Baking Yesteryear - Episode :8 Election Cake (10/10 would recommend!)
Join me as I bake the next recipe in Dylan Hollis’s book Baking Yesteryear! This election cake was delicious!!
Check out my firestarters and beeswax wraps on our website at chapelhillforge.com.
Election Day Cake
A colonial tradition on Election Day is hot again
Historical Baking, Episode 6: Election Cake and Special Guest Dr. Sue Stanfield
Hello everyone, welcome to my corner!
In this episode we explore the history of election cakes with special guest and election cake expert, Dr. Sue Stanfield from University of Texas, El Paso.
You can find Dr. Stanfield's podcast, Pod-Textualizing the Past at:
And the podcast episode about cooking at:
You can find out more about Amelia Simmons and her cookbook, American Cookery, at:
And a copy of the cookbook at:
Election Cake
Original recipe:
Two pounds Sugar,
Three quarters of a pound of butter,
One pint of milk made into a sponge,
four eggs,
Two tablespoonsful of cinniamon,
And flour enough to make a dough.
Set a sponge the evening before with a pint of milk, a gill of yeast, a little salt, and flour enough to make a thick batter. The next morning stir the butter and sugar together, whisk the eggs, and add to it with the sponge and other ingredients, and flour enough to form a dough. Knead it, butter your pan, put in the dough; let it rise. When it is light bake it.
My version (that was probably too dry), half recipe (in US measurements because I have a lot of work to do and don't have the energy to convert to metric, I'm sorry)
For the sponge:
1/4 cup natural yeast
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
1.5 cup flour
For the dough:
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter (room temperature)
2 eggs
1tbsp cinnamon
3.5 cups flour
Pinch of salt
Mix the yeast, milk, salt, and 1.5 cup flour in a bowl and let sit for 6-8 hours to form a sponge.
When it has sponged, mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and add them, cinnamon, salt, and yeast sponge to the bowl. Add in the 3.5 cups flour and knead to form the dough. Butter your baking pan, put in the dough, cover it, and leave it to rise until it is light. Bake in a 350F oven for 25-30 minutes.
Please note that mine did not work. If I make this again, I will halve the amount of flour in the second stage of dough-making and use a different pan (perhaps the tube pans that Dr. Stanfield talked about) and maybe that would allow the dough to rise.
Instagram: @dr_kristi
#baking #history #historicalbaking
1700’s recipe for ELECTION CAKE
Find the accompanying blog post, with book photos and notes here:
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was a common custom in the US to serve election cake. So I thought I’d share one today, in honor of Election Day coming up next week!
Most of the early election cake recipes I’ve found have a few things in common…
1. They’re BIG recipes. These call for ingredients by the pound, and they’re made into loaves…quite a lot of loaves. These are recipes for large groups of people, much like the old fashioned wedding cake recipes.
2. Nearly all call for raisins, and most also call for citron. This recipe includes both.
3. Election cake seems required to be a spice cake—I have yet to read a vintage election cake receipt that doesn’t call for spices, especially nutmeg.
This particular recipe I’m sharing today is from an 1880’s cookbook, but the book lists this recipe as being over 100 years old at the time, so that would make this a recipe from the 1780’s or earlier.
SHOW NOTES:
Here’s a link to the digitized text where you can read the recipe yourself:
((This is a different edition of the same cookbook, which went by the slightly different title: Buckeye cookery :
with hints on practical housekeeping. The recipe is the same, and is also found on the same page (70), and even includes the same typo as my edition.))
OVEN TEMP: 375 is what I would use for this one. This is a hotter oven than we’ve seen in the last couple of recipes.
When we read instructions to heat the oven as for baking bread, that’s about 375, or a little higher. Generally, from the vintage cookbooks I’ve worked from, I’ve found that bread was cooked at slightly lower temperatures that what we commonly use now with our perfectly even heat and commercial yeast.
UNITS OF MEASURE:
Welcome to the “Gill”! If you haven’t cooked from vintage books before, this one may be new to you. In American cooking, in the 1700 and 1800’s, this would have been 1/4 pint. You can use a half cup measure, or (perhaps more accurately) 4 ounces, per gill called for in the recipe.
YEAST:
For potato yeast, I like this recipe from Lydia Child’s The American Frugal Housewife, published in 1832. This is her receipt:
“Potatoes make very good yeast. Mash three large potatoes fine; pour a pint of boiling water over them; when almost cold, stir in two spoonfuls of flour, two of molasses, and a cup of good yeast. This yeast should be used while new.”
(For the starter yeast, you can use a sourdough starter like my recipe here:
OR, if you just want to MAKE the cake already, I’d suggest whipping up that potato starter with a packet of commercial yeast in place of the “cup of good yeast”. Let it really get going, and then make some Election Cake!
WHEW! What did I miss? Let me know if you have questions!
Does this recipe sound as delicious to you as it does to me? I think I have to make this one!
Cheap And Easy Yeast Cake With Strawberries - Ciasto Drożdżowe Z Truskawkami
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Yeast Mixture :
25 g fresh yeast
spoon sugar
spoon flour
50 ml milk
Dough :
260 g wheat flour
90 g sugar
60 ml lukewarm milk
25 g melted butter
egg
125 g strawberries
Topping:
30 g butter
15 g sugar
60 g flour
ROZCZYN :
25 g świeżych drożdży
łyżka cukru
łyżka mąki
50 ml mleka
CIASTO :
260 g mąki pszennej
90 g cukru
60 ml letniego mleka
25 g roztopionego masła
jajko
125 g truskawek
KRUSZONKA :
30 g masła
15 g cukru
60 g mąki
#yeastcake #cheapcake# easycakerecipe #ciastodrozdzowe #ciastoztruskawkami
Election Cake. Don't worry - it's a reward, not bribery.
Election cake, mostly forgotten in modern politics and home kitchens, has deep roots in American history, dating all the way back to the original 13 colonies. Originally believed to have been baked as a loaf in communal ovens, the confection was used to encourage civic participation. This modern take keeps the spiced fruit and brandy, which help to preserve flavor and moisture in the cake even after it sits out for a few days–but with sweet prunes and warm spice notes throughout, who can wait that long?
Get the printable recipe:
Prep Time: 20 minutes active, plus 2 ½ hours rest
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 10-12
Special Equipment: Bundt pan, stand mixer
INGREDIENTS
Cooking spray or melted butter for the pan
1 cup whole milk
2 ¼-oz. packets active dry yeast
1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or 1 tsp coarse sea salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
8 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup chopped California prunes
½ cup packed golden raisins
2 TBSP tsp brandy, plus ½ TBSP
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground clove
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
Reserve 1 TBSP of the flour and 2 TBSP of the brown sugar in a small bowl. Spray or generously butter a 10-inch bundt pan.
Gently warm the milk in a small pot over medium heat, until just warm to the touch (about 110°F). Pour the warmed milk into the bowl of a stand mixer, and sprinkle in the yeast. Let sit until foamy, 5-10 minutes, then zest the lemon over the mixture and add the eggs, grated nutmeg, salt, flour, and brown sugar. Fold with a spatula to mix, forming a rough, shaggy dough.
Place the bowl on the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead on a low speed until a smooth dough forms–about 3 minutes. Scape down the side of the bowl and hook, then add the 8 TBSP butter all at once and continue kneading until the dough is smooth, a little shiny, and elastic–another 6-7 minutes. Remove the bowl from the stand and cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, toss the chopped prunes and raisins in 2 TBSP brandy, then cover and let the fruit soak until plump and rehydrated. Add the reserved 1 TBSP of flour and 2 TBSP brown sugar along with the vanilla extract and the remaining spices and stir until evenly combined.
Lightly press into the risen dough to form a bowl. Add in the dried fruit mixture, then gently fold the dough over, and continue folding until the fruit is evenly mixed throughout. Scrape the mixed dough into the prepared bundt pan, smoothing the surface to make ensure the pan is filled evenly. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise for another 90 minutes, or until the dough springs back when pressed.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F.
Place the bundt pan on a sheet tray and bake on a center rack for 40 minutes, or until golden brown and hollow-sounding when the surface is tapped. A toothpick or cake tester should come out clean when inserted. Cool in the pan while you prepare the glaze.
Into a small bowl, juice the zested lemon, then add the remaining ½ TBSP brandy and a pinch of salt. Whisk in the confectioner’s sugar to create a smooth glaze–it should be runny but slightly opaque.
Place a wire rack over the bundt pan, and invert to remove the cake. Place the rack inside of a sheet pan to catch excess glaze. Brush a thin layer of the glaze over the surface of the warm cake, then let it cool further, almost to room temperature–otherwise, the rest of the glaze won’t set before running down the sides. Pour the remaining glaze over the top, allowing it to stream generously down all sides of the cake. Let the glaze set then slice and serve at room temperature!
Serving Suggestion:
Champagne is another election night tradition. Mix up a Stormy Sparkler to serve with this delicious cake.
INSPIRATION/SOURCE: Yewande Komolafe in NY Times Cooking; Fanny Farmer’s recipe from Boston Cooking School Cookbook (1896), as adapted by Serious Eats
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