 3 cup's worth of an ingredient, and the original palace cakes seem to have been made using several sila of flour alone! These cakes were possibly eaten by the rich and elite in Sumerian society, or perhaps used for large-scale gatherings. But today, I'll be scaling back the ingredients to suit a modern kitchen (and budget).

So now, let's take a look at The World That Was!

Ingredients

2 cups dates, roughly chopped

1/2 cup raisins/sultanas

180g / 1+1/2  cups flour (wheat, wholegrain, or barley)

500ml / 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 cup butter (room temperature)

2 eggs (room temperature)

Directions:

1 - Combine Ingredients

To begin with, pour your flour into a large bowl. On top of this, pour your milk. Mix this into a wet paste, and then add your cottage cheese. Depending on the size of the curds in your cheese, you may need to break them up with a strainer. Either way, mix all this together until it is fairly cohesive.

Heat up your butter and pour into the bowl, mixing it until it is totally combined.

Next, crack your eggs into the bowl, one at a time. Mix each one until it is well combined, and no longer leaving streaks in the mix. Do this to both your eggs.

Finally, pour your raisins or sultanas into the mix, and stir them until they're well combined. This last step is not explicitly mentioned in the original "recipe", and it appears that Sumerians may have simply placed the dried fruit into the bottom of a baking tin before pouring in the "plain" batter over the top. So, I've changed this slightly to give a better final texture.

2 - Chop Your Dates

Now, stepping away from your batter, go roughly chop some dates. Make sure they've been checked for pits, because they'll hurt if you bite into them. Once they've been chopped and de-pitted, put these into a bowl.

3 - Prepare your Baking Tin

Preheat your oven to 175 C / 325 F while you do this next step. Butter a baking tin that can fit your batter. Scatter about half of your chopped dates onto the bottom of the tin, forming a uniform layer. 

4 - Bake

Pour your batter into your date-laden tin, making sure that the mix hits every corner and crevice of the tin! Scatter your remaining dates over the top of this, pressing them into the top of the batter a little. Then, place this dish into the middle of your preheated oven for about 45-55 minutes (depending on your oven),. Make sure to rotate the tin in the oven about halfway through, to make sure everything is cooking evenly

5 - Serve Up

Take the tin out of the oven when it's done, and leave it to cool for at least 10 minutes. Don't take the cake out of it's tin until this cooling period has passed! The cake will still be cooking slowly due to residual heat. 

When it's cool, run a paring knife around the wall of your tin, and take out your cake! If you buttered it well, the whole thing should come out cleanly, but if not, don't worry! It will still taste amazing.

This cake is a delicious and simple sweet treat that anyone could make! You could easily supplement the dates and raisins for other dried fruits (such as figs). Other recreations of the Palace Cakes of Ur suggest that aniseed may have been used to add new notes of flavour, so you could add this to the dates when you're adding them to the tin! All in all, it's a simple, light, yet delicious cake that really sends you back to the life of a wealthy Sumerian!