Orange Butter Cakes

Sweet oranges were largely unknown in Europe until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when Italian and Portuguese merchants encouraged their cultivation in the Mediterranean area. But they would not be widely available in the cold climes of northern Europe until the nineteenth century, when newly established rail systems began transporting fresh foods. British bakers, who had long been fond of uniting plain cake with fresh fruit, might well have turned out these little teatime cakes, ea