The World That Was - Roman Honey Nut Cake (Dulcia Piperata)

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!


Io Saturnalia! The Roman celebration of the end of the year, Saturnalia, is next week! So celebrate another end of another year, I'm making a simple baked treat to serve for any saturnalia celebrations you have planned - a quick and easy Dulcia Piperata (as recorded by Apicius)

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Check out my Patreon for more!


Ingredients

1 cup / 150g flour

2 eggs

1/2 tsp ground rosemary

75 g chopped almonds

2tsp ground pepper

100 ml sweet white wine (or grape juice)

2 tbsp honey

Milk

75g Chopped hazelnuts


Method:

1 - Mix Dry Ingredients
Toss about a cup of flour in a bowl. Add in some rosemary, a couple teaspoons of ground pepper, and about 75g of chopped almonds to the bowl. Mix everything together, just so it's all evenly mixed. Rosemary is a commonly-found herb in the Mediterranean, and found it's way into Roman cooking in a variety of dishes! I'm using plain white wheat flour, but wholemeal wheat or spelt would have also been used here.


2 - Mix the Other Ingredients
Next, crack two eggs into a measuring jugs, before adding your wine (or grape juice, if you're not using alcohol), and milk. Add in enough milk to bring the total volume of liquid up to about 450ml. Pour the jug of liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. The whole thing will be like a pancake batter. If it's too thin, add a few more tablespoons of flour, and if it's too thick, add a little more milk!


3 - Bake
Next, prepare a baking tin by wiping some olive oil over the sides and base of it!

Pour the mixture into your tin. Bake at 190ºC / 375ºF for about 30 minutes. It should be done when a skewer comes out clean when the centre of it is poked. Take it out, and let the whole thing cool down in the baking dish. It may collapse a little, but this is totally fine and to be expected!


4 - Finish
When the cake is still warm, spread some honey over the top and sprinkle it with chopped hazelnuts and a few whole hazelnuts. The honey will caramelise a little at the edge of the dish, which adds a lovely deep flavour to the whole thing!

Serve up warm with another spoon of honey, and dig in!


The finished dish is super light and sweet, with a tangy undertone from the wine! The honey drizzled over the top infuses into the body of the cake, resulting in a springy, sponge-like cross-section! The rosemary adds a lovely woody kick to each slice, and pairs wonderfully with the taste of the white wine!

Wine was used in a lot of Roman cooking, as it was something that was constantly in production - and thus readily available, in many different forms - so it's not an uncommon addition here. Depending on what kind of wine you use, you'll get a stronger or milder taste from the finished product!

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