Goosnargh Cake is a rich, shortcake-style cake, or large cookie.
It is about 4 inches (10 cm) wide, and about half an inch (1 cm) tall.
The dough has coriandor and / or caraway seeds in it; the cookie is sprinkled with caster sugar.
The cookies are made in Goosnargh, a village north-east of Preston in Lancashire, England.
History Notes
“The Goosnargh cake recipe has been flying around Goosnargh for decades now. A shortcake style biscuit with caraway seeds, it may sound like a basic recipe, but in reality, the original recipe is nowhere to be seen and local resident Alma Breeze may be the only hope. Alma explains that the original Goosnargh cake started out at Goosnargh’s Bushells pub. The recipe got passed down to Alma’s mum, via an old aunt. Her mum, Alice Kerfoot, made Kerfoot’s Genuine Goosnargh Cake, as it was then called, and supplied it to Booths with help from Alma. But the recipe has never been written down: ‘It’s a secret and I don’t know who still knows it apart from me. Some locals do make Goosnargh cake, but not to the original recipe,’ Alma explains.” [1]
Some people speculate that the coriander and / or caraway seeds may be a distant Nordic influence.
Sources
[1] Goosnargh keeps its secrets. By Lancashire Life. Undated. Retrieved October 2010 from http://lancashire.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/goosnargh-keeps-its-secrets-8305/