Raffald's Shrewsbury Cakes

History

Shrewsbury cakes originated in the eponymous Shropshire town by the late sixteenth century, becoming one of England's most celebrated regional biscuits. Elizabeth Raffald's 1769 recipe in *The Experienced English Housekeeper* codified a rich, crumbly shortbread-style biscuit made with butter, sugar, flour, and often caraway seeds or rosewater. These biscuits were enjoyed across social classes as teatime treats and travellers' provisions. Shrewsbury's coaching inns popularised them amongst Georgian travellers. The recipe evolved through Victorian times, with spices sometimes replacing caraway, and descendants remain in modern British baking as simple butter biscuits, though often without the traditional flavourings that distinguished Raffald's version.

Sources

• Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English Housekeeper, 1769
• Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, 1747
• Ivan Day, 'Regional and Local Foods' in C. Anne Wilson (ed.), Traditional Food East and West of the Pennines, 1991
• Laura Mason and Catherine Brown, Traditional Foods of Britain, 1999
• Jennifer Stead, 'Biscuits and Cookies' in Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, 2015