Sugar-Icing-art - 11/10/01

"Sugar Icing" by Johnnae llyn Lewis. Some notes on sugar icing in late period and some post period.

NOTE: See also the files: sugar-msg, Digby-Cakes-art, Roses-a-Sugar-art, sugar-paste-msg, sugar-sources-msg, Sugarplums-art, sotelties-msg, cookies-msg.

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Sugar Icing
by Johnnae llyn Lewis

16th Century English References

With regard to this subject of icing, the earliest
reference that I have located is from:

The Treasurie of Commodious Conceits and Hidden
Secrets by John Partridge.Imprinted at London for Richarde
Jones. 1573. STC# 19426. This is the earliest of Partridge's
works and predates The Widowes Treasure of the 1580's.

Prior to the conclusion of Patridge's long recipe for
"To make a Marchpane. Cap.ix" he states:
"it may not bake but only be hard and through dryed, and
ye may while it is moyft ftick it full of Comfets of
fundrye coolers, in a comely order ye mufte moyft it
ouer with Rofe water and Suger together, make it fmoothe:
and to fet it in the Ouen or other inftrumet,".
He concludes:
"The greateft Secret that is the makynge of this cleare, is
with a little fyne flowre of Ryfe, Rofewater and Suger beaten
together & layd thin ouer the marchpane ere it go to dryinge:
this will make it fhine lyke Ice, as Ladyes reporte."

Patridge's "this will make it shine lyke Ice"
does not use Ice as a verb of course, but it may well
be the earliest use of Ice as a descriptive term for the
sugar and rosewater (here with rice flour) mixture used as
a coating for a cake. It certainly predates the 1605 Bacon
quotation given by OED for the meaning "A congelation or
crystalline appearance resembling ice." Or 1602 for
garnishing a cake. OED lists "icing" or encrusting a cake
back to 1769 and Mrs. Raffald. None of the other secondary
works that I have checked cite either this recipe or
this work by Partridge as sources on icing.
-----------------------------------------------

 A BOOK OF COOKRYE by A. W. which was published
 by Edward Allde in 1591
  contains the following recipe for a sugar-icing...
 On page 29 at the end of a recipe for "a good Marchpaine":
 " Or ever that you bake it you must cast on it fine Sugar
 and Rosewater that will make it look like Ice."
-------------------------

The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin of
1594 concludes a recipe for "a rare Conceit,
with Veale baked." with the words:
"when it is baken drawe it foorth, & cast Sugar
& Rofewater, upon it, and ferve it in." [p.30]
"A Tart of Creame" concludes with:
"and when it is baked, fprinkle a little Rofewater
and Sugar, and a little Butter molten upon it."
[p.31] "A Tarte of Cheefe" instructs one
"clofe it up with a cover, and with a feather lay
fweet molten Butter upon it, and fine Sugar, and
bake it in a foft Oven." [p.31]
"Ice" and "icing" are not used as terms in these
recipes, but they pose interesting questions.
Is the sugar strewn on and rosewater sprinkled
on separately or are they combined? Would the butter
be combined with the sugar? Was the lid just buttered
and then sugar strewn over? What was the intent of the
author and how was his recipe used in actual practice? 

-----------------------------------------------------
The 17th Century

 Here are some additional 17th century recipes or
mentions for sugar icing. Keep in mind that recipes
for pies and tarts include instructions for "icing",
as well those for iumbolds, kickshaws, and marchpane.
Recipes for marchpane are very valuable
because they seem to have included "icing" prior to the
recipes for small cakes and other baked goods. I have
abbreviated the recipes for space and include only
the parts that pertain to icings.

-------------------------------------------
1609 edition. Plat. Delightes for Ladies.  recipe 16,
 To make Iumbolds
"..when they are baked, yce them with
Rosewater and Sugar, and the white of an egge beeing
beaten together, then take a feather and gild them,
then put them againe into the oven, and let them stand
in, a litle while, & they will be yced cleane over with
a white yce, and so boxe them yp, and you may keep them
all the yeere." (Fussell reprint, 1948, p.27)

If royal icing is a mixture of sugar beaten with egg
white to which a small amount of flavoring
is added, then this recipe by definition is royal icing.
It will not be a royal icing made with powdered or
confectioners sugar. The sugar would be sugar scraped
from a sugar cone and pounded fine in a mortar and pestle.
Normally today we don't dry our icings in an oven, but
if the humidity were high it might be prove useful to do so.

--------------------------------------------------------

A New Booke of Cookerie by J. Murrell includes:
"To make Kicks-Hawes" which concludes:
"and Ice them with Rofewater and Sugar, and fet them
in the Oven, when your pyes are halfe bakte." 
[pp.47-48] Kick-hawes were not always iced as
the recipe for "Kickfhawes in Pafte" does
not include finishing in icing.

This volume also includes "A Cherry Tart." which
instructs "bake them in a fet Coffin: Ice them, and ferve
them hot in to the Bwrde." [p.19] and A quarter Tart
of Pippins." where one is instructed: "Then clofe
your Tart, and bake it : Ice it before it goe to the
Bwrd, ferve it hot." [pp.17-18] And "A made Difh of
Muffels and Cockles." which instructs:
"bake it, Ice it, and ufe it :" [p.20]

By the time of the fifth edition the author's recipes
for Kickshawes have been modified and combined to
include more instructions.
Murrels Two Books of Cookerie and Carving. The fifth
time printed with new additions, 1638. [facsimile by
Jacksons of Ilkley, 1985] contains this recipe:

"To make Kick-fhawes." which notes that if one fried
them, then they might be served plain "at dinner, or
fupper." However, "If you will bake them, then you may
turne them into the difh raw, out of your moulds, and
Ice them with Rofewater & Sugar, and fet them in the
Oven, when your pyes are halfe bakt." [p.53]

In The Second Booke of Cookery, there is a recipe on pp.122
and 123 entitled: "To make an Olive Pie to be eaten hot."
This is a pie made from slices from a "legge of veale".
One is instructed after baking the pie to "wafh over
you Pie with a little Rofe-water and Butter, and
ftrew upon it hard Sugar and floure beaten together:
if any place grow prefently drie, wet it againe
with Rofe-water and Butter, and fet it into the
Ovene againe, and within a quarter of an houre
it will be crifp like yce: then draw it forth,
and ferve it hot to the Table."

Another of Murrel's recipes for "To bake a
Chicken Pie to be eaten hot." concludes with the
words:
"draw it forth, and wafh it it with Rofewater and Butter,
and ftrew on floure, and Sugar, beaten together, and
fet it againe into the Oven a quarter of an houre, it
will be like yce:" [pp.124-125]
Note here that "yce" is being used for its descriptive
quality.
----------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------
The 1631 edition of Gervase Markham's The English
Housewife includes this recipe [115] which states:
"To make a marrow bone pie"
"...and candy all the cover with rose-water and sugar
only; and so set it into the oven a little, and after serve
it forth." "A herring pie." [recipe 120] ends with the
words: "and so serve it up, the lid being candied over with
sugar, and the sides of the dish trimmed with sugar." [p.101]
The word ice is not used.

Recipe 173 "To make the best marchpane." concludes:
"which done, wash it over with rose-water and sugar
mixed together, for that will make the ice; then adorn
it with comfits, gilding, or whatsoever devices you
please, and so set it forth." [page 116]

Markham's "jumbles" recipe 157 omit icing.[page 112]

[Michael Best edited reprint, 1986.]
-----------------------------------------------------
A late 1636 edition of the unpaged A Closet for Ladies
and Gentlewomen, gives a recipe titled as:
"To make a March-pane, to ice it, and garnifh it after the
Art of Comfit-making."

"then ice it with Rofe-water and Sugar, made as thick as
batter for Fritters: when it is iced, garnifh it with
conceits, and ftick long Comfits in it, and fo gild it, 
and ferve it."  

This is the earliest instance that I have located where
the term icing occurs in an actual recipe title,
instead of being appended to the end of another recipe.
---------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
A True Gentlewomans Delight [which is bound with A Choice
Manual of Rare and Select Secrets in Physick and
Chyrurgery] in 1653 offers:

"To make Fine Diet Bread." [p.52]
"if you will have it gloffe and Icie on the top, you
muft wafh it with a feather, and then ftrew Sugar very
finely beaten on the top before you put it into the Oven."
This is done prior to baking, but the term "Icie" is still
used.

"To make a tart of Rice." [p.103]
" then clofe it, bake it, and ice it, fcrape on Sugar, and
ferve it."
"To make a Tart of Strawberries." [p.104]
"and bake it half an hour, ice it, fcrape on Sugar, and ferve it."
Tarts of Pippins and Hips are also treated in the same fashion.

[The work was published by W.I. Gent. The Author is credited
[not without dispute] to be Kent, Elizabeth Grey, Countess of.
The 1653 is a second edition.]
------------------------------------------------------
The Art of Cookery Refin'd and Augmented by Jos. Cooper which
was published in 1654 includes a number of recipes that call
for scraped sugar and serving without icing. He does offer:

"How to make a Bacon-Tart." [pages 114-115]
"it being baked, ftick the lid full of fliced Cittron, ftrow
in fome fmall perfumed Carraway-comfets, or ice it with Rofe-
water and Sugar: it will eat well hot or cold, but beft cold."

He also offers this recipe:
"How to make butter'd Loaves." [pages 134-135]
After being baked for half an hour, one is instructed:
"then take one pound of fweet Butter, three or four fpoonfuls
of Rofewater, and as much Sugar as will fweeten it, beating
it well together; then cut your Loaves up and butter them
with it, and ferve them up hot."
While not called "icing" this gives us a dated recipe
for sugar/buttered bread being served. 

---------------------------------------------------------
The same interesting vein of "Iumbolds"  recipe as given
by Plat in 1609 continues in:
The Ladies Cabinet, Enlarged and Opened: by Lord Ruthuen.
The second edition. with additions; 1655.
[Falconwood Press edition of 1990] page 18.
63 - To make Jumbols.
"ice them with Rosewater and sugar, and the white of an egge,
being beaten together;"
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Compleat Cook by W.M. was published in 1655
as a part of the trilogy entitled The Queens Closet
Opened which appeared in numerous editions up until
1713. The recipes were said to have drawn from the
recipe books of the widowed Queen Henrietta Maria.

A recipe "To Make Buttered Loaves" will be discussed
first.  It differs slightly from Jos. Cooper's in that
it instructs "prepare a pound and a halfe of Butter,
a quarter of a pint of white Wine, and half a pound
of Sugar; this being melted and beaten together with
it, fet them into the Oven a quarter of an hour."
[pages 9-10] No instruction is given to spread the
mixture over the bread, although that must have been
the intention.

"To make a very good great Oxfordfhire Cake."
ends with the words:
"it will take three hours baking; when baked, take
it out and froft it over with the white of an Egg
and Rofewater well beat together, and ftrew fine Fugar
upon it, and fet it again into the oven, that it may
ice." [pages 13-14]

This may be the earliest use of the word "frost" meaning
to ice. OED lists 1756 as their earliest quotation for
"frosting" and 1832 for the verb "frost" meaning "to give
a frosted surface to". Frosting as an American term for
icing is normally thought to be 19th century in origin.


The Compleat Cook also included recipes for "Mrs. Dukes Cake."...
"have fome rofewater and fugar finely beaten and well mixed
together to wafh the upper fide of it, then fet in the Oven
to dry, when you draw it out it will fhew like Ice." [p.115]
and on page 116 included this recipe:
"To make Marchepane: to Ice him &c." which seems to be an
adaptation of the recipe from A Closet for Ladies
and Gentlewomen of 1636 which is cited earlier.

The Queens Closet Opened also includes a volume entitled
A Queens Delight (which is a companion to The Compleat Cook).
It includes "To make Marchepane to Ice and Gild, and
garnifh it according to Art." [page 67-68]
"take it out of the Oven, and ice it with Rofewater and Sugar,
and the white of an Egg, being as thick as butter, and fpread
it over thin with two or three feathers; and then put it into
the Oven again,and when you fee it rife high and white, take it
out again and garnifh it with fome pretty conceit..

It concludes with the suggestion: "If your Marchepane be Oyly
in beating, then put to it as much Rofe-water as will make it
almoft as thin as to ice."

By this time the term "ice" must have been understood if one
is being instructed to add liquid to make something "as thin as to ice."
[1984 Prospect books facsimile edition which reproduces the
1671 editions of both The Compleat Cook and A Queens Delight.
The 1671 editions were found to be identical to the 1655 edition.]
-------------------------------------------------------------
The 1675 edition of The Gentlewomans Companion Or, A Guide
to the Female Sex still ends recipes such as that for
"Apricocks green Baked." with the words: "close it up and
bake it, ice it, scrape on Sugar, and serve it up." [page (144)]

[The new 2001 edition by Prospect Books includes a very detailed
account regarding the crediting of Hannah Woolley as the author of
this work.]
---------------------------------------------------------
The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt.
Opened of 1669 contains what many culinary scholars consider
a breakthrough in the creation and use of icing.
Digbie's work includes a number of cake recipes with a new
attention paid to icing them, calling for specific icings for
specific cakes. His instructions are longer and more precisely
worded and include such admonishments as to beat for two hours.
Many feel this is start of true "royal icing."

"To Make A Cake" omits the words icing or ice but instructs:
"Take then a pound and half of double refined Sugar purely
beaten and seared; put into the whites of five Eggs; two or 3
spoonfuls of rose-water; keep it a beating all the time, that
the Cake is a baking which will be two hours; Then draw your
Cake out of the oven, and pick the dry Currants from the top of
it, and so spread all that you have beaten over it, very smooth,
and set it a little into the oven, that it may dry." [page 181]

A recipe for "Another Cake" states:
"When it is half-baked, Ice it over with fine Sugar and
Rose-water, and the whites of Eggs, and Musk and Ambergreece."
[page 182]

"To Make A Plumb-Cake" concludes:
"Then to Ice it, take a pound and half of double refined
Sugar beaten and searsed; The whites of three Eggs new-laid,
and a little Organe-flower-water, with a little musk and
Ambergreece, beaten and searsed, and put to your sugar;
Then strew your Sugar into the Eggs, and beat it in a stone
Mortar with a Woodden Pestil, till it be as white as snow,
which will be by that time the Cake is baked;
Then draw it to the ovens mouth, and drop it on, in what form
you will; let it stand a little again in the oven to harden.
[pages 182-183]
These instructions given above that instruct one to drop
the icing "on, in what form you will" argues Simon Charsley, are
the beginning of not only royal icing, but of cakes being
decorated with formed stiffened icing. He suggests that Digbie
may have learned this method from his travels in France in the
time of La Varenne. 

"To Make An Excellent Cake" concludes:
"You Ice the Cake with the whites of two eggs, a small-quantity
of Rose-water, and some Sugar."  [page 183]

"Another Very Good Cake" concludes:
"Let your oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand
therein two hours and a half, before you Ice it; and afterwards
only to harden the Ice. The Ice for this Cake is made thus:
take the whites of three new laid Eggs, and three quarters of
a pound of fine Sugar finley beaten; beat it well together with
the whites of the Eggs, and Ice the Cake. If you please you may
add a liitle Musk or Ambergreece." [pages 184-185]

"Excellent Small Cakes" are simply "Afterwards Ice them over
with Sugar."  [page 185]

"My Lord of Denbigh's Almond March-pane" states:
"Then you must Ice them thus: Make a thick pap with Orange
flower or Rosewater, and purest white Sugar: a little of
the whites of Eggs, not above half a spoonful of that Oyl
of Eggs, to a Porrenger full of thick Pap, beaten
exceeding well with it, and a little juyce of Limons. Lay
this smooth upon the Cakes with a Knife, and smoothen it
with a feather. Then set the pan over them to dry them.
Which being if there be any unevenness, or cracks or
discolouring, lay on a little more of that Mortar, and
dry it as before. Repeat this, till it be as clear and
smooth, and white, as you would have it. Then turn the
other sides, and do the like to them. You must take care,
not to scorch them: for then they would look yellow or
red, and they must be pure, white and smooth like Silver
between polished and matte, or like a looking Glass. This
coat preserves the substance of the Cakes within, the
longer moist. You may beat dissolved Amber, or Essence
of Cinnamon, with them." [pages 185-186]


[Prospect Books edition, 1997. Edited by Jane Stevenson and
Peter Davidson.]
---------------------------------------------------------
The 1685 edition of Robert May's The Accomplisht Cook includes
a wide variety of treatments for finishing pies and tarts.

Some merely state as in the recipe "A made Difh of Pippins"
on pages 243-244, "and being baked ice it."
May also includes recipes for pyes that continue to merely
"scrape on sugar" after baking. Some even state "bake it,
ice it, fcrape on fugar, and ferve it in." as in the
recipes for "To make a Tart of Hips." [page 245] and
"To make a Strawberry-Tart." [page 246].
A recipe for "To make a Warden or a Pear Tart quartered"
concludes with "then ice it with a quarter of a pound of
double refined Sugar, rose-water, and butter." (p.244)
"To make a Pippin Pye." concludes: "then ice it with butter,
fugar, and rofe-water." [page 242] Several other of May's
recipes include the addition of butter to the previously
used rosewater and sugar. This use of butter combined with
sugar and rose-water for flavouring is more in line with modern
icings, although we can't determine the proportions of butter
to sugar. (and it would not be confectioner's sugar but finely
pounded granulated sugar in any case)


His marchpane of To make Marchpane." states:
"and ice it with rofewater and fugar, being made as thick as
butter for fritters, to fpread it on with a wing feather, and
put it into the oven again; when you fee it rife high, then take
it out and garnifh it with fome pretty conceits made of the
fame ftuff..." [pages 271-272]

His "Jemelloes" on pages 274-275 concludes with 
"and when they be dry, boil them in rofe-water and fugar;
it is an excellent fort of banqueting."

----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
17th Century Manuscript Recipes

Manuscript recipes that contain references have been
placed in this special section. I will date them as
being 17th century. Individual recipes do not carry
dates, so we cannot determine when they were recorded.
All four of these English works cited here were
initially edited and published only after 1970. 

Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, as edited by Hilary
Spurling, includes a recipe for "maccaroonds" that ends:
"or if please you when it is through baked you may Ice it over."
[pages 225-227] The "marchpane" recipe concludes:
"when it is reasonable well hardned take it out & ice it, & set on your
conceits, then put it in the oven againe, untill yo'
iceing bee hardned, then take it out, & stick on your comfits,
& when it is cold gild it, your iceing is made with nothing
but rosewater & sugar beaten togither, it must bee somewhat
thick, I think some 3 greate spoonfulls of sugr will serve for
the iceing of it." [pages 228-229]
[Lady Fettiplace's manuscript was started in 1604 and includes recipes
from the 17th century, as well as later additions in other hands.]
----------------------------

A Booke of Sweetmeats, which is one of the two
Tudor-Jacobean manuscripts that comprise Martha Washington's
Booke of Cookery, as edited by Karen Hess, includes recipes:
"155. To Make Little Cakes"
"...when they are baked, you may Ice then over with A
little sugar & rosewater wash'd over on ye top, & ye
white of an egg beaten with it, & after set them a little
into ye oven againe. & soe you may Ice your great Cakes."
[pages 320-321] Hess suggests that a ratio of 1 tablespoon
rosewater to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar to the one
egg white be used for the glaze or ice.

Recipe 158  for a Marchpane uses the term "candy" 
instead of ice as in "candy ye other side." [page 322]
But recipes 159 and 161 return to "Ice."

"159. To Make a Marchpane Cake"
"...& dry them. then take ye white of an egg, & beat
searsed [sugar] into it till it is something thick,& Ise
ye one side of them over with it & dry them againe in a
warme oven for a quarter of an houre, then turne them &
ice ye other side of them in ye like manner, & they
will be very white with smooth sides. & soe keep them for
yr use."  [page 325]

"161. To Make a Marchpane"
 instructs one " then take 2 or3 spoonfulls of rose water
& beat searses sugar in it till it be something thick, then
set it on papers & Ice your marchpane within, with it,
& bake it." [page 327]

Recipe 193 is a recipe for Almond Iumbals" where the wording
is "glase them with ye froth of ye white of 2 new layd eggs
beaten with sugar, as much as will make it thick as pap. then
spread it with A Knife as thin as you can on the Jumbals. then
let them stand in the stove againe 5 or 6 hours. then glase the
other side & set them to dry in the oven." [page 350]
This recipe uses "glase" meaning glaze as in "cover with a
smooth and lustrous coating". [OED]
--------------------------

Rebecca Price began her manuscript of recipes in 1681. This most
interesting collection was published as The Compleat Cook, Or
the Secrets of a Seventeenth-Century Housewife in 1974. It was
edited by Madeleine Masson. It contains numerous recipes that
are of interest when searching for icing references. It is also
a joy to read for the combination of recipes, practical advice
hints and reminders given that are well matched with the
author's intimate and warm personal style.
 
"An Apple-pye to eat Hott" instructs that "bake ye pye an hour
or not quite so much, then serve it to the table buttered, and
sweetened with good fine pouder suger". [page 148]
For "Plum, Raspe, or Grape Tarts", one is instructed to
"cutt a cover, ice it and bake it."[page 149]

Rebecca included pages of cake recipes, including these:

"A Receipt for a very good Cake, my first Cousin Clerkes"

"and when it is baked ice it and put it in the oven againe
for a quarter of an howre with the stome [lid] downe,
that the suger may looke the whiter;"  [page 190]

"A very good, and a Rich Cake, often made by me"

"and when it is baked take it out of ye oven and ice
it, and put in the oven again for a quarter of an hour
with the lid down that the suger may looke the whiter:
this will make a very large cake, and it will take up
foure pound of lofe suger to ice it."
Rebecca notes that if you make "an extraordinary great
cake" with 12 pound of flour, "it will require 3 howers
bakeing; and 6 pound of suger to ice it." [page 193]

For "A cake of 6lb. of flower wch. is usually what I
send away", she listed the specific weights of the
ingredients used, including "3:quar. of a pound of
suger" in the cake and "2:pound off lofe suger will ice
it." The cost was noted as "12s:6d this cake cometh to."
[page 194]

For "Little plum cakes," she instructs:
"-if you will Ice them, as soon as they are baked
take them out of the oven and mix some fine lofe
suger being sifted with a little water and spred it
over the cakes, and set them in the oven again with
the Lid down for to harden them." [page 195]

For "Portingall Cakes" which are a cake made of
flour and eggs and no ale barm or yeast, the recipe ends:
"and when they are baked ice them, but let your Iceing
be thike, you must not forgett to prick them, when you
put them in the oven." [page 198]

The section on cakes concludes with this recipe that I
will copy out in full:

"To Make Iceing for A Cake; my Lady Sheldon
Take a pounde of lofe suger beaten, and sifted; then put to it
as much gum-dragon that hath been steeped in rose water,
or oring-flower water, as the quantity of a nuttmeg; mix with
your gum the white of an egg, and 5 or six spoonfulls of
rose, or oring-flower-water, so straine it altogether into
your suger, and put it into a morter and beat it extreamely
for an howre or more if you see occation. for the longer
you beat it the whiter it will be, and if you will you may
add a little muske, or ambergreece; when your cake is baked
poure it one the top and spread it all over it, and also the
sides, you may spread it with a knife, then set it in the
oven againe and let it stand a little till it harden,
but not couller: be sure don't put to much water to make it
than three spoonfulls of ye waters is soficient."
[page 199][ editor's note: gum dragon = tragacanth;
ambergreece=ambergris.] 
This as complete a recipe as that given by Digbie. It's use
of the gum dragon makes for a recipe that somewhat resembles
the sugarpaste recipes that were used for marchpanes in the 16th
centuries and even more akin to the modern cakes draped in gum
paste coverings. Note the warning not to let it couller or color
(turn yellow or scorch) in the oven.

Small cakes that were baked on plates such as the recipe for
"Very fine Cakes" says "when they are baked ice them
with rose-water; and suger, they will be quickly baked."
[page 259]. Rebecca's "Shell-Bread: given me at schoole"
are baked in mustle shells, taken out of the shells,
"and ice them with rose-water, and suger, this is very
fine; it is called the Italian-Mussell, you may keepe
them all the yare, and in rayny weather put theem into
the oven." [page 261] The recipe for "Oringe jumbells"
instructs "when they are drye, take more fine suger
mingled with rose water, prety thike; then with a feather
spread it over the jumbells, when one side is drye spread
the other, the suger and rose water must be beaten together."
[page 262] For "Almond Jumbells" the instructions read:
"when they are all don, take the white of an egg and some
double refined suger, sifted, worke it together a good while
to make it look white, then with your knife lay it on one
side of your jumbells, and so set them in the stove, when
that side is drye, slide them on cleane papers, and with
the top of your knife do the other side, when they are drye
box them." [page 262]

"Almond Cakes Iced one both sides: my Aunt Rye's Receipt"
instructs one to make make little cakes, "then mingle the
the rest of the suger with damaske rose-water as thike
as you stir a puding; then with your feather Ice your
cakes on one side, and set the lidd of a bakeing-pan over
them, covered with wood coles, and let it stand till the
Iceing is hardened and begins to blister, when the cakes
are thorow cold, turn them upon fresh papers, and Ice
the other side, in the same maner." [page 265]
These cakes are thus iced on one side before
being baked or dried in what we might today call a
dutch oven and then iced on the other side after being baked.
The recipe suggests itself as being suitable for campfire
cookery since it doesn't require the use of an oven.

-------------------------------------------------
The scholar, John Evelyn (1620-1706), is well known
for his Acetaria A Discourse of Sallets published in 1699.
His volume of receipts was unpublished until 1997 when
Prospect Books published the culinary sections as John 
Evelyn, Cook. It was edited by Christopher Driver.
Evelyn often simply wrote "Ice it as you do any Other"
as in the recipe for "a very light Cake". [#207 page 126]
He did, however, elaborate as in the following specific recipe:

"206. To ice the cake.
Take a p[ound] of Double refined sugar sifted the whites of 3 Eggs
beat with a spoonfull or more of Rose water mix in the sugar by
degrees continue beating till it is very white and the Cake baked
then draw the Cake to the ovens mouth and spread it equally let
it stand to harden a litle while and so draw it[.]" [page 126]

Those using Evelyn should note that Evelyn uses a term "icings"
as in "274. To make white oatmeall pudings or icings." Here
the term means a sort of sausage from the word "ising".
------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
18th Century references and notes for purposes of
comparison and further study.
-----------------------------------------------

John Nott's Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary of 1726
(facsimile by Lawrence Rivington, 1980) provides a valuable
collection of recipes in use during the latter part of
the 17th and the early part of the 18thcenturies, or
roughly 1650-1715. Nott's sources were wide-ranging and
not identified as to author or place. Arranged in dictionary
format, one finds that Nott includes the following under IC:

"To make Ice and Snow" a recipe for cream made with rennet.

Then follows:
"4. To make Icing.
  Take half a Pound of fine Loaf-fugar, beat it very fine
in a Mortar; then fift it; then put it again into the
Mortar with four Spoonfuls of Rofe-water, and the whites
of two eggs; ftir it all one Way, 'till your Cakes and
Tarts come out of the Oven, and almoft cold, dip a Feather
in your Icing, and ftrike over your Cakes or Tarts, and fet
them in a cool Oven to harden." [page IC]

Nott concludes the section with "5. how to ice all
Sorts of Waters" which gives instructions for using
pieces of ice and salt to "freeze" moulds. [page je]
--------------------------------------------------

Edward Kidder (1665?-1739) ran a school for would-be
cooks. One of the recipe notebooks compiled by one of
his students was published as Receipts of Pastry & Cookery
For the Use of His Scholars [Iowa City, Iowa: University
of Iowa Press, 1993]. The manuscript reproduced in facsimile
is dated 1720-1739.

"A Batter Cake" ends with the following:
"The Iceing
Beat & sift a pd. of double refind sugar &
put to it the whits of 4 eggs put in but one
at a tyme beat them in a basson with a silver
spoon till tis very leight & white"
[page 126-127]

"A Seed Cake" which follows ends with the instruction:
"Strew over it double refind sugar & rough carraways"
but whether this is done before or after baking is left unclear.

"Another Way" for the making of Gingerbread Cakes
indicates "when they are bakd dip them in boyling water to
glaze them" [page 129-130]
 This is not of course sugar "glazing".
--------------------------------------------------
Double layers of icing were apparently the invention of
Mrs. Elizabeth Raffald who in the 1769 The Experienced English
House-Keeper included a recipe for a Bride's cake that
included an almond icing that is set to harden topped
by a layer of sugar icing. Many feel that this is the
beginning of not only the traditional British Christmas
Cake but the British Wedding Cake whereby a cake is layered
first with marzipan and then coated in royal icing. Raffald
offers much informed comment in an introductory section to 
Chapter IX of her work which is entitled "Observations upon
Cakes." 
[various reprints inc. 1997 Southover Press of Lewes, East
Sussex, UK.]
------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
I will mention that Barbara Wheaton credits the Patissier
Francois of 1654 as one of the earliest sources for both
 "the egg-and-sugar-foam-based batters
from which sweet cakes developed" and "a simple royal icing."
[Savoring the French Past, 1983. pp.177.]
I will not attempt to go into any French-English connections
at this point, except to note that the work was published in
English in 1656 as The Perfect Cook with the author being given
as Mon. Marnette. {And as I do not have a copy I can't at this
time quote what that work has to offer regarding either cakes or
icing.}
------------------------------------------------------

Notes:

These recipes that call for a simple mixture of rosewater and
sugar might be what we now refer to as "glazed" where
an item is lightly iced. Note that most of the cakes and items
being iced are not cooled before icing. Almost all modern
recipes instruct one to cool the cake prior to icing. 
Most of these early recipes call for the items to be
then placed back into an oven to dry.
(Modern terminology : Glazed as in glazed doughnuts)
 
Sugar would have been obtained in cones of varying weights
and quality. There were two English sugar refineries in
the 1550's; by 1650, there were at least 50 in just
London. Double refined sugar was refined sugar that was
refined again in England. Powdered or confectioners' sugar
would not have been in use. Any reference to powdered
sugar is to granulated sugar that is pounded fine and
sifted. Elizabeth David notes that it was the latter
decades of the 19th century before caster and icing
or confectioners' sugars became common.

I do not as yet have a firm date for the common use of what
we now refer to as buttercream frostings. Robert May, for one,
did use butter in his recipes, although we can't really state
that this was a true buttercream.

I will not attempt to go into the history of English cakes, except
to note that most cakes prior to 1600 were the rich
yeast (more akin to modern sweet) dough variety to which
spices, currants, candied fruits, and nuts might be added. Large
cakes and even some of the small cakes were generally treated as
breads would be and use yeast, good ale yest, ale barm, or hartshorn
for leavening. Recipes using eggs beaten for as long as two or three
hours begin to appear primarily in the 17th century, although
Wilson quotes a date of 1596 for Thomas Dawson's Biscuit Bread
that rises from the use of eggs beaten for two hours.

References:
Charsley, Simon R. Wedding Cakes and Cultural History. 1992.
{Use Charsely with caution. He confuses Price's The Compleat
Cook with that of the 1655 The Compleat Cook by W.M.}

David, Elizabeth. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. 1977, 1980.

Henisch, Bridget Ann. Cakes and Characters. An English Christmas
Tradition. 1984.

Wilson, C. Anne. Food and Drink in Britain. 1974; 1991.

Fleming, Elise. (Dame Alys Katharine) Confectioners Newsletter.
Vol.3, No.1. February, 1994. "Powdered Sugar" which includes
notes from Karen Hess regarding powdered sugar and its various
meanings when the term is found in recipes prior to 1800.
history and use.

Oxford English Dictionary, 2d edition. Online restricted edition.

------
Copyright 2001 by Johnna H. Holloway. <Johnna at mac.com>. Please don't reprint without permission from the author.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in
the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also
appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being
reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	Sugar-Icing-art	Page 14 of 14