“She let him talk on and then gave him some seed-cakes which a neighbor had made for her” (DuBois 138)
In part 3 of Dark princess, Sara serves seed-cakes to Matthew as she urges him to go into a career in the legislature. Seed-cakes are traditionally British, originating all the way back in the Victorian times. The seed-cake is usually flavored with caraway seeds, and caraway seeds are said to have once symbolized the end of the sowing of spring wheat. Spring wheat is planted and sowed in the Spring to later harvest in the fall (Rayner). The seed-cake’s tie to caraway seed could be a symbol about Sara laying down the seeds to Matthew’s political career and marrying him in order to later harvest his success after some time. Caraway seeds are native to Western Asia, Europe, and North Africa (Marchetti). As Matthew prepares to ascend in the American political sphere, the seeds act as a reference back to the people that he has met and left behind in Europe. In the Victorian era, the seed-cake was usually thinly sliced and served with tea (Rayner). This cake was popular and consumed by all classes, but it becomes more upper class when it is served with tea, a drink that traditionally symbolizes high status. This scene opens with Matthew and Sara enjoying tea in her apartment, and the pairing of tea and the seed-cakes may signify Sara’s status and her desire to elevate Matthew’s.
DuBois, W.E.B. Dark Princess: A Romance. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Rayner, Marie. “Traditional Seed Cake.” The English Kitchen, 12 Mar. 2016, www.theenglishkitchen.co/2016/03/traditional-seed-cake.html.
Marchetti, Domenica. “The Caraway Seed Is A Spice Worth Meeting.” NPR, NPR, 6 Mar. 2013, www.npr.org/2013/03/05/173529055/the-caraway-seed-is-a-spice-worth-meeting.