cakes-msg - 2/17/08 Period cakes and cake recipes. NOTE: See also the files: Digby-Cakes-art, Digby-Cakes-msg, cak-soteltes-msg, flavord-sugars-msg, marzipan-msg, shortbread-msg, Sugar-Icing-art, sugar-paste-msg, pastries-msg, leavening-msg, Ital-Fnl-Caks-art. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 16:16:04 EST From: Etain1263 at aol.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] digby cakes To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org In a message dated 11/3/2004 3:42:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, ldh at ece.gatech.edu writes: > My Digby cakes did not rise (much), There is nothing in them to make them rise. They are a "shortbread" type of cookie. I've made dozens of them...I use them as "prizes" when I do "The Food Game" at demos. As for the frosting: use regular sugar. It gives you the opportunity to see how nice a sparkle you get when the liquid sinks into the warm cookie (I just mix sugar and water until I can spoon it on the cookies), leaving the sugar in a layer on top! I also point out when I'm doing a demo that they did not have powdered sugar....it was difficult enough to get that hard loaf grated and pounded into what we call "granulated" as it was! I use Cariadoc's redaction, also. Etain Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 14:01:36 -0500 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Useful things to do with fruitcake To: Cooks within the SCA Also sprach Micaylah: > Sherry is also another alcohol to consider. I don't think I would recommend > actually putting it in the cake as one of the ingreds, but to marinade the > fruits, and for cheesecloth soaking, it sounds like it would be very good. > YMMV > > Micaylah Okay, so this one uses sack. Close enough, IMO. It also uses only raisins and currants, but in profusion, and I don't think it suffers for it. ANOTHER VERY GOOD CAKE Take four quarts of fine flower, two pound and half of butter, three quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs; a little Mace; a pound of Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good Ale-yest, a pint of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of Eggs; four pound of Currants. When you have wrought all these into a very fine past, let it be kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the oven. If you please, you may put into it, two pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned and quartered. 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 finely beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the Eggs, and ice the Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece. --The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight, Opened, etc., London, 1669 Does anybody besides Andrea MacIntyre remember the 12th Night subtlety thingy in Nordenhall a few years ago? This was my entry, so it's conceivable somebody here may remember eating this. Adamantius Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 16:54:31 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sweet bread or cake ecipe needed To: "Cooks within the SCA" To Make a Cake Take half a peck (7 lbs.) of flour, two pound and a half of Currants, 3 or 4 Nutmegs, one pound of Almond paste, 2 pound of Butter, and one pint of Cream, three teaspoonfuls of Rosewater, three quarters of a pound of Sugar,, half a pint of Sack, a quarter pint of Yeast, and six Eggs,s make it and bake it. The Countess of Kent, A True Gentlewoman's Delight, 1653 The publication is posthumous, so the recipe is certainly earlier. Bear Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 21:09:22 +0200 From: Volker Bach Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Am Sonntag, 15. Mai 2005 20:44 schrieb Alexa: > I have a question in regards to cakes that I thought I > would pose to the list. I know cakes as we know > them, the texture of birthday cakes you get at the > bakery, or from a store bought mix or home made cake > are not period. My question is, when abouts did cakes > w/ the texture of pound cake come into play? I have > only found a recipe for 'an excellent cake' and by no > means was it cake like we know of today, more like a > cookie type of thing. I think that for cakes of the modern kind to become common, you have to wait for the advent of sodium bicarbonate and mechanical or electric beaters. However, there are some period recipes that get you a fairly spongy, Soft texture not at all like cookies: Mach ein Teig an mit Milch / Eyern / und schoenem weissen Mehl / thu ein wenig Bierhefen darein / un mach einen guten Teig / der nicht gar steiff ist / unnd versaltz jn nicht / setz jn zu der waerm / daß er fein auffgehet / ... Make dough with milk, eggs, and good white flour, and add a little brewing yeast. Do not make it too stiff and do not oversalt it. Leave it to rise in a warm place ... The recipe goes on to describe making fritters. However, the following one says: Nimm ein newen Krug / schmier jn innwendig wol mit zerlassener Butter / thu einen solchen Teig darein / daß der Krug halb davon voll wirt / und wenn er auffgelauffen / daß er voll ist / so scheubs in heissen Ofen / und laß backen / thu jn herauß / und laß jn kalt werden / zerschlag den Krug / unnd thu die Schifer davon hinweg / unnd gibs fein ganz auff Tisch / so sihet es wie ein Krug. Take a new pot, grease its insides with melted butter, then take of such a dough (as described in a previous recipe) and fill it half full. When it has risen to full the pot entirely, place it in a hot oven and bake it. Then take it out, cool it, and break the pot. Remove the shards and serve, and it will look like a pot. (Marx Rumpoldt, late 16th century) Same pattern here, first the fritter, then using the same dough for a cake: Nimm ein frischen Kaeß / der uber Nacht gemacht ist / thu schoen weiß Mehl unnd Eyerdotter darunter / rueres wol durcheinander / mach Küchel darauß / nimm Papier / und bestreichs mit Butter / und leg die Küchel darauff nebeneinander / scheubs in einen warmen Ofen / so wirt es fein aufflauffen / wirt innwendig fein hol wie ein Schwam / richt es in ein Schuessel an / begeuß mit frischer Butter / unnd bestraew es mit weissem Zucker / gibs warm oder kalt auff ein Tisch / beschneidts fein rundt un duenn / legs auff eine Schuessel / bespreng es mit Rosenwasser / und bestraew es mit weissem Zucker / so ists gut und wolgeschmack. Take fresh cheese that was made overnight and add fine white flour and egg yolks and stir it well. Make small cakes, place them on buttered paper, and place it in a warm oven. Thus they will rise and become as hollow as sponges inside. Serve them warm or cold in a bowl drizzled with melted butter and sprinkled with sugar or slice them thin and round, place them in a bowl, drizzle with rosewater and sprinkle with white sugar. This will be good and delicious. Du kanst auch wol ein Turten machen von einem solchen Teig / un kanst es kalt lassen werden / die nennet man Kaese turten / und wenn du es wilt auff ein Tisch geben / so besprengs mit Rosenwasser / unnd gibs kalt / bestraew es mit weissem Zucker. Du magsts gantz geben oder zerschneiden. You can also make a tart of this dough that is served cold and called 'Cheese Tart'. If you want to serve it, drizzle it with rosewater and sprinkle it with white sugar. Cou can serve it whole or cut it up. And then there's this from the Anonymous Venetian. I'm not sure I figured the intent correctly, but it looks like a second cousin to Rumpoldt's cheese tart, a century or two early. XL A white and rich "migliaciti" (cake) If you want to make white cake in the best way that you can for 12 persons. Take enough leaven (fermenting bread dough) that is (for) about a bread and a half, take water that is a little hot and mix it with the leaven so that it makes strings (breaks up). Take four fresh, good fat cheeses, ten eggs, two pounds of fresh lard that has been well rendered with little smoke and well strained. And when the leaven is well working put it above flour in quantities of about a dish (scudella pizola a dish of a specific and constant size), and put in a a little water, and put in the chopped cheese (one of the three) and add the eggs that you have. Make this batter/dough soft and tender, and put it into a hot but not too hot "testo" (pie dish designed to cook pies on the fire) which has been well greased. And scatter above the two cheeses that you have chopped well, and above it add the hot strained lard that you have, and put it to cook. And if you want to make for more persons or for less take the ingredients in the same way. Giano Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 13:05:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Pat Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Volker Bach wrote: >>> I think that for cakes of the modern kind to become copmmobn, you have to wait for the advent of sodium bicarbonate and mechanical or electric beaters. <<< Hmmm, most authentic pound cake recipes do not call for any leavening other than a strong arm and much beating. Not so sure my Foster Mother in Law, Auntie Ruth ever owned an electric mixer, and her recipe did not call for baking soda or baking powder, just a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, a dozen eggs, and a pound of flour, vanilla or lemon flavoring. Butter was the preferred fat, but lard would do in a pinch. However, I've not seen a near period recipe like this. Mordonna Pat Griffin Lady Anne du Bosc known as Mordonna the Cook Shire of Thorngill, Meridies Mundanely, Millbrook, AL Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 23:45:02 +0200 From: Volker Bach Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Am Sonntag, 15. Mai 2005 22:05 schrieb Pat: > Hmmm, most authentic pound cake recipes do not call for any leavening other > than a strong arm and much beating. Not so sure my Foster Mother in Law, > Auntie Ruth ever owned an electric mixer, and her recipe did not call for > baking soda or baking powder, just a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, a > dozen eggs, and a pound of flour, vanilla or lemon flavoring. Butter was > the preferred fat, but lard would do in a pinch. However, I've not seen a > near period recipe like this. You mean the ones that get their leavening by beating, beating, beating....? That is exactly my point - the method is so time-consuming and tiring that it must have been limited to exceptional occasions, or the tables of people who didn't have to do it themselves. BTW. I have traced the beaten-egg cake to the late 16th century, but it is used for rusks. Marx Rumpoldt: Nimm weiß von Eyern / und nim eyn schoenen neuwen Hafen darzu / und schoen weiß Mehl / mach ein Teig in denm Hafen ab / und schlag jn wol mit einem hoelzern Loeffel / nimm Aniß und Coriander darunter / machs mit weissem Zucker wol sueß / geuß ein wenig Rosenwasser darunter / unnd ein wenig Saltz / du kanst auch wol ein Eydotter oder zween / die frisch seyn / darunter nemmen. Nimm ein Oblat / der fein breit und laenglicht ist / thu den Teig aus dem Hafen darauff mit einem hoeltzern Loeffel / scheubs geschwindt in einen Ofen / daß der Teig nich voneinander fleußt / so wird er fein in die hoeh aufflauffen / wenns gebacken ist / so thu es herauß / und laß ein weil uberschlagen / schneidts nach der laeng etwan eins halben Fingers dick / legs widerumb auff ein saubers Papier / oder auff ein Oblat / und scheubs wider in Ofen / der uberschlagen ist / kehrs offt umb auff beyden seiten / daß fein außtrucknet / so werden sie gut unnd muerb. Unnd man nennets Piscoten von lauter Eyerweiß. Take the whites of eggs into a nice new pot, add good white flour and make a dough in the pot. Beat it vigorously with a wooden spoon. Add anise and coriander, sweeten it well with ground sugar, and add a little rosewater and salt. You can also add an egg yolk or two if they are fresh. Take a long and wide wafer and put the dough from the pot onto it with a wooden spoon. Put it into the oven quickly so that it does not flow off the wafer, then it will rise up nicely. When it is baked, take it out and let it /uberschlagen/ (?) a while, then cut it lengthwise, about half a finger thick, place it on clean paper or a wafer again and put it into an oven that is /uberschlagen/ (?) and turn them over often. Thus they will become good and crumbly. These are called rusks of pure egg whites. Franz de Rontzier Rißmehl unnd zerstossen Kanarienzucker vermischt man mit Rosenwasser und Eyerdottern / schlegts zwey stundt zusamen so wirdt es gelb / darnach weiß / böget einen bogen Papir ein / gibts darauff un machts im Ofen gahr / wenn es beginnt trucken zu werden sol mans in kleine stücke schneiden unnd leggens auff Papir eine ganze nacht in den Ofen und lests langsamb trucken das es nicht braun werde /so kan mans wol ein halb Jahr wahren / wenn mans thun wil mag mans mit Zucker bestrewen wen mans zerschneidet Rice flour and canary sugar are mixed with rosewater and egg yolks and beaten for two hours. First, the mixture turns yellow, then white. Bend a sheet of paper, pour it into there and bake it in the oven. Once it starts to become dry, cut it up into small pieces and slowly dry them in the oven on paper for an entire night at a low temperature, so they do not turn brown. You can keep these half a year, and if you want you can sprinkle them with sugar when you cut them up. I haven't seen it used in cakes before the 18th century, but my knowledge of 17th century cooking is very patchy indeed.. Giano Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 17:39:00 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cakes To: "Cooks within the SCA" According to the OED, pound cake is a cake containing one pound each of the principle ingredients with the first reference in a work by Thackery in 1841. A cake in period would have been a round, flattened loaf like a galette. Bear > I have a question in regards to cakes that I thought I > would pose to the list. I know cakes as we know > them, the texture of birthday cakes you get at the > bakery, or from a store bought mix or home made cake > are not period. My question is, when abouts did cakes > w/ the texture of pound cake come into play? I have > only found a recipe for 'an excellent cake' and by no > means was it cake like we know of today, more like a > cookie type of thing. > > Alexa Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 21:38:33 -0400 From: "Ron Carnegie" Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] cakes To: "Cooks within the SCA" > According to the OED, pound cake is a cake containing one pound each of the > principle ingredients with the first reference in a work by Thackery in > 1841. > > A cake in period would have been a round, flattened loaf like a > galette. > > Bear This just sounded wrong, so I pulled out one of my 18th century cookbooks. Just the first one I grabbed, which happened to be Hannah Glasse, THE ART OF COOKERY MADE PLAIN AND EASY. This book, on page 309, has a receipt for pound cake. Most of the ingredients are in the quantity of a pound. This is the revised version of 1796 Though the forward says that only the soap and beer receipts were added to the previous 1745 edition. I have no idea when pound cakes first appear, and would not be surprised if they are not period to the SCA, but they do predate Thackery and 1841. Ranald de Balinhard Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 22:58:36 -0400 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Also sprach Terry Decker: > The Oxford English Dictionary lists uses of a word or phrase. Does > the recipe specifically use the term pound cake? If so, write the > OED staff and let them know. They'll probably add it to the usage > list in the next edition. It is called a pound cake, and uses a pound each of flour, butter, and sugar, with twelve egg yolks and six whites (which may or may not equal a pound, depending on egg size). It also allows for optional caraway seeds. It's a little different in technique from the modern cream cake version, and I get the impression this makes a pretty dense cake (it's one of those "beaten for an hour" cakes), but it's pretty recognizable as pound cake. Adamantius > Bear > >> This just sounded wrong, so I pulled out one of my 18th century >> cookbooks. Just the first one I grabbed, which happened to be Hannah >> Glasse, THE ART OF COOKERY MADE PLAIN AND EASY. This book, on page 309, has >> a receipt for pound cake. Most of the ingredients are in the quantity of a >> pound. This is the revised version of 1796 Though the forward says that >> only the soap and beer receipts were added to the previous 1745 edition. I >> have no idea when pound cakes first appear, and would not be surprised if >> they are not period to the SCA, but they do predate Thackery and 1841. >> >> Ranald de Balinhard Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 08:49:39 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cakes To: Cooks within the SCA There's a pound cake recipe (actually it calls for 2 pounds each of butter, flour, sugar, plus eggs, rosewater, and 2 pounds of currants) in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. The manuscripts that make up the book are dated as Tudor-Jacobean or roughly 1580-1625 by the editor Karen Hess. These are baked in buttered pans, but the size is not stated. See recipe S 149, pages 314-315. Johnnae llyn Lewis Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 09:42:54 -0600 From: Mary Morman Subject: [Sca-cooks] cakes on a griddle To: SCA-Cooks someone wrote: Every cook in Wales has their own (and best!) version of "welsh cakes". If you look at the recipes....these are Digby's fine cakes flattened out and cooked on a griddle! I've often wondered if I could get away with "baking" them on a griddle at demo's where we do open fire pit cooking. Does anyone have any documentation for medieval cooking of cakes on a griddle??? I've made Digby cakes for many years, but recently when I was at the Tudor Kitchen at the Weald and Downlands Open Air Museum near Chichester the cook was making Digby Cakes on a griddle over an open fire. It made a really excellent demo and a very tasty treat. We chatted about the recipe and the source. She didn't have a specific source for making them on a griddle, but had just never considered any other method. elaina Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:20:08 -0400 From: Elaine Koogler Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Late SCA-Period Sweets? To: Cooks within the SCA Urtatim mentioned: <<< There's a recipe in Digby for a barm raised spice cake - and Johnnae has actually cooked it - that could work in the bundt pan. >>> I have made this cake several times (the one from Digby) and it came out beautifully...resembled a spice cake more than anything else. I actually used it as the base for sotelties...I've made a dragon (used a food-safe stainless steel wire as an armature...covered it with marzipan), a map of Atlantia (same idea, only without the armature), and a castle. Didn't have any of those lovely cake pans at the time, so built my own out of a square sheet pan, and four small springform pans for the towers. But the cake was delicious...and the ale barm worked nicely as a raising agent. Kiri Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:43:54 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Seeking Simple Spiced Cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Not sure that it is possible. A lot of the in period "cakes" are yeast risen cakes with spices that resemble spiced breads. You also get fine cakes or small cakes. There's a pound cake recipe (actually it calls for 2 pounds each of butter, flour, sugar, plus eggs, rosewater, and 2 pounds of currants) in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. The manuscripts that make up the book are dated as Tudor-Jacobean or roughly 1580-1625 by the editor Karen Hess. These are baked in buttered pans, but the size is not stated. See recipe S 149, pages 314-315. You might be able to add spices to that. Johnnae_ _wildecelery at aol.com wrote: > My husband's B-day is saturday and there's a demo/event at the > local college group...Normally I make him a yellow cake with > cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg mixed in. i then top this with > sliced apples boiled in cider...like a very chunky hommemade > applesauce... I'd like to do a period version of the cake for the > event...any suggestions? > -Ardenia Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:41:32 +1300 From: Adele de Maisieres Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Seeking Simple Spiced Cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Johnna Holloway wrote: > Not sure that it is possible. A lot of the in period "cakes" > are yeast risen cakes with spices that resemble spiced breads. > You also get fine cakes or small cakes. > There's a pound cake recipe (actually it calls for 2 pounds each of > butter, flour, sugar, plus eggs, rosewater, and 2 pounds of currants) > in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. The manuscripts that > make up the book are dated as Tudor-Jacobean or roughly 1580-1625 > by the editor Karen Hess. These are baked in buttered pans, but the > size is not stated. I think I've made this accidentally, because a perioid cake was needed at an event on short notice and the ingredients on hand for a spiced and currant-filled pound cake were available. A one-pound cake fills a bundt pan, so I'm guessing a two pound cake with two pounds of currants would do two deep tube pans or four loaves. Mmmm... pound cake. It helps if you have a heavy-duty electric mixer if you want to do this in any quantity bugger than the one-pound version, by the way. -- Adele de Maisieres Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:41:50 -0500 From: "Elaine Koogler" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Random food-related questions.... To: "Cooks within the SCA" Yup...that's the one. Here's my version of it. To be honest, it's been a while since I made this, but it turned out pretty well. I used it as a base for marzipan sotolties...and once as a wedding cake. So I've never made the icing described in the recipe. Enjoy! Kiri 4 Cups flour 3/4 pound butter 1 1/4 pounds currants 1 Tablespoon cloves, mace, nutmeg 2 Tablespoons cinnamon 1/2 cup sugar 1/8 teaspoon saffron 1/4 cup dry sack 1/2 cup ale barm ICING MIXTURE 2 Tablespoons rosewater 1 each egg white sugar to taste 1. Mix spices with flour, reserving a small amount to flour currants. 2. Add melted butter, barm and rosewater. 3. Four currants with reserved flour/spice mixture and fold into dough. 4. Turn into a greased cake pan and bake in a 350 oven for 1 hour, 30 minutes or until done through the middle. Yield: 1 cake Notes: To a peck of fine flour, take 6 pounds of fresh butter, which must be tenderly melted, ten pounds of Currants, of Cloves and mace, half an ounce each, an ounce of Cinnamon, half an ounce of Nutmegs, four ounces of Sugar, one pint of Sack, mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of Ale (as soon as it is settled, to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will be when it is about two days old) half a pint of Rosewater, half a quarter of an ounce of Saffron. then make your paste, strewing the spices, finely beaten upon the flower; Then put the melted butter (but even just melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquors; and put it into the oven well heated presently. For better baking of it, put it in a hoop and let it stand in the oven one hour and a half. You Ice the Cake with the whites of two Eggs, a small qauanty of Rosewater and some Sugar. Cuisine: Period English Categories: Period desserts Source: The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened--redacted by E. Koogler Copyright: 1997, Totnes, Devon, Great Britain Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:21:58 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Random food-related questions.... To: "Cooks within the SCA" On 11/14/06, Sue Clemenger wrote: > Would a sherry do if I can't find sack? > --Maire Most of the sack I've been able to find these days is sherry. The term as used in the 16th and 17th Centuries however covers almost any light, dry, fortified wine produced in Spain or the Canary Islands. Bear Edited by Mark S. Harris cakes-msg 11 of 11