A Twelfth Night Cake’ was enjoyed by families on the final day of Christmas each year. This was a type of fruit cake into which a coin or dried bean was stirred before baking. Whoever found the hidden treasure inside the piece of cake served upon their plate would be declared the Lord of Misrule, presiding over the evening’s feast and silliness until midnight brought an end to the rule and to Christmas itself. A pea was often hidden inside the cake too, with the woman that found it becoming the Mistress of Misrule. Robert Herrick, the 17th century poet, wrote of the celebrations in his poem Twelfe Night:

Now, now the mirth comes,

With the cake full of plums,

Where Bean’s the king of the sport here;

Besides we must know,

The pea also

Must revel, as queen, in the court here.

Begin then to choose,

This night as ye use,

Who shall for the present delight here,

Be a king by the lot,

And who shall not

Be Twelfth-day queen for the night here.

Which known, let us make

Joy-sops with the cake;

And let not a man then be seen here,

Who, unurg’d, will not drink,

To the base from the brink,

A health to the king and queen here.

Next crown the bowl full

With the gentle lamb’s-wool

Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,

With store of ale too;

And thus ye must do

To make the wassail a swinger.

Give then to the king

And queen wassailing;

And, though with ale ye be wet here,

Yet part ye from hence

As free from offense,

As when ye innocent met here.

Can you put these instructions in the correct order to find out how to make a traditional Twelfth Night cake?