This absolutely divine recipe comes from the 1610 hand-written recipe book of Sarah Longe. The “cakes” are closer in form to modern cookies, and have a light rose flavor. This is also something you can make if you have already made some rose syrup and you’re looking for something to do with it.

If you use a cookie dough scoop one inch in diameter, one batch will make approximately 20 cookies roughly two inches in diameter. If you have a smaller scoop, you can likely stretch this out to 36 smaller cookies. You can also use a cookie mold if you have one!

1/2 c. butter, room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1/8 tsp. mace
1/4 c. rose syrup (or 1 tsp. rose water mixed with 3 tbsp. honey and 1 tbsp. water)
2 tbsp. cream
2 large egg yolks
2 c. flour
2 tbsp. crushed candied or Greek rose petals (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cream the butter, sugar, mace, two tablespoons of the rose syrup, and the cream on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the flour, one cup at a time, and mix until just incorporated.

Use a small cookie dough scoop to drop cookies onto a greased baking sheet (or use a cookie mold, or drop by tablespoonfuls).

Bake for 10 minutes. As soon as they come out of the oven, brush the remaining rose syrup on the hot cookies and sprinkle with the crushed rose petals. The petals will generally stick better immediately after adding the syrup, so it works better to go cookie by cookie rather than brush all the cookies and then go back with the petals.