Ingredients

• Three of oats, cut and flattened.

• A quarter of butter, soft yellow.

• A quarter of sugar, fine, black or gray as available.

• Six small eggs or three large, speckled, warm if possible.

• A half of raisins, sour dark. (No Exceptions.)

• Melancholy, obtained in the usual way.

• Mace or nutmeg to taste. (Mace is preferred but nutmeg will also do.)

Preparation

Mix the butter and sugar together until they become as one. If the need is dire, it will be cold enough that this will take some time.

If necessary, the eggs may be warmed as best as possible by holding them gently in the hands or in pressing against the bosom, as one might a babe. Any despair that arises should be set aside for the Summer Custom, as it is always better to have too much rather than too little. Should any rage begin to bloom, the eggs must be discarded and new ones used in their place. (The yolks will turn pink in proportion.)

Add the eggs to the butter and sugar and stir until all is one, with only small shards of the shells remaining.

Add the oats and melancholy and repeat as before; the dough that forms will weep softly until it is baked, and should not be comforted in any way.

Knead the raisins into the dough until spread throughout. If the cuts on the hands are fresh and deep, several breaks are often required. Any blood should be worked into the dough in the same fashion, no matter how great the quantity.

Should the dough become too wet, add more oats.

Form the dough into small cakes, sprinkling each with a small amount of mace or nutmeg before baking.

Cakes are done once all sobbing has ceased and the raisins begin to burst.

Serve warm; it will not take them long to find you.