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About cake

The history of cake dates back to ancient times. The first cakes were very different from what we eat today. They were more bread-like and sweetened with honey. Nuts and dried fruits were often added. According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the English word cake back to the 13th century. It is a derivation of 'kaka', an Old Norse word. Medieval European bakers often made fruitcakes and gingerbread. These foods could last for many months.

According to the food historians, the precursors of modern cakes (round ones with icing) were first baked in Europe sometime in the mid-17th century. This is due to primarily to advances in technology (more reliable ovens, manufacture/availability of food molds) and ingredient availability (refined sugar). At that time cake hoops--round molds for shaping cakes that were placed on flat baking trays--were popular. They could be made of metal, wood or paper. Some were adjustable. Cake pans were sometimes used. The first icing were usually a boiled composition of the finest available sugar, egg whites and [sometimes] flavorings. This icing was poured on the cake. The cake was then returned to the oven for a while. When removed the icing cooled quickly to form a hard, glossy [ice-like] covering. Many cakes made at this time still contained dried fruits (raisins, currants, citrons).

It was not until the middle of the 19th century that cake as we know it today (made with extra refined white flour and baking powder instead of yeast) arrived on the scene. A brief history of baking powder. The Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book [London, 1894] contains a recipe for layer cake, American (p. 1031). Butter-cream frostings (using butter, cream, confectioners [powdered] sugar and flavorings) began replacing traditional boiled icings in first few decades 20th century. In France, Antonin Careme [1784-1833] is considered THE premier historic chef of the modern pastry/cake world. You will find references to him in French culinary history books.

Cake recipes, Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book [1918]

What is the difference between cake, gateau and torte?
Gateaux is a French word for cake. It generally denotes items made with delicate ingredients which are best consumed soon after the confection is made (gateaux des roi). Cakes can last much longer, some even improving with age (fruit cake). Torte is the German word for cake, with similar properties. When tortes are multilayerd and fancifully decorated they are closer to gateaux EXCEPT for the fact they can last quite nicely for several days.

Cake & gateau: definitions & examples

"Cakes and gateaux. Although both terms can be used for savoury preparations (meat cakes or vegetable gateaux) their main use is for sweet baked goods. Cakes can be large or small, plain of fancy, light or rich. Gateau is generally used for fancy, but light or rich, often with fresh decoration, such as fresh fruit or whipped cream. Whereas a cake may remain fresh for several days after baking or even improve with keeping, a gateau usually includes fresh decoration or ingredients that do not keep well, such as fresh fruit or whipped cream. In France, the word 'gateau' designates various patisserie items based on puff pastry, shortcrust pastry (basic pie dough), sweet pastry, pate saglee, choux pastry, Genoese and whisked sponges and meringue...The word 'gateau' is derived from the Old French wastel, meaning 'food'. The first gateau were simply flat round cakes made with flour and water, but over the centuries these were enriched with honey, eggs, spices, butter, cream and milk. From the very earliest items, a large number of French provinces have produced cakes for which they are noted. Thus Artois had gateau razis, and Bournonnais the ancient tartes de fromage broye, de creme et de moyeau d'oeulz. Hearth cakes are still made in Normady, Picardy, Poitou and in some provinces in the south of France. They are variously called fouaces, fouaches, fouees or fouyasses, according to the district...Among the many pastries which were in high favor from the 12th to the 15th centuries in Paris and other cities were: echaudes, of which two variants, the falgeols and the gobets, were especially prized by the people of Paris; and darioles, small tartlets covered with narrow strips of pastry...Casse-museau is a hard dry pastry still made today'...petits choux and gateaux feuilletes are mentioned in a charter by Robert, Bishop of Amiens in 1311."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 198-199)

"Cake. The original dividing line between cake and bread was fairly thin: Roman times eggs and butter were often added to basic bread dough to give a consistency we would recognize as cakelike, and this was frequently sweetened with honey. Terminologically, too, the earliest English cakes were virtually bread, their main distinguishing characteristics being their shape--round and flat--and the fact that they were hard on both sides from being turned over during baking...in England the shape and contents of cakes were graudally converging toward our present understanding of the term. In medieval and Elizabethan times they were usually quite small...Cake is a Viking contribution to the English language; it was borrowed from Old Norse kaka, which is related to a range of Germanic words, including modern English cook." ---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 52)

"Gateau. English borrowed gateau from French in the mid-nineteenth century, and at first used it fairly indiscriminately for any sort of cake, pudding, or cake-like pie...Since the Second World War, however, usage of the term has honed in on an elaborate 'cream cake': the cake element, generally a fairly unremarkable sponge, is in most cases simply an excuse for lavish layers of cream, and baroque cream and fruit ornamentation...The word gateau is the modern French descendant of Old French guastel, 'fine bread'; which is probably of Germanic origin. In its northeastern Old French dialect from wasel it as borrowed into English in the thirteenth century, where it survived until the seventeenth century." ---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 138)

"The word 'gateau' crossed the Channel to England in the early 19th century...In Victorian England cookery writers used 'gateau' initially to denote puddings such as rice baked in a mould, and moulded baked dishes of fish or meat; during the second part of the century it was also applied to highly decorated layer cakes. Judging by the amount of space given to directions for making these in bakers' manuals of the time, they were tremendously popular...Most were probably rather sickly, made from cheap sponge filled with 'buttercream'...and coated with fondant icing. Elaborate piped decoration was added. Many fanciful shapes were made...The primary meaning of the word 'gateau' is now a rich and elaborate cake filled with whipped cream and fruit, nuts, or chocolate. French gateau are richer than the products of British bakers. They involve thin layers of sponge, usually genoise, or meringe; some are based on choux pastry. Fruit or flavoured creams are used as fillings. The later are rarely dairy cream; instead creme patissiere (confectioner's custard--milk, sugar, egg yolks, and a little flour) or creme au buerre (a rich concoction of egg yolks creamed with sugar syrup and softened butter) are used. Gateau has wider applications in French, just as 'cake' does in English...it can mean a savoury cake, a sweet or savoury tart, or a thin pancake." ---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 332)

Related foods? Choux/ puff paste, sponge, French cremes, Gateau St. Honore, Gateau des roi

Why are cakes round?
Excellent question! Food historians offer several theories. Each depends upon period, culture and cuisine. Generally, the round cakes we know today descended from ancient bread. Ancient breads and cakes were made by hand. They were typically fashioned into round balls and baked on hearthstones or in low, shallow pans. These products naturally relaxed into rounded shapes. By the 17th century, cake hoops (fashioned from metal or wood) were placed on flat pans to effect the shape. As time progressed, baking pans in various shapes and sizes, became readily available to the general public. Moulded cakes (and fancy ices) reached their zenith in Victorian times.

"For the cakes of the seventeenth century onwards tin or iron hoops were increasingly used and are mentioned with great frequency in the cookery books. These hoops were similar to our modern flan rings but much deeper...The hoop was placed on an iron or tin sheet, and a layer or two of paper, floured, was put at the bottom. The sides of the hoop were buttered, These or similar directions offer over and over again in E. Smith's The Compleat Housewife, first published in 1727, which gives recipes for forty cakes, the large ones nearly all being yeast-leavened. In her preface this author says that her book was the fruit of upwards of thirty years' experience, so her recipes and methods must often date well back into the previous century, for quite often the reader is directed to bake the cake in a 'paper hoop'--and paper was a feature of the kitchens of those days. Wooden hoops were also fairly common. Some cooks, the seventeenth-century Sir Kenelm Digby among others, evidently preferred them to tin, perhaps because they didn't rust, and so were easier to store. Probably they would have been rather like the frames of our present-day drum sieves. Writing a century after Digby, Elizabeth Raffald calls them 'garths' and advises her readers that for large cakes they are better than 'pot or tin', in which the cakes, so Mrs. Raffald found, were liable to burn more easily. Alternatively, spice cakes were baked like bread, without moulds."
---English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David [Penguin:Middlesex] 1979 (p. 212)

Symbolism of round cakes
Ancient breads and cakes were sometimes used in religious ceremonies. These were purposely fashioned into specific shapes, according to the observance. Round shapes generally symbolize the cyclical nature of life. Most specifically, the sun and moon.

"People have consumed cakes of all kinds throughout history and at all sorts of ceremonial occasions. In today's world, people traditionally serve cakes at holidays, birthdays, weddings, funerals, and baptisms--in short, at all significant times in the cycle of life. The tradition of eating cake on ceremonial occaisions has its basis in ancient ritual. Cakes, in the ancient world, had ties with the annual cycle, and people used them as offerings to the gods and spirits who exercised their powers at particular times of the year...The Chinese made cakes at harvest time to honor their moon goddess, Heng O. They recognized that the moon played a crucial role in the seasonal cycle, so they made round cakes shaped like the moon to reward the lunar goddess, with an image of the illustrious Heng O stamped on top... "The Russians traditionally pay their respects in spring to a deity named Maslenitsa by making blini, thin pancakes they call sun cakes...The pagan Slavs were not the only people to make round cakes to celebrate the spring sun. The ancient Celts, who celebrated Beltane on the first day of spring, baked and ate Beltane cakes as a important part of their celebration...At the Beltane festival, the ancient Celts also rolled the cakes down a hill to imitate solar movement. Rolling the cakes, they hoped, would ensure the continued motion of the sun. This activity also served as a form of divination: If the cake broke when it reached the bottom of the hill, the Celts believed that whoever rolled it would die within a year's time; but if the cake remained intact, they believed that person would reap a year's good fortune...Agricultural peoples around the globe made offerings of cakes prepared from the grains and fruits that arose from the soil. The types of ingredients used to make these cakes contributed to their symbolism...The cake's size and shape were equally symbolic of its ritual purpose...round cakes symbolized the sun or the moon...All of these cakes had definative links to the myths the people embraced."
---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara CA] 2000 (p. 52-54)

Ring-shaped cakes, such as Twelfth Night cakes (aka King Cakes), are also full of history and symbolism.

Recommended reading

Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, Solomon H. Katz editor, William Woys Weaver, associate editor

"Cake and pancakes," (p. 288+)

English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David

"Regional and Festival Yeast Cakes and Fruit bread," (p. 424-472)

The History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat (p. 223-246)

"History of bread and cakes," includes baking methods, symbolism, and special cakes (holidays/religion/ethnic cuisine).

Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews (p.52-54)

The history of cake as religious offering

The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson (p. 122-124)

Short history from ancient times to the present. Separate entries for specific kinds of cakes (chiffon, devil's food, fruitcake, gingerbread etc.) are most helpful.

About cake mixes

Dry baking mixes of all sorts were a product of the Industrial Revolution. They were promoted by companies as convenience foods. The first dry mixes (custard powders) were produced in England. High altitude cake mixes were introduced in the 1940s.

Custard powder was introduced in the 1840s. Packaged mixes for gelatin (Jell-O, Royal, Knox) were introduced in the late 19th century. Pancake mixes (Aunt Jemima) were available in the 1890s. Packaged mixes for biscuits (Bisquick/General Mills) were introduced in the 1930s. Our sources indicate packaged mixes for cake were introduced in 1920's. Betty Crocker/General Mills made them famous in the late 1940s. Py-O-My brand baking mixes were popular in the 1950s. Now we have mixes for Tiramasu, Pineapple-Upside-Down-Cake and even more complicated items.

"General Mills, firmly rooted in grain products--Gold Medal Flour, Bisquick, Softasilk, Wheaties, and Cheerios--embraced cake mixes, but Betty was a late arrival to the party. O. Duff and Sons, a molasses company, pioneered the "quick mix" filled by marketing the first boxed cake mix in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Continental Mills, the Hills Brothers Company under the Dromedary label, Pillsbury, Occident, Ward Baking Company, and the Doughnut Corporation all produced versions of cake mixes before World War II. But problems of spoilage and packaging abounded, keeping mixes from widespread consumption and acceptance. In November 1947, after four years of cake mix research and development, General Mills' test markets were exposed to the "Just Add Water and Mix!" campaign for Betty Crocker's Ginger Cake. After a final assurance from the corporate chemists that the boxed ingredients would indeed perform as advertised, the mix was made available for limited distribution on the West Coast. Within a year it made a national debut that excluded the South (presumably, product testing there proved futile). While Ginger Cake required a nine-inch-square pan, designers projected that the PartyCake line, already in development, would offer home bakers a choice of using either two square pans or one 9-inch-by-13-inch rectangular pan, a size and shape that were becoming popular. As layer cakes are a uniquely American creation, they seemed a fitting choice for PartyCake, the next wave of Betty Crocker mixes. The layered butter PartyCake mixes--in Spice, Yellow, and White cake varieties--and Devils Food Cake Mix were priced at $.35 to $.37 per red-and-white box. "High impact" colors were essential to entice "the ladies who trundle their little shopping wagons among the shelves and tables" of the supermarket...The postwar quest for cake mix supremacy unfolded much like the flour wars of the 1920s. In 1948 Pillsbury was the first to introduce a chocolate cake mix. Duncan Hines stormed the market in 1951 with "Three Star Surprise Mix," a three-flavor wonder in that in three weeks captured a 48 percent share."
---Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food, Susan Marks [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2005 (p. 166-8)[NOTE: more information on Duncan Hines brand mix. ]

"Betty Crocker had always stood for quality in the minds of consumers, but during the first half of the twentieth century, convenience foods were not associated with good eating. All that changed in 1947, when the first Betty Crocker cake mixes hit America's shelves. The debut mix was labled Ginger Cake but would soon evolved into Gingerbread Cake and Cookie Mix. Devil's Food Layer Cake and Party Layer Cake Mix-products that offered an alternative to the time-consuming process of baking a cake from scratch-soon followed. The early mixes bearing the Betty Crocker label eventually yielded more than 130 cooking and baking products."
---Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands, Janice Jorgensen , editor, [St. James Press:Detroit] 1994, Volume 1: Consumable Brands "Betty Crocker" (p. 53-56)
[NOTE: The Betty Crocker trade name is owned by General Mills]

The earliest print evidence we find for a Duff brand baking mix is from 1932:
"Duff's Ginger Bread Mix, delicious, ready to bake, 14 oz tin....21 cents."
Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1932 (p. A2).

The oldest print reference we find for a commercially prepared item titled "cake mix" is this Dromedary ad published the same year :
"Dromedary Brand Dixie Mix, Southern Fruit Cake Mixture, 35 cents/pkg"
---New York Times, December 21, 1932 (p. 12)

Who invented Duncan Hines brand cake mixes?
Mr. Arlee Andre, food chemist, 1952. Notes here:

"Arlee Andre, creator of the original Duncan Hines cake mixes, died Monday. He was 89 years old...Mr. Andre was a cereal chemist testing flour for Nebraska Consolidated Mills in Omaha in 1952 when he decided to develop a cake mix with better flavor and uniformity than the two mixes then available. He researched the best ways to make yellow cake, white cake, chocolate cake and angel food cake. When the mixes were ready to be marketed, Nebraska Consolidated Mills paid Duncan Hines, the food and drink connoisseur, a penny a box to use his name. The mixes quickly became popular and were sold to the Proctor & Gamble Company in 1956. Mr. Andre also moved to Procter & Gamble and retired in the mid 1960s."
---"Arlee Andre, 89, Dies; Creator of Cake Mixes," New York Times, September 9, 1989 (p. 9)

"A few weeks ago local newspapers carried full page color ads announcing that Duncan Hines cake-mixes were being introduced to the Chicago market. Simultaneously, on tables in restaurants throughout the city, there appeared small placards which read, "Welcome to Chicago, Mr. Hines." Dunring the week, the gentleman himself, known to American travelers as the author of "Adventures in Good Eating," appeared on 13 radio and TV broadcasts here, and one evening he entertained 400 retailers at supper in the plush Mayfair room of the Hotel Blackstone. Members of the flour-milling industry might well cock an eye at such ballyhoo and goings-on. Per capita flour consumption in the U.S. is 133 pounds, and has hovered at that low point for the past three eyars. In view of such statistics, many a miller would give his eye teeth to hit on a success formula like the one now setting sales records for Nebraska Consolidated Milling Co....Sixteen months ago, this Omaha milling company was just another of the many medium-sized companies in the industry, struggling to maintain sales. At the end of its fiscal year in June, 1951, the company had sales of $26 million. My the next fiscal-year-end, June 1952, it had chalked up sales of $20 million, of which over $3 million were in cake-mixes alone. Currently, it's selling about $9.5 million a har in cake-mixes. Furthermore, it's nipping at the heels of the "big three" in the cake mix field, Pillsbury, General Mills and General Foods, which combined do almost 90% of the business. Consolidated now ranks fourth, doing most of the remaining 10%, although it sells in only 30 states. J. Allan Mactier, Consolidated's 30-year-old vice-president...explains the management's success formula thus: 'Make sure you have a good product, pick a sure-fire brand name, and pour on the merchandising.' Consolidated chose the Duncan Hines label which is uses through a a franchise with Hines Park Foods, Inc. of Ithaca N.Y. because it felt it would be a sure-fire' seller. Mr. Hines himself makes his headquarters in Bowling Green, Ky. The company believed Mr. Hines' already established reputation as a connoisseur of good food would do the trick... What usually results is a flood of publicity which supplements the company's own concentrated advertising in the local market...Consolidated literally blitzes a town when it moves in. Color ads, so necesary in food promotion, are splashed on billboards and in local papers. Many radio and TV spots are used, as well as redemption coupons. Consolidated uses its quality claim as part of its selling technique. Unlike many cake mixes which contain powdered eggs in this mix, Duncan Hines mixes call for the additon of two fresh eggs. Mr. Hines insisted on this, stating it would make a better cake and would pay off in the long run. Duncan Hines brand mixes sell at competitive prices with other mixes, and the firm tries to turn the added expense of two fresh eggs to a selling advantage by telling the housewife 'this will make a better cake,' because Mr. Hines, the food authority, says so... The company is shooting for national distribution sometime next year."
---"Adventures in Good Selling--or Ballyhoo Blitz for a Cake-Mix," Felicia Anthenelli, Wall Street Journal, December 17, 1952 (p. 1)

CONSUMER REACTION According to the food historians, early baking mixes were not readily accepted. Why? Two reasons: (1) Early mixes were not reliable and they produced inconsistent results. (2) Home cooks had a difficult time reconciling modern convenience with traditional expectations. When food companies make things *too simple* their products are summarily rejected. Even in today's culture of ultra-convenience, this holds true. The "Snack'n Cake" lesson.

What Pillsbury/Betty Crocker hoped to achieve after World War II initally backfired because home cooks felt compelled/obligated to return to the way things were. Like mom used to cook. They say good salesmen don't take "no" for an answer. America's largest food concerns obviously hired these men. Despite the fact that early mixes often produced less than satisfactory results and invoke a complicated set of psycho-social baggage, they prevailed. Eventually mixes were accepted. Today? Most people who make cakes for people they love regularly employ mixes (universally perceived as home-made, as in "made in the home") instead of buying a premade "cake in the box." The real "scratch cake" is very nearly lost.

"The very marketable premise behind cake mixes was, and still is, the ability to have a fresh, "home-made" cake with very little time and effort. Though Betty Crocker--like her competitors--promised that cake mixes offered freshness, ease, and flavor in a box, the market was slow to mature. Puzzled, marketers reiterated the message that homemakers need only drop this scientific marvel into a bowl, add water, mix, and bake. But that was still a little too good to be true for Mrs. Comsumer America. Certainly, cake mixes sold, but--compared with the early performance of Bisquick or Aunt Jemima pancake mix--not up to industry expecations. The "quick mix"...industry, eager to correct the shortfall, conducted research even as the development of new mixes continued. General Mills considered the market research of the business psychologists Dr. Burleigh Gardner and Dr. Ernest Dichter to explain the mediocre sales of cake mixes. The problem, according to the psychologists, was eggs. Dichter, in particular, believed that powdered eggs, often used in cake mixes, should be left out, so women could add a few fresh eggs into the batter, giving them a sense of creative contribution. He believed...that baking a cake was an act of love on the woman's part; a cake mix that only needed water cheapened that love. Whether the psychologists were right, or whether cakes made with fresh eggs simply taste better than cakes made with dried eggs, General Mills decided to play up the fact that Betty Crocker's cake mixes did not contain...dried eggs of any kind...Before long, cake mix started to gain some acceptance and notoriety; even Mamie Eisenhower instructed her cooking staff to use this novel invention at the White House."
---Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food, Susan Marks [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2005 (p. 168, 170)

What did Consumer Reports think of these early mixes?

[1944]
"Three types of cake mixes were found by CU's shoppers: two brands of devil's food, two lemon-flavored yellow cakes and a spice cake. All four included vegetable shortening, sugar, powdered egg, powdered skim milk, salt, baking powder (or soda and phosphate) and flavoring in their ingredients. The devil's food types added cocoa, and the spice cake, various spices and cocoa. Helen's Red-E Devil Food Mix, which received the highest rating, was made with enriched wheat flour and oat flour. The Spiced Cake Mix of the same brand, considered fairy good, contained some soya flour. The cake mixes were tested for rising quality, color of crust and crumb, grain, texture, flavor and aroma. The last three, considered together as a palatability, were the chief factors in the ratings."

Cake Mixes Acceptable (In estimated order of quality)
Helen's Red-E Devil Food Mix (Gann Prod. Co.). 30 cents for 16 oz. (30 cents). Enriched wheat flour and oat flour. Excellent flavor. Available in California, Oregon and Nevada.
X-Pert Devil's Food Mix (Modern Foods, Inc.). 18 cents for 14 1/4 oz. (19.9 cents). Excellent flvor. Grain rather coarse, but probably normal for this type of cake. Available East of the Mississippi.
Helen's Red-E Yellow Cake Mix (Gann Prod. Co.). 30 cents for 1 lb. (30 cents). Wheat, cottonseed and oat flour. Excellent flavor, slightly lemon. Available in California, Oregon and Nevada.
Joy Golden Layer Cake (Cramer Products Co., NYC). 20 cents for 14 oz. (33.1 cents). Very good flavor, slightly lemon. Available nationally.Helen's Red-E Spiced Cake Mix (Gann Prod. C.). 30 cents for 1 lb. (30 cents). Wheat flour and soya flour. Good flavor, nutmeg mace. Available in California, Oregon and Nevada."
---"Baking Mixes," Consumer Reports, July 1944 (p. 179-180)

[1948]
"Delectable-looking cakes, biscuits, muffins, rolls, pies and other baked goods peer forth these days, not only from the baker's showcase, but from the paper labels on the grocer's shelves. They are "come on's" for the prepared flour mixes now appearing in ever greater numbers and variety. When CU's shoppers throughout the nation had bought all of the types and brands of mixes containing flour (except pancake mixes) which they found on the market, they had 76--more than three times as many as were available in 1944 when CU last tested these products. How good are they? The value of any mix to a housewife is based on the quality of the finished product--how good it is to eat--plus ease and convenience of preparation, and cost. CU consultants subjected all products to actual baking tests, following the directions given on the packages. The scores for cake, gingerbread, biscuit, muffin and hot roll mixes were based on flavor, volume or the amount of rise, texture, or tenderness of crumb to feel and taste, aroma while warm from baking, grain or physical structure of the crumb and color of crust and crumb...CU found some mixes that were good, many that were satisfactory, and only two that were "Not Acceptable." Many brands were neither consistently good nor consistently poor...The preparation of mostt of these mixes calls for the addition only of water or milk, and they can be stirred up so simply that, if directions are followed, there is little danger of their being spoiled. The time required is negligible compared to that for mixing a cake from the basic ingredients. They are particularly useful for emergencies, for yougnsters just trying their culinary wings, or for the gang of teen-agers who what to take over the kitchen for an evening. Cost varied considerably among different brands of the same type of mix, and while in some cases it was greater than the comparable homemade product, in many cases, it was not more, or even less.
---"Flour Mixes: Almost all are "Acceptable," but some taste better and cost less than others," Consumer Reports, August 1948 (p. 355-7)

[1951]
"CU's consultants tested 20 bands of prepared cake mix--gingerbread, white cake, and devil's food. In the opinion of the home economists who sampled them for taste and other qualities, none were as good as "mother used to bake." However, the best of the mixes made cakes nearly as good as those obtained with standard recipes. While they fall short of the best products of the baker's art, ready mixes do have a number of advantages which may decide you to keep them on your pantry shelf. They are time savers. In CU's tests the time saved by making a cake from prepared mix rather than a recipe, was about 15 minutes. Counting wash-up and put-away time of utensils, the mixes have an even greater edge. They are work savers. Use of a prepared mix eliminates many of the steps necesary with standard recipes, such as the sifting of flour and the measuring of ingredients. Only one bowl is required. However, too little or too much mixing, or incorrect oven temperature, may still result in an unsuccessful cake. They are economical. The average cost of a two-layer devil's food cake (eight-inch layers) made from a ready mix was 38c, including the cost of milk and eggs when their addition was required. This was appreciably less than the cost of a standard recipe devil's food cake, which was 47c at the time of the tests in late January 1951. On the white cake and ginger cake, however, the saving was less--only 2c in each case, on the average. Convenience, more than price, favors the use of the prepared mix. With ready mixes, you ares saved the necessity of storing ingredients used only occasionally...or remembering to buy ingredients not normally used...In many cakes, you do not even have to have milk or eggs on hand to bake a cake. Ten of the 20 mixes tested--all of the ginger cakes and several of the others--required the addition of water only. Occident Devils Food Cake Mix required the addition of one egg; Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix and white cake, each required the addition of two eggs...Mixing directions are given for both hand beating and for the use of an electric mixer in most cases. A few brands even carry directions for use in high altitude regions. Swans Down, and some others, provide a "special formula" mix for high altitude baking. Packaging also carry instructions for making cookies, cup cakes, or glamorized versions of the basic cake for which the mix was intended. It is apparent that there are good reasons for the growing popularity of the mixes. However, if you have the skill to bake a really fine cake, and your taste or the occasion demands the best, you should follow your own prized recipe."
---"Cake Mixes: CU Tested 20 Brands of Prepared Cake Mixes and Foundy Many Good Ones," Consumer Reports, June 1951(p. 261-2)

[1953]
"Not so very long ago, the housewife who went to the bakery store to get her family's dessert, instead of producing it from her own oven, was looked at askance by her more industrious neighbors. Today there seems to be at least a fair prospect that the situation will be reversed. For the grocery store shelves are replete with ready-mix-cake packages in great variety, and the description of their preparation sounds so simple as to make a trip to the bakery store, by comparison, a major chore. In an attempt to answer the question of whether or not the ready-mix cakes are indeed as easy to prepare as package instructions indicate, and whether the end products are of such quality as to justify their use, CU surved the field of prepared mixes for white cake, yellow cake, devil's food cake, and gingergread. Eight brands of devil's food mix, seven brands of white and of yellow cake mix, and three brands of gingerbread were tested. Four samples of each mix were stirred up and baked, two operators preparing two samples of each. These were submitted, without band identification, independently to each of three judges, along with a piece of cake of similar character made from home-mixed batter. Judgement was passed on each piece about two hours after its removal from the oven, and again (to determine keeping qualities) a day later. The judges, who are trained home economists, used a score system to rate flavor, texture, appearance, grain, color, and shape of the cakes; in addition, they expressed an overall opinion of each cake's quality. There was suprisingly little disagreement, among the individual judges, as to the visible characteristics of the various products, but in flavor preference they often did not agree, which is hardly surprising. However, in the extremes of taste-- cakes rated either oudstandingly good or very poor--there was little dispute among them. In terms of general quality, many of the the cakes made from the packaged mixes competed successfully against the home-made cakes, which were carefully prepared form well- tested recipes. (The recipes were for cakes of average richness in the selected types. This is not to say that your own favorite recipe won't produce a cake finer than any mix on the market!). Most of the ready-mix cakes were a pleasing in shape, volume, and general appearance as the home-made cakes, and mnay had very good texture and fine grain-structure, too. It was in flavor that the home-made cakes outranked most--but not all--of the mixes. As for the preparation of the mix-made cakes, it's almost as simple as the advertisiments claim. For most of the mixes, the housewife need only add a measured amount (usually a cupful, more or less) of milk or water to the solid ingredients in the box, stir the two together, pour the mixture into greased pans, and bake in a preheated oven. For a few, an egg or two, or some flavoring, is required in addition. Only one brand, Betty Crocker, received a Good rating in all four of the varieties tested...None of the others were consistently superior, though there were individual cake types of other brands which were at least equal of Betty Crocker."
---"Cake Mixes: CU's consultants tasted and examined ready-mix cakes to find which brands were best," Consumer Reports, September 1953 (p. 385-7)

Soapy cake mixes?

"Use of soap in baking cake has been developed by the Proctor & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, it has revealed in a patent (No. 2,123,880)...Soap added to the baking mix, the inventors say, will prevent the cake from falling or turning out flat. The final product is described as fluffier and lighter than other cake. Addition of the soap also permits the use of more sugar in the mix, so that the cake may have more sugar than flour. As little as twenty-five one-thousandths of 1 per cent of soap is added to the mixture, This small quantity does not adversley affect the flavor of the cake, it is asserted. The soap is mixed in with the batter. Any soap may be used."
---"New Baking Recipe Puts Soap in Cake," New York Times, July 24, 1938 (p. 28)

When did oil become a standard ingredient?
Excellent question with no exact answer. The ealiest print reference we find suggesting oil be used in cake mixes is this:

"In quick-mix cakes, vegetable shortening was recommended, and in using oil in cakes, it was strongly suggested that one employ a recipe worked out with oil in mind and not try to adapt a standard formula. Commerical cake mixes must be used stricly in accordance with package directions. It would be better, panel authorities felt, to standardize labels to eliminate such confusions as "white cake mix" and "silver cake mix," which are the same type."
---"News of Food: U.S. Housewife Baffles Cookery Experts Exceot for Two Things: Flavor, Desserts," Jane Nickerson, New York Times, November 8, 1952 (p. 14)

Twenty years later, this advertisement suggests the practice is still considered "novel":

"Try These Delicious Easy Recipe Ideas made with Duncan Hines Cake Mixes...'Lemon Pound Cake (makes 12 to 16 servings). 1 package Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme Deluxe Cake Mix, 1 package lemon instant pudding mix (4 serving size), 1/2 cup Crisco Oil, 1 cup water, 4 eggs. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.. Blend all ingredients in a large bowl; beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Bake in a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan at 350 degrees for about 45-55 minutes, until center springs back when touched lightly. Cool right side up for about 25 minutes, then remove from pan. Glaze: Blend 1 cup confectioners sugar with either 2 tablespoons milk or 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Drizzle over cake...Be sure to use Crisco Oil as some other oils may cause the cake to fall."
---Display ad, Duncan Hines, New York Times, June 29, 1972 (p. 45)
[NOTE: recipes for oil-ingredient Double Upside Down Cake and Neapolitan Refrigerator Sheet Cake, Double Chocolate Nugget, Peanut Butter Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies are also included in this ad.]

High Altitude Cake Mixes
Long before commercial cake mixes, mountain cooks adjusted traditional recipes for high altitudes. Caroline Trask Norton's Rocky Mountain Cook Book [1903] is considered one of the first texts specifically addressing high altitude cookery. Our survey of historic newspapers confirms Pillsbury conducted high altitude testing in 1949, using a WWII era high altitude simulator. Betty Crocker appears to be the first major commercial brand to feature high altitude directions on mix packages. Both brands are owned by General Mills.

[1949]

This article appeared in several newspapers in 1949. It provides additional details regarding Pillsbury's pioneering efforts to create fail-proof high altitude baking mixes. Would love to see a picture of this kitchen!!!

"It's getting so a housewife won't have a single alibi left if her cake turns out a flop. The experts are using aviation science to wipe out one excuse that a lot of tough-luck bakers maybe even thought of. That's atmospheric pressure. It seems there's a lot of difference between baking a cake in Herkimer, N.Y. and whipping one up in Denver, Colo. This is particularly true with the packaged cake mixes now so popular with grandma, bride and the professional baker. Adjustments must be made in baking recipes to allow for the low air pressure of high places and accompanying variations in moisture content. A recipe providing a perfect light cake in Herkimer might result in something as flat as a cold omelet in high altitude Denver. One of the nation's big millers (Pillsbury) worked out the problem through aviation science. Cakes were baked in a 'flying kitchen' that went up to 7,000 feet without leaving the ground. The aerial kitchen in a pressure chamber used by the U.S. army air force at Rochester, Minn., to conduct altitude tests on humans during the last war. The company formerly spent considerable time and money sending food researchers to high altitude cities to determine variations needed in cake mix formulas. When the pressure chamber idea jelled, all that had to be done was check the elevation of a city. Then a couple of girls from the company's research and development department 'took off' with their mixing bowls to turn out a test cake. 'Captain' of the cake mix flight missions was Miss Mary Kimball. Her crew consisted of one inside helper on each 'flight.' The pressure chamber, which still has man of its air force fittings--earphones, microphones, oxygen masks and gauges--is equipped with a small electric stove, large enough to bake one cake. The chamber, a large steel tank anchored horizontally on a solid foundation, is divided into two compartments separated by an air lock. A vault-like door seals the chamber during an experiment. before the girls took off for an experiment they baked a control cake on the ground. The ascent was made at the rate of 1,000 feet a minute. When they reached a previously determined altitude the cake mix was turned on and the weighing, measuring and baking started. They were up about four hours on each flight. While the testers were in the air, technicians outside the chamber watched gauges to maintain proper pressure. Other home economists peered through glassed portholes to observe the flying bakers. When the test cake came out of the oven, Miss Kimball seized a microphone to announce the baking mission completed and the oven ready to land. Miss Kimball and her crew members have baked about 200 cakes in 64 'logged flights.' The aerial cakes are measured and judged against known standards first as they come out of the oven and later in Minneapolis laboratories. So if you want to bake a cake on top of a 29,000 foot Mt. Everest, don't guess at the recipe. Try it in a pressure chamber first."
---"If Your Cake Turns Out Flat It Might Be Because You Live in High Country, 'Airplane' Tests Indicate," Independent Record [Helena, MT], April 7, 1949 (p. 2)

"High Altitude Cooking. The prepared mix which a Manhattan housewife makes a perfect cake would yield one as flat as a pancake if it were cooked in a city 10,000 feet above sea level. The effect of altitude on baking has posed a problem for manufacturers who distribute such mixes on a nation-wide scale. They've had to change the formulas for the products they sell in areas of high elevation. One of the most interesting procedures for testing these recipes is that employed by Pillsbury Mills. Pillsbury's home economists do their experimental work on the various formulas in a 'flying kitchen' This laboratory never actually leaves the ground, for it is a low-pressure chamber, once used by the Army Air Force to conduct high altitude tests. In this way the research can be done right at the plant in Rochester, Minn.--a less expensive undertaking than sending workers and equipment out in the field to cities of different elevations. At 'flight' time the home economists enter the chamber which they've fixed into a tiny kitchen. They give a signal and the door of their kitchen is locked, A technician at the controls outside regulates the pressure so that the kitchen 'climbs' at the rate of about a thousand feet per minute...Chewing gum and sipping water to relive the pressure on their ears, the home economists begin their tests. The higher the altitude, the lower the temperature inside the cake while it is baking. This weakens the structural strength derived from the flour and eggs in the batter. To counteract this, it's necessary to use less leavening and more liquid. But when the housewife buys a package of cake mix at the corner grocery, whether it be in this city or in mile-high Denver, Col., she's not likely to be aware of all this. The home economists at Pillsbury's have worked out a special formula for the mixes sold in cities with an elevation of more than 3,000 feet. Directions on the packages for areas with an altitude up to 3,000 feet call for more liquid than those sold in sea-level cities. But all three types of mixes come in the same sort of containers with only slight variations in the wording on the labels. The company gives to the distributors and the grocers the responsibility for seeing that a housewife gets the kind of mix designed for 'baking at the altitude at which she lives."
---"News of Food," New York Times, November 17, 1949 (p. 39)

High altitude cake mix [1949]
Manufacturers offered special formulations to homemakers living in high altitudes. This article does not reference a particular company or brand.

"High Altitude Mix. A special package in which the mix has been adjusted for successful high-altitude baking will be on sale in areas where the altitude is 3500 feet and higher. This package will be identified easily by a prominent label. Make two light-as-down layers, white or yellow, or a spicy square from a package of the new instant cake mix..."
---"Bakers' Miracle: New Magic Mix Makes Many Different Cakes," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1949 (p. B4) Betty Crocker

[1948]
"Betty Crocker's Ginger Cake...special instructions for high altitude baking on recipe insert in every package."
---display ad, Ogden Standard-Examiner [UT], October 15, 1948 (p. 20) [1950]
""High Altitude No Problem With Betty Crocker Cake Mixes! Larger, lighter, more luscious cakes when you follow easy high altitude directions on package. Glowing reports of success are pouring in from women in high altitudes, telling of cakes high as mountains, light as clouds, made from these sensational new mixes. And there's a reason! Betty Crocker developed special high altitude baking directions to go on every one of her cake mix packages, so that success would be sure for the homemakers whofollowed them."
---Display ad, Reno Evening Gazette< [NV], March 2, 1950 (p. 18)
[NOTE: three cake mixes are featured in this ad, Party Cake (White, Spice or Yellow), Devils Food and Ginger Cake and Cooky Mix.]

Who was Duncan Hines?
Salesman, connosieur, entrepreneur, author, critic, philanthropist, culinary personna extroadinare! He did not, however, invent the cake mixes that bear his name.

"Two or three times a week during the tourist season, travelers pull up in front of a neat, Colonial house on the edge of [Bowling Green, Kentucky] and inquire. 'How soon will dinner be ready?' They're attracted by a sign on the lawn: 'Home Office, Duncan Hines.' Mr. Hines who has built a nationwide reputation by telling people where to dine, doesn't serve any meals at his combination office and home here. But he concedes it is flattering that people think of him when they are hungry. 'Every day in this country, more than 70 million people eat out,' he explains. Helping them decide which restaurants to choose is the foundation for a prospering enterprise that first started in 1936. In that year, Mr. Hines compiled his first directory of recommended restaurants throughout the U.S., 'Adventures in Good Eating.' Since then the book has become a sort of Baedeker of American Cuisine. Through the years Mr. Hines has added three other guides--'Lodging for a Night," "Adventures in Good Cooking,' and 'Vacation Guide.'...Much of his time is spent in updating the guides to eliminate establishments that have fallen below his standards. He adds new discoveries when he runs across them. To help him keep track of the 2,500 eateries...on his recommended list, he enlists a corps of 600 friends scattered across the country. When a place changes hands, they report whether it still qualifies for a Hines approval. So far, Mr. Hines hasn't found any eating place in his native Bowling Green that he can recommend. He hasn't endeared himself to fellow Kentuckians by his comment that much of the locality is cursed with 'greese cooking.'...A public eating place, to get on the Hines list, must pass a rigorous inspection. He admires well-polished silver and white table cloths in the dining room. Often he insists on visitng the kitchen to inspect garbage disposal and dishwashing. Mr. Hines got to know the good and bad of roadside hashing when he was a salesman of printing and advertising for Rogers & Co., of Chicago. Friends began asking him for recommendations. Mr. Hines mailed out a printed list of his favorites as a gift before he realized the project might have commercial possibilties. Books are only a part of the present-day enterprise. Perhaps the biggest moneymaker is a line of 150 foods which bear his name. Hines-Park Food, Inc., of Ithaca, N.Y., packages the victuals. Mr. Hines receives a royalty on each package sold. He's looking for sales of around 24 million packages of Duncan Hines cake mix this year and will collect one-half cent royalty on each. Under a separate agreement, some 94 firms make Duncan Hines ice cream. Mr. Hines maintains a testing laboratory at Bowling Green to keep it up to specification...The money from all his books goes into the Duncan Hines Foundation which provides scholarships for seniors taking courses in restaurant and hotel management at Cornell University and Michigan State College. The National Sanitation Foundation also shares in book profits."
---"Duncan Hines' Love of Good Food Becomes Publishing, Cake Mix, Ice Cream Business," James Garst, Wall Street Journal, November 5, 1952 (p. 7)
[NOTES: (1)"Baedeker" was a popular hotel/travel rating guide. (2) The Food Timeline library owns copies of The Duncan Hines Dessert Book (1955), Duncan Hines' Food Odyssey (1955) and Adventures in Good Cooking, facsimile 1933 edition (2002) & original 1952 edition, and Adventures in Good Eating (1939).]

In Mr. Hines' own words:

"My interest in Wayside inns is not the expression of a gourmand's appetite for fine foods but the result of a recreational impulse to do something 'different,' to play a new game that would intrigue my wife and give me her companionship in my hours of relaxation from a strenuous and exacting business. Upon purchasing our first car, we decided to see as much of America as possible, to test its outstanding food, to met interesting people along the way and bring home with us from each trip a lot of pleasant memories that we could keep stored away in our minds to feast on in later years. The idea appealed to Mrs. Hines for she apparently liked to 'go places' with her husband better than anything else...My first discovery was that the highways were crowded with gasoline pilgrims whose main interest seemed to be the relative merits of inns. They fairly oozed informatino about the places we ought not to miss. Of course, I took careful notes on this information--that being a part of the game we were playing for our own amusement. Most of these tourists produced private lists of 'best places' and nearly all of them remarked that there ought to be a reliable directory of the most desirable inns available to discriminating motorist. This idea ingrigued me. After years of travel over the highways I found I had the names of several hundred inns, scattered over the country, the desirablility of which was enthusiastically vouched for by those who had patronized them. So we set out to visit as many as possible to check up on reports given us, for you know there is not accounting for tastes in food any more than there is in clothing, printing or marriage."
---Adventures in Good Eating, A Duncan Hines Book [Adventures in Good Eating Inc.:Bowling Green KY] 1939 (p. vii)

Did Duncan Hines and his wife also cook?
Yes! Several of their recipes appear in Adventures in Good Cooking and the Art of Carving in the Home: Tested Recipes of Unusual Dishes from America's Favorite Eating Places. Sample here:

520. Fudge Squares.
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2 oz. bitter chocolate
or
1/3 cup cocoa plus
1 tablespoon butter...Melt Butter and chocolate

1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt...Sift twice and add to above

3 eggs--beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)...Stir into mixture and bake in 350 F. to 375 F. oven for 25 minutes.
---Duncan Hines, Bowling Green Kentucky, Adventures in Good Cooking and the Art of Carving in the Home, Duncan Hines, recipes from the original 1933 edition edited by Louis Hatchett [Mercer University Press:Macon, GA] 2002 (unpaginated).

Py-O-My brand baking mixes
According to the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Pie O My brand baking mixes were introduced to the American public by Kitchen Art Foods [Chicago,IL], December 9, 1936. Record here:

Word Mark PY-O-MY Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: BAKING MIXES FOR MAKING [ PIE CRUST, HOT ROLLS, ] COFFEE CAKE, [ COOKIES, TARTS, TURNOVERS, COBBLERS, MEAT PIES, CHEESE STRAWS ] AND CAKES. FIRST USE: 19361209. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19361209 Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM Design Search Code Serial Number 71532463 Filing Date August 26, 1947 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Change In Registration CHANGE IN REGISTRATION HAS OCCURRED Registration Number 0558182 Registration Date April 29, 1952 Owner (REGISTRANT) KITCHEN ART FOODS, INC. CORPORATION DELAWARE 2320 NORTH DAMEN AVENUE CHICAGO ILLINOIS (LAST LISTED OWNER) GILSTER-MARY LEE CORPORATION CORPORATION ASSIGNEE OF MISSOURI 1037 STATE STREET CHESTER ILLINOIS 62233 Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED Attorney of Record SIMOR L. MOSKOWITZ Prior Registrations 0351946 Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL-2(F) Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECTION 8(10-YR) 20010922. Renewal 3RD RENEWAL 20010922 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation is still in business. They still sell PY-O-My coffee cake mix (only)

Our survey of ads placed in major US papers identifies these Py-O-My brand products:
Cake Mixes (white, yellow, Devil's food)
Ice Box Pie Mix (lemon chiffon, lemon, chocolate, strawberry & butterscotch)
Pie Crust Mix
Puddin' Cake Mix (vanilla, chocolate, caramel pecan & lemon)
Rice Feast (Spanish Rice Dinner)
Apple Thins
Brownie Mix
Blueberry Muffin Mix (promoted by large company ads, mostly in the 1950s)
Pineapple Upsode Down Cake Mix
Coffee Cake Mix
Pudding Mix (vanilla, chocolate & caramel)
Frosting Mixes (chocolate & white)
Instant Potato Mix
Pancake Mix

Selected snippets from company ads & articles:

"Blueberry Muffins! Bake'Em Quick! Py-O-My Bluebery Muffin Mix includes a can of blueberries and a set of paper baking cups and a sealed bag of muffin mix. Makes about 10 large delicious muffins--up to 16 small ones. ..So simple and economical to make...just ad water, one egg, then bake! Nothing adds mroe to a meal, a snack, or dessert--than mouth-watering blueberry muffins. The can of blueberries, right in the package, has plenty of berries...New Py-O-My Pineapple Upside Down Cake Mix includes a can of perfectly blended pineapple, brown sugar and cherries."
---Display ad, Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1951 (p. G4)

"My Magic Fornula for making best-you-ever-had Blueberry Muffins is simple...I just use Py-O-My Blueberry Muffin Mix. It takes only 3 1/2 minutes from package to oven, too...for each package contains a can of juicy blueberries, a bag of specially blended mix and a set of handy baking cups! And they taste simply heavenly...thanks to a treasured old New England recipe 'charmed' with the tempting, tangy-sweet flavor of choice northern berries. That's why these luscious muffins are wonderful for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner...and why Py-O-My Blueberry Muffin Mix also makes delicious loaf cake, pancakes, scones and the like. Try it...soon!"
---"Buy-Lines," Nancy Sasser, Los Angeles Times, November 20, 1953 (p. B3)

"A new dessert-mix called Py-O-My pudding is being introduced by Kitchen Arts Foods of Chicago in chain stores here, including Bohacks, King Kullen and Peter Reeves. Requiring no more than thirty minutes for preparation, including cooking time, the packaged product comes in three flavors, vanilla, chocolate and caramel. Such convenience, of course, means some sacrifice in quality. The pudding is a bit too coarse-grained to meet the standards of really fine cookery. But the flavor is pleasing, especially in the caramel and chocolate puddings. Topped with whipped cream, the dessert is exceedingly appetizing. And the preparation is easy. Contents of the larger of two paper bags are emptied into a bowl. A third of a cup of milk is added, the mixture is beaten for one minute and poured into a casserole or other baking dish. After sprinkling the dry 'sauce' of the smaller bag over the batter, one and one-quarter cups of water are poured over the mixture. No further stirring is necessary; the dish goes immediately intoa 450-degree oven. Directions on the package suggest baking for twenty minutes, but in The New York Times' test kitchen we got better results by allowing another five minutes of cooking."
---"News of Food: dessert mix is offered," New York Times, April 27, 1954 (p. 34)

"Meet the family of Py-O-My mixes. You'll enjoy all five as much as those you've tried...Blueberry Muffin Mix makes naturally sweet blueberry muffins. A can of blueberries and paper baking cups right in the package! 'Round-the-clock favorite...Coffee Cake Mix makes so many things. Makes two 9-inch rings! Makes pecan rolls and raised doughnuts. Also cinnamon rolls, stollen and kuchen...Ice Box Pie Mix makes a complete chiffon ice box pie without baking! Graham cracker crust and chiffon filling in the package. Four popular year 'round flavors: lemon, chocolate, strawberry, butterscotch...Puddin'Cake Mix brings you this new dessert idea. Cake with sauce--baked together! Four favorite flavors...vanilla, chocolate, caramel pecan and lemon. Kids love 'em!... Brownie Mix comes in the handy aluminum baking pan! They're tops with youngsters to make and eat--anytime!"
---Display ad (large, with pictures of the products), Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1956 (p. N49)

"Another excellent label is the Py-O-My lemon chiffon ice-box pie. On the front side, the one you face as it stands on the market shelf is the information that it contains two bags--in one is the graham cracker crust mix and in the other the filling mix-'no baking is required, just mix and chill. Add only milk or water.' A glance at the label answers your questions about what it is and how to use it. Clear, concise directions for preparing the pie are printed on the back. Further evidence of the integrity of the label is the important hint printed below the label, 'mix contains fresh milk so be sure to refrigerate leftovers.'"
---"Read the Label: It Tells You What You're Getting for Your Money," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, May 22, 1957 (p. A8)

"This Message Made a Million Friends! Dear Friend, May we ask you a big favor? If you enjoy this quality product as much as we believe you will, won't you tell 3 of your friends about it and where you bought it? After all, there's nothing better than an enthusiastic customer's recommendation to her friends. We will appreciate this favor. Cordially yours, Py-O-My. Printed on the bag inside every package of Py-O-My Baking Mixes is the message above. Many Py-O-My users write they have shared their discovery with 3 friends--and more! Share their discovery too! Please try Py-O-My Baking Mixes including these. Blueberry Muffin Mix. Package contains can of juicy wild blueberries, mix, and paper baking cups. So many uses, including Sunday breakfast! Apple Thins Mix. Includes can of juicy, spiced apples, crunchy crust, and tempting butter crumb topping. So easy to fix-you don't even mix!"
---Display ad, Los Angeles Times, September 28, 1958 (p. K36)

About cooking "from scratch"
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word "scratch" has several meanings. The phrase "from scratch" is derived from this:

5b. "The starting-point in a handicap of a competitor who recieves no odds; sometimes colloq. used ellipt. for such a competitor. From scratch, from a position of no advantage, knowledge, influence, etc., from nothing."

As this applies to food, it means the item was made without the aid of prepared items; all primary ingredients.

Who coined this phrase and when?
Good question. The OED does not offer a first print use for this term as it applies to food. Our phrase books sometimes list these words but only define them. Our food history books do not include the term. The oldest references we find for this phrase (New York Times historic database) date to the 1940s. These articles are promoting making cakes from mixes rather than "from scratch."

Angel food

The classic story behind the name "angel food cake" is that this dessert is so white, light, and fluffy it must be fit for angels. Who thought up this name? No one knows. We do know [from the study of old cookbooks] that cake recipes with the name "angel food" began showing up in American cookbooks sometime in the late nineteenth century [about the same time as mass-produced bakeware hit the popular market]. It may not be a coincidence that a proper angel food cake requires a special tube pan or cake mold. Some food historians speculate the Pennsylvania Dutch were probably the original makers and namers of angel food, though this connection has not been fully documented. In support of the theory, one of many culinary traditions introduced to America by the Pennsyvania Dutch was the cake mold, a special metal pan for creating festive cakes in unusual shapes. A recipe for "Amanda's Angel Food Cake" is included in the Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book of Time Old Recipes, Culinary Arts Press [1936] (p. 39) but not listed in Pennsylvania Dutch Cookery, J. George Frederick [1935].

"Angel-food cake...Also "angel cake." A very light, puffy cake, perhaps of Pennsylvania-Dutch heritage, without yeast and with several beaten egg whites. The egg whites give it a texture so airy that the confection supposedly has the sublimity of angels. Angel-food cake was known by the 1870s in America (the word appeared in print in the 1880s) and served as a sensible usage of leftover egg whites."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 6)

"...angel (or angel food) cakes, which some believe evolved as the result of numerous egg whites left over after the making of noodles, may or may not be the brainchild of thrifty Pennsylvania cooks who considered it sinful to waste anything."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones [Vintage Books:New York] 1981, 2nd ed. (p. 93)

"Angel Food Cake...Name given to a variety of very light spongy cakes originating from America. This type of confection was first introduced to England in 1934. There were many failures in its manufacture in the earlier days, det to the fact that a special soft flour was required to ensure lightness and soft eating qualities."
---Master Dictionary of Food & Cookery, Henry Smith {Philospohical Library:New York] 1952 (p. 8)

A survey of late 19th century cookbooks attests to the introduction of a cake named "angel food" sometime in the 1880s. This is a typical recipe from a popular cookbook:

"Angel Cake
One cup of flour, measured after one sifting, and then mixed with one teaspoonful of cream of tartar and sifted four times. Beat the whites of eleven eggs, with a wire beater or perforated spoon, until stiff and flaky. Add one cup and a half of the fine granulated sugar, and beat again; add one teaspoonful of vanilla or almond, then mix in the flour quickly and lightly. Line the bottom and funnel of a cake pan with paper not greased, pour in the mixture, and bake about forty minutes. When done, loosen the cake around the edge, and turn out at once. Some persons have been more successful with this cake by mixing the sugar with the flour and cream of tartar, and adding all at aonce to the beaten egg."
---The Boston Cooking School Cookbook, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884] (p. 374)

Devil's food

Culinary evidence confirms that recipes under the name "devil's food" is an turn of the [20th] century American invention.

What is chocolate cake?
In the first half of the 19th century they typical chocolate cake was a yellow or spice cake meant to accompany a chocolate beverage (hot chocolate, cocoa). Chocolate was not one of the cake's ingredients [Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph (p. 173)]. In the second half of the 19th century the typical chocolate cake was either a white or yellow cake with chocolate icing or a cake made with chocolate. Recipes for rich, chocolate cakes similar to devil's food were fairly common in late 19th century cookbooks, but they were not named such. They were typically listed under the generic name "chocolate cake." Recipes for devil's food proliferated, sometimes with interesting and creative twists) in the first decades of the 20th century. There are several theories regarding the "devil's food" was selected for this delicious cake. None of these are "definative."

"Devil's food. A cake, muffin, or cookie made with dark chocolate, so called because it is supposedly so rich and delicious that it must be somewhat sinful, although the association is clearly made with humor. Its dark color contrasted with the snowy white of angel-food cake, an earlier confection. The first devil's food recipe appeared in 1900, after which recipes and references became frequent in cookbooks. The "red devil's food cake," given a reddish-brown color by the mixture of cocoa and baking soda, is post-World War II version of the standard devil's food cake."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 111)

Angel food belongs to the nineteenth century but devil's food to the twentieth. How this chocolate cake came to be called devil's food no one knows alothough it may have been a play on opposites: it was as dark and rich as angel food was light an airy...In the early 1900s there were a number of bizarre variations on Devils Food Cake. Once called for mashed potatoes and a number for ground cinnamon and cloves in addition to chocolate..."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 452-3)

Some food historians believe this might be the first mention of Devil's food. It appears in a memoir written by Caroline King's of her childhood in 1880s Chicago. Ms. King was a popular food writer in the 1920s-1930s.

"Devil's Food, though a new cake in our household, had made its dashing appearance in Chicago in the middle eighties, and by the time it reached our quiet little community, was quite the rage. Maud's receipt was the original one, and made a large, dark, rich cake. Here it is:

Devil's Food
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 1/2 cups flour
1 scant teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Anna melted the chocolate over hot water while Maude creamed the butter and added the sugar gradually; then she whipped in the slightly beaten yolks of the eggs and the melted chocolate and vanilla. I was permitted to sift and measure the flour and then sift it again with the baking powder and soda. When this was done, Maude alternately added the flour mixture and the sour cream to the egg-sugar-butter-chocolate combination. Last of all, she folded in the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs and turned the delicious-smelling brown batter into three layer-cake pans which Anna had buttered and floured. The baking, in a very moderate oven, was carefully watched. According to a time-honored custom in our family, the cakes were tested with a clean broomstraw and when finished were turned, beautifully brown and entrancingly fragrant, from the pans onto a clean towel.

Now came the next important part, the icing and filling. The Watermans' receipt called for a thick boiled icing made pleasantly piquant with a few drops of citric acid. But citric acid sounded dangerous to Maud, and besides, as Anna explained, we had no such article in our supply closet. Even Emily's stock of special flavorings refused to yield it, so Maud used lemon juice, sparingly and judiciously, and the result was perfect.

Altogether it was a noble cake, nobly made."
---Victorian Cakes: A Reminiscence With Recipes, Caroline B. King, with an introduction by Jill Gardner [Aris/Berkeley:1986] (p. 35-6)

Red Devil's Food

What makes this cake red? According to the culinary experts, the combination of baking soda and cocoa. Recipes for Red Devil's Cake begin to appear in North American newspapers and cookbooks during the 1930s. Some are specifically called "red devil," others are simply called devil and are undistinguishable unless the cook examined the ingredients.

[1938]
"Red Devil's Food
Cook one cup brown sugar, two-thirds cup cocoa, two-thirds cup buttermilk and one egg yolk five minutes, stirring constantly. Beat and cool. Cream one-half cup vegetable shortening and one cup granulated usgar, add cooked custard alternately with two and one-fourth cups flour which have been sifted with one teaspoon each soda and baking powder and one-fourth teaspoon salt. Beat two eggs and add with one-half cup water and one teaspoon vanilla. Pour in two layer-cake pans which have been lined with waxed paper. Bake twenty-five minutes in 375 deg. F. oven. Cool and frost."
---"Devil's Food cake Wins Plaudits," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1938 (p. A6)

[1946]
"Red Devil's Food
Generally popular--but not with me, which is not to be taken as a criterion.
Measure:
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
Resift with:
1 1/2 teaspoon tartrate phosphate baking powder or 1 teaspoon combination type
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
Cream until light and fluffy:
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
Add one at a time and beat well:
2 eggs
Melt: 2 ounces chocolate in 1/2 cup boiling water
Cool slightly, then stir these ingredients into the egg mixture. Add the dry ingredients in about three parts alternately with:
1/2 cup sour milk
Add: 1 teaspoon vanilla
Stir the batter after each addition until it is well blended. Bake it in two greased 9 inch layer pans in a moderate oven 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Spread the cake with Seven Minute Morocco Icing."
---Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [Bobbs-Merrill:Indianapolis] 1946 (p. 542)

[1956]
"Real Red Devils Food Cake
A rich, moist cake...made with cocoa. Developed by Lorraine Kilgren of our staff...

Grease and flour: 2 8 or 9" layer pans or 13 X 9" oblong pan
Sift together into bowl: 1 3/4 cups Softasilk flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/4 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup cocoa
Add: 1/2 cup soft shortening, 2/3 cup milk
Beat 2 min.
Add: another 1/3 cup milk, 2 eggs (1/3 to 1/2 cup), 1 tsp. vanilla
Beat 2 more min.
Pour into prepared pans. Bake until cake tests done. Cool. Finish with White Mountain or Satiny Beige Frosting or with Chocolate Butter Icing. Temperature: 350 degrees F (mod. oven).
Time: Bake 8" layers 35 to 40 mon., 9" layers 30 to 35 min., oblong 45 to 50 min."
---Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, Revised and Enlarged, second edition [McGraw-Hill:New York] 1956 (p. 151)
[NOTE: We can supply the icing recipe of your choice.]

What is the relationship between baba and savarin?

"Savarin...is essentially an enriched yeast dough baked in a ring mould. A syrup with kirsch or rum is used to soak it whe cool, and the central hole may be filled with fruit or cream. There is also a solid, holeless form, mazarin, which is split and filled with cream. The savarin derived from the E. European baba, as naturalized in Alsace in the 18th century. What happened was that in the mid-or late 1840s one of the brothers Julien, Parisian patissiers, experimented with the baba in a slightly different form. He used the same dough, but removed the dried fruits and soaked the savarin in his own 'secret' syrup. He named his new confection in honour of the famous gastronomic writer Brillat-Savarin, although the name for it does not seem to have been recorded until the 1860s."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 697)

Who was http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/brillat/savarin/b85p/part1.html"> Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and what did he write?

[1869]
"Savarin.
Put 1 lb of sifted flour in basin;
Make a hole in the middle, and put in 1/2 oz. of German yeast, and 1/4 gill of warm milk; mix it with the flour immediately surrounding it, about one quarter of the whole quantity, to make the sponge, and stand the basin in a warm place;
When the sponge has risen to twice its original size, add 1 gill of warm milk and 2 eggs; work the contents of the basin with a spoon, and mix in another egg; then add 3/4 lb. of worked butter, 14 oz. salt, 1/2 oz. of sugar, and 1/2 gill more warm milk; continue working with a spoon, and adding one egg at a time, until 5 eggs have been used;
Cut 2 oz. of candied orange peel in very small dice, and mix it in the paste;
Butter a fluted cylinder-mould; strew a tablespoonful of chopped almonds on the butter, and half fill the mould with the paste; let it stand, and when it has risen to the top of the mould, put the savarin to bake in a moderate oven;
When done, turn it out of the mould; let it cool for twenty minutes; pour over it some syrup, flavoured with Anisette; and serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated from the French and Adapted for English by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson, Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 503-4)

[1874]
"Savarin Cake.
Put one pound of dried and sifted flour into a pan, and make a hollow in the centre. Dissolve half an ounce of German yeast in a small quantitiy of warm milk, and set the sponge by pouring this into the hollow, and beating into it with the fingers about a quarter of the flour. Sprinkle four over the batter thus made, put the basin in a warm place, and let the sponge rise slowly to twice its size. Work into it with a spoon or with the right hand a quarter of a pint of warm milk and two eggs, and add gradually three-quarters of a pound of butter beaten to a cream, half an ounce of salt dissolved in a little warm water, two ounces of powdered sugar, the eighth of a pint additional milk, and three more eggs. Lastly, add two ounces of candied peel cut small. The additions should be made very gradually, the eggs being put in one at a time, and the preparation being beaten well until it leaves the sides of the bowl easily. Butter the inside of a fluted mould rather thickly, and sprinkle a table-spoonful of blanched and chopped almonds on the butter. Beat the paste up again, and half fill the mould with it; let it stand in a warm place till it has risen level with the top of the mould. Tie a broad band of buttered paper round the top of the mould, to keep the paste from running over the sides, and bake the cake in a moderate oven. When done enough, turn it out carefully, run a skewer into several parts of it, and our over and into it a thick syrup flavoured with curacoa or any other suitable liquer. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the surface, and send to the table warm. Time to bake, one hour or more. Probable cost, 3s., exclusive of the liquer. Sufficient for five or six persons."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin:London] 1874 (p. 837)

[1919]
French Coffee Cake (Savarin)

Related items? Bundt cake & gugelhopf, kulich, brioche & Sally Lunn.

Related foods? Cranberry bread & Carrot cake.

ABOUT BANANAS & BANANA COOKERY

"It seems likely that edible bananas date back several thousand years in India. They were certainly known by repute to the Greeks in the 4th century BC, when the army of Alexander the Great encountered them on trees in India..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 54-5) [NOTE] This book has an excellent history of bananas--ask your librarian to help you find it; there is no mention of the ancient peoples using bananas in their bread/cake recipes.

"Banana fritters with honey sweetened Napoleon's last days on St. Helena, but the cookery writers of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries ignore the fruit entirely....exporting bananas was difficult because transport was so slow."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble:New York] 1992 (p. 668-680) [Ask your librarian to help you find this book too!]

"In The Notions of a Travelling Bachelor, James Fenimore Cooper listed bananas among tropical fruits as common as need be' in New York markets during the 1830s. But the great popularity of the fruit in the United States had to wait until the improvement of refrigeration and transportation facilities, a generation or so after Captain Lorenzo Baker of Wellfleet in 1870 brought the first ship loaded exclusively with bananas into Boston harbor. Breads, pies, and cakes made with bananas--and cookies, too--were soon thereafter being turned out by innovative American cooks."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage Books:New York] 1981(p. 473)

"When bananas were broadly introduced in the 1880s, tableware designers and glass manufacturers quickly responded by producing special footed serving bowls, called banana bowls or banana boats..."
---Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America, Susan Williams [Pantheon:New York] 1985 (p. 108)

Banana recipes began showing up in popular American Cookbooks in the 1880s. It is apparent that trendy Americans cooks were eager to include this new fruit in their meals. Most of the banana concoctions were simple adaptions of existing recipes. Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer [1902] contains isntructions for fried bananas, baked bananas, sliced bananas, banana pudding and banana cake in a special section titled "Hawaiian Recipes." Other cookbooks contain recipes for banana ice cream, bananas en surprise (mashed bananas with strawberries), fruit salads with bananas and, of course, Jell-O molds with bananas inside. The banana split was invented in 1904.

Banana nut bread eventually became a mainstream staple item [ie included in many popular American cookbooks] by the 1920s. This coincided somewhat with the mass marketing of baking powder/soda, ingredients used to create "quick breads" [breads that did not require yeast]. Food companies flooded the American consumer market with recipes [we have one from this Pillsbury's Balanced Recipes [1933] to promote the use of their flour and baking soda products. Eventually these companies manufactured boxed mixes [instant cake mix was introduced in the late 1940s] for banana nut bread. You can still buy these today.

"Banana bread...It was as if an alien ray struck America from coast to coast. Suddenly, in the early sixties, everyone started baking banana bread. It was the strangest darned thing. After all, recipes for banana bread had been around for most of the century. And bananas, like kiwifruit, weren't exactly new. What seems to have happened is that America rediscovered the joys of baking. While most breads required a certain level of skill, banana bread (which is really more of a cake than a bread) was a cinch..."
---American Dish: 100 Recipes from Ten Delicious Decades, Merrill Shindler [Angel Press:Santa Monica] 1996 (p. 98)

American cookbooks printed in the 1960s bear this out. Not only was basic banana bread popular, but variations were featured. The Good Housekeeping Cook Book [1962] has recipes for banana-apricot, banana-date, banana-nut, banana-prune and banana-raisin breads (p. 332).

Mrs. Rorer's Banana Cake [1902]

"Banana Cake
Beat to a cream a quarter of a cup of butter, add a half cup of sugar and one egg; when very light, stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough; roll into a thin sheet and line a square, shallow baking pan. Peel five good, ripe bananas, and chop them very fine; put them over the crust in a pan, sprinkle over a half cup of sugar, the pulp of five tamarinds soaked in a quarter of a cup of warm water; squeeze over the juice of two Japanese oranges, put over a tablespoonful of butter cut into pieces, a saltspoonful of mace, and two tablespoonfuls of thick cream. Grate over the top two small crackers, bake in a moderate oven a half hour, and cut into narrow strips to serve."
---Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Sara Tyson Rorer [Arnold and Company:Phildadelphia] 1902 (p. 697)

The oldest recipe in an American cookbook we find specifically named "birthday cake" was published in 1870.

[1906]
"Birthday Cakes for Children.
One and one-half cups of sugar, a half-cup of butter or clarified drippings, two eggs, one cup of milk, two cups flour, one teaspoon baking powder, one-half teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat together the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then the flour, baking-powder and nutmeg sifted together. Place in small well-greased tins and just before putting into the oven drop a few seeded raisins on top of each cake. Spread on the top a few drops of boiled icing and on top of these some colored candies or cinnamon drops, as they are favorites with the little folks. Aunt Mary."
---The Blue Ribbon Cook Book, Annie R. Gregory [Monarch Book Company:Chicago] 1906 (p. 258)

[1911]
Fannie Merritt Farmer's Catering for Special Occasions devotes an entire chapter to "Birthday feasting." Adult menus do not include cake. Child menus do. Ms. Farmer suggests children's parties include Angel Birthday Cake and Sunshine Birthday Cake. Both are simple, iced angel cakes. The difference? Sunshine cake is a little richer. This recipe includes yolks and almond extract. Recipes here:

Angel cake
Whites 5 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat whites of eggs until stiff and dry and add gradually, while beating constantly, sugar (fine granulated) mixed and sifted with cream of tartar. Sift flour into mixture, add vanilla, and cut and fold until blended. Turn into a buttered and floured angel-cake pan and bake in a moderate oven. Remove from pan, cover with White Mountain Frosting, and ornament with small candles placed in flower cases. The little cases may be bought of first-class city grocers or dealers in confectioners' supplies."
---Catering for Special Occasions, Fannie Merritt Farmer [David McKay:Philadelphia] 1911 (p. 222)
[NOTE: Ms. Farmer's the candle decoration notes suggest this practice was primarily enjoyed by wealthy people in 1911. Many middle/laboring-class families and isolated farm cooks could not afford to purchase goods from first-class city grocers or specialty suppliers.]

Sunshine Birthday Cake
Whites 5 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Yolks 3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup pastry flour

Add salt to whites of eggs and beat until light. Sift in cream of tartar and beat until stiff. Beat yolks of eggs until thick and lemon colored and add two heaping beaten whites. To remaining whites add gradually sugar measured after five siftings. Add almond extract and combine mixtures. Cut and fold in flour measured after five siftings. Bake in angel-cake pan, first dipped in cold water, in a slow oven one hour. Have a pan of hot water in oven during the baking, Remove from pan, frost and decorate, same as Angel Birthday Cake."
---Catering for Special Occasions, (p. 228-9)

White Mountain Frosting
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
Whites 2 eggs

Put sugar and water in saucepan, and stir to prevent sugar from adhering to saucepan; heat gradually to boiling-point, and boil without stirring until syrup will thread when dripped from tip of spoon or tines of silver fork. Pour syrup gradually on beaten white of egg, beating mixture constantly, and continue beating until of right consistency to spread; then add flavoring and pour over cake, spreading evenly with back of spoon. Crease as soon as firm. If not beaten long enough, frosting will run; if beaten too long, it will not be smooth. Frosting beaten too long may be improved by adding a few drops of lemon juice or boiling water. This frosting is soft inside and has a glossy surface."
---Catering for Special Occasions, (p. 222)

Contrast the above recipes with this pioneer-era birthday cake [Texas 1851]

"Pioneer Birthday Cake
This recipe was used to make a birthday cake for a small girl eighty-five years ago. There was no flour to be had, and corn was ground on a handmill. The meal was carefully emptied from one sack to another, and fine meal dust clinging to the sack was carefully shaken out on paper; the sack was again emptied and shaken, and the process was repeated labouriously time after time until two cupsful of meal dust was obtained. The rest of the ingredients were as follows: 1/2 cup of wild honey, 1 wild turkey egg, 1 teaspoonful of homemade soda, 1 scant cupful of sour milk and a very small amount of butter, to all of which was added the meal dust. The batter was poured into a skillet with a lid, and placed over the open fire in the yard, the skillet lid being heaped with coals. To a little girl's childish taste the cake was very fine, but looking back through the years, the nonoree said relfectively, "It was none too sweet."
---Cooking Recipes of the Pioneer, Bandera Library Association [Frontier Times:Bandera TX] 1936 (p. 23)

Historic evidence confirms recipes for pound cake first surface in 18th century English and American cookbooks. Then, as now, there were variations on the recipe. Early recipes sometimes included alcohol and currants. Many are flavored with a hint lemon. Then, as now, proportions varied. Many recipes for pound cake call for more or less than a pound! Cup cakes & 1234 cake are related.

"Pound-cake. A rich cake so called as originally containing a pound (or equal weight) of each of the principal ingredients, flour, butter, sugar, fruit, etc."
---Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Volume XII (p. 247)

"Pound cake. A Plain white-cake loaf whose name derives from the traditional weight of the ingredients--one pound of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, and one pound of eggs--although these measurements are generally not followed in most modern recipes. Its first printed mention was in 1740 according to Webster's Ninth, and it has remained a popular and simple cake to make to this day."
---Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 254)

"Pound cake a cake of creamed type, is so named because the recipe calls for an equal weight of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs; in old recipes, a pound of each, making a large, rich cake...Pound cake has been favoured in both Britain and the USA for over two centuries. Recipes for it were already current early in the 19th century...The German Sandtorte is similar to pound cake; and a French cake, quatre quarts (four quarters), uses the same principles..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 631)

A survey of pound cake recipes through time:

[1747]
"To make a Pound Cake
Take a Pound of Butter, beat it in an earthen Pan, with your Hand one Way, till it is like a fine thick Cream; then have ready twelve Eggs, but hald the Whites, beat them well, and beat them up with the Butter, a Pound of Flour beat in it, and a Pound of Sugar, and a few Carraways; beat it all well together for an Hour with your Hand, or a great wooden Spoon. Butter a Pan, and put it in and bake it an Hour in a quick Oven. For Change, you may put in a Pound of Currants cleaned wash'd and pick'd."
---The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 London reprint [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 ( p. 139)
[NOTE: this book has been reprinted in recent years. If you want to study other cake recipes from this time period ask your librarian to help you find a copy of this and colonial American cook books. You might also want to compare this recipe with modern ones]

[1803]
Pound Cake, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter

[1817]
"A Pound cake, plain.
Beat a pound of butter in an earthen pan till it is like a thick cream, then beat in nine whole eggs till it is quite light. Put in a glass of brandy, a little lemon-peel shred fine; then pork in a pound and a quarter of flour. Put it into your hoop or pan, and bake it for one hour."
---The Female Instructor or Young Woman's Guide to Domestic Happiness, [Thomas Kelly:London] 1817 (p. 462)

[1824]
"Pound cake.
Wash the salt from a pound of butter and rub it till it is soft as cream, have ready a pound of flour sifted, one pound of powdered sugar, and twelve eggs well beaten; put alternately into the butter, sugar, flour, and the froth from the eggs; continuing to beat them together till all the ingredients are in, and the cake quite light; add some grated lemon peel, a nutmeg, and a gill of brandy; butter the pans and bake them. This cake makes an excellent pudding if baked in a large mould, and eaten with sugar and wine. It is also excellent when boiled, and served up with melted butter, sugar, and wine."
---The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 161)

[1845]
"Plain Pound or Currant Cake.
Or rich Brawn Brack, or Borrow Brack.
Mix, as directed in the foregoing receipt, ten eggs (some cooks take a pound in weight of these), one pound of sugar, one of flour, and as much of butter. For a plum-cake, let the butter be worked to a cream; add the sugar to it first, then the yolks of the eggs, next stir lightly in the whites, after which, add one pound of currants and the candied peel, and, last of all, the flour by degrees, and a glass of brandy when it is liked. Nearly or quite two hours'baking will be required for this, and one hour for half the quantity. To convert the above inot the popular speckled bread,' or Brawn Brack of the richer kind, add to it three ounces of carraway-seeds: these are sometimes used in combination with the currants, but more commonly without. To ice a cake see the reciept for Sugar Glazings at the commencement of this Chapter, page 449. A roase-tint may be given to the icing with a little prepared cochineal, as we have said there."
---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton [1845], with an Introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 451)

[1857]
Pound cake, Great Western Cook Book, Anna Maria Collins

[1861]
Pound cake, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, Isabella Beeton (recipe 1770)

[1884]
Pound cake, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

[1896]
Pound cake, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Farmer

[1908]
"Pound Cake.
The old rule--and there is none better--calls for one pound each of butter, sugar and flour, ten eggs and a half wine glass of wine and brandy. Beat the butter to a cream and add gradually a pound of sugar, stirring all the while. Beat ten eggs without separating until they become light and foamy. Add gradually to the butter and sugar and beat hard. Sift in one pound sifted flour and add the wine and brandy. Line the cake pans with buttered paper and pour in the well beaten mixture. Bake in a moderate oven. This recipe may be varied by the addition of raisins, seeded and cut in halves, small pieces of citron or almonds blanched and pounded in rose water. Some old fashioned housekeepers always add a fourth of a teaspoon of mace. The mixture may be baked in patty tins or small round loaves, if preferred, putting currants into some, almonds or raisins in the rest. Pound acake is apt to be lighter baked in this way. The cakes may be plain or frosted, and they will grow richer with the keeping in placed in stone jars."
---The New York Evening Telegram Cook Book, Emma Paddock Telford [Cupples & Leon:New York] 1908 (p. 126)

[1926]
"Pound Cake
3/4 lb butter
3/4 lb sugar (sifted three times)
3/4 lb flour (sifted three times
1 tablespoon whisky
9 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt
Cream together butter and sugar very light and creamy. Stir in whisky. Add well-beaten egg yolks. Add salt and vanilla. Add alternately flour and stiffly-beaten egg whites. Add baking powder to last flour. Begin the baking in slow oven, increase heat as baking progresses, one to one and a quarter hours."
---Every Woman's Cook Book, Mrs. Chas. F. Moritz [Cupples & Leon:New York] 1926 (p. 415-6)

[1936]
"Old-Fashioned Pound Cake
1 pound cake flour (4 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 pound butter (2 cups), scant
1 pound sugar (2 1/4 cups)
1/4 cup lemon juice of 2 tablespoons brandy
1 pound eggs (10), separated
Mix flour, baking powder and nutmeg, and sift three times. Cream butter until soft and smooth; add sugar gradually, creaming until very fluffy; add lemon juice and well-beaten egg yolks, beating very thoroughly. Fold in thoroughly the stiffly beaten egg whites, then flour. Turn into greased, paper-lined, loaf pans and bake in slow oven (300-325 F.) For 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Yield: 2 loaves."
---America's Cook Book, The Home Institute of the New York Herald Tribune [Charles Scribner's Sons:New York] 1937 (p. 547)

[1944]
"Pound Cake (8 eggs)
3 3/4 c. sifted cake flour
1 1/2 teasp. baking powder
1 teasp. grated lemon rind
1 teasp. nutmeg
1 3/4 c. butter
2 1/4 c. granulated sugar
8 eggs, separated
Sift together flour and baking powder 3 times. Add lemon rind and nutmeg to butter, and work with a spoon until fluffy and creamy. Gradually add 1 3/4 c. of the sugar while continuing to beat with a spoon until light. Beat egg yolks very thoroughly with a hand or electric beater until light-colored and thick enough to fall from beater in a heavy continuous stream. Add to butter mixture and beat thoroughly with a spoon. Beat egg whites with a hand or electric beater until stiff enough to stand up in peaks, but not dry. Add remaining 1/2 c. Sugar, 2 tablesp. at a time, beating after each addition until sugar is just blended. Stir 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture, then 1/2 of the egg whites, repeating until all are used, beating very thorouhgly with a spoon after each addition. Turn into 2 9" X 5" X 3" loaf pans which have been greased, lined with heavy paper, and greased again. Bake in a moderate oven of 325 F. For 1 hr. 20 min., or until done. Needs no frosting."
---The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Completely revised edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 702-3)

Cranberry bread
James Beard prefaced his recipe for "Quick Cranberry Bread" thusly: "This is an unusally good version of an old American favorite..." (Beard on Bread, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1975, p. 176). On the following page he lists variations, including "Cranberry Orange Bread," adding 1/2 cup orange juice and 3 tablespoons grated orange rind to the mixture. His words make us wonder...exactly how old is this recipe? When and why were oranges added?

American cranberry production is concentrated in East Massachusetts, South New Jersey and North Wisconsin. Orange/citrus production is California/Florida based. None of our 19th century American cookbooks contain for cranberry breads (quick or yeast). Pre-20th century cranberry recipes concentrate on sauce (mostly boiled), conserves, jellies, puddings, and pie fillings. Citrus fruit infiltrates cranberry recipes slowly, but surely, in the dawning 20th century decades. No reason is profferd in primary documents. Perhaps it was a perfect storm of industry collusion and contemporary taste.

Jean Anderson's American Century Cookbook [1997] states "This quick-and-easy [Cranberry-Nut] bread has been popular from the mid-twentieth century on. With only 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) shortening, with orange juice the liquid ingredient instead of milk, it is also lower in fat than many fruit-nut breads." (p. 328). Our survey of historic American cook books and newspapers confirms the existance of cranberrry baked goods (muffins, breads, etc.) from 1903 forward. Oranges (juice/diced sections/grated rind) were included in selected recipes from the late 1930s forward.

COMPANY CONNECTIONS?
Both Ocean Spray [cranberries] and Sunkist [oranges & lemons] actively promoted their crops to American cooks. An undated [probably 1910s-1920s] Ocean Spray advertising booklet promoting canned cranberry sauce shows a picture of cranberry muffins. Annotation reads "Cut our sauce into small cubes and mix in your favorite batter. Delicious in Bran or dark muffins." A 1941 booklet ["Cape Cod's Famous Cranberry Recipes] contains two muffin recipes, both featuring their canned jellied product; neither with orange. Their Cranberry-Orange Relish recipe is subtitled without comment: "The National Favorite." Sunkist Recipes: Oranges-Lemons [c. 1916] offers recipes for yeast-based Orange Bread and Orange Peel Bread. No reference to cranberries anywhere. What makes this booklet notable is the complier, Alice Bradley, principal of Miss Farmer's School of Cookery. Sunkist was actively promoting their citrus fruits as healthy foods, easily included in traditional recipes. We have to believe Boston-based Miss Bradley was familiar with cranberries. The 1896 edition of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book does not combine cranberries and oranges. The 1923 edition (p. 710) offers a recipe for Cranberry Conserve using 1 orange (cut into small pieces, no rind), English walnut meats and seeded raisins. The Bradley factor? Our survey of historic cookbooks confirm the cranberry-orange-nut combinations grew in popularity. The New Butterick Cook Book [c. 1924] adds 1 cup of orange juice to its Cranberry Conserve recipe (p. 702). An alternate version uses rind and juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons, no nutmeats. Suzanne Cary Gruver's Cape Cod Cook Book [c. 1930] contains a chapter on cranberry cookery. for this purpose is her recipe for Cranberry Conserve--"Jelly Kitchen" similar to the ones reference above. We find similar recipes (titled conserves or relish) in the Good Housekeeping Cook Book [c. 1933] and other popular culinary texts.

CRANBERRY BREADS, MUFFINS & LOAVES
The earliest reference we find for cranberry baked goods [muffins] was published in the Mansfield News [OH], January 28, 1903 (p. 5). It was listed as a menu selection; no recipe provided. The oldest cranberry muffin recipe we have on file is from 1911. The earliest bread recipe we find combining cranberries and oranges [grated rinds] was published in a Massachusetts newspaper, 1938. Orange juice enters in the 1950s.

[1911]
"Cranberry Muffins.
Beat one-third of a cupful of butter to a cream. Gradually beat in one-fourth of a cupful of sugar, then one egg, beaten light; three-fourths of a cupful of milk and two cups of sifted flour, sifted again with two rounding teaspoonfuls of baking powder and half a teasponful of salt. When well mixed beat in one cup opf cranberries, cut in halves. Bake about twenty-five nnutes in a well beattered muffin pan."
---Logansport Pharos [IN], February 22, 1911 (p. 6)

[1916]
"Cranberry Muffins.
1/4 cupful butter.
1/4 cupful sugar.
1 egg.
2 2/3 cupfuls sifted flour
1/2 teaspoonful salt,
4 tablespoonfuls baking power.
1 cupful cranberries, sprinkled with 2 tablespoons sugar.
Cream butter, add water, well-beaten egg, milk and then the flour mixed and sifted with the salt and baking powder. Add berries, drop into greased muffin tins and bake."
---"Here are recipes for cranberries many ways," Bakersfield Californian, November 24, 1916 (p. 8)

[1931]
"Cranberry Muffins.
1 egg.
3/4 cup milk.
2 cups sifted flour. 4 teaspoons baking powder.
1/4 cup sugar.
1/2 teaspoon salt.
4 tablespoons melted butter or other fat.
1 cup cranberries.
Beat the egg slightly and add the milk. To the liquid mixture, add the sifted dry ingredients. Roll the berries in two or more tablespoons of sugar, and fold into the batter with the melted fat. Do not stir the mixture any more than necessary. Pour into greased muffin pans and bake in a moderately hot oven (400 degrees F.) for about 30 minutes, or until brown. Serve hot."
---Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Home Economics, [Government Printing Office:Washington DC] 1931 (p. 79)

[1937]
"Cranberry Muffins. In one recipe Tea Muffins omit 2 tablespoons milk and add 3/4 cup raw cranberries to sifted dry ingredients."
---My New Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book [Meredith Publishing:Des Moines IA] 1937 (p. 12)
[NOTE: this book also contains a recipe for Orange-Nut Bread (p. 10).]

[1938]
"Cranberry Nut Bread [One loaf]
One cup cranberries, one cup sugar, three cups flour, four teaspoons baking powder, one teaspoon salt, one-half cup coarsely chopped walnuts, grated rind one orange, one egg, one cup milk, two tablespons melted butter. Put cranberries through food chopper and mix with one-fourth cup of sugar. Sift remaining sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together and add nuts and orange rind. Beat egg slightly, combine with milk and melted butter and add to first mixture. Fold in cranberries. Bake in buttered bread pan in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) about one hour."
---"Healthful Breads Go Nutty in Fall Months," Lowell Sun [MA], October 1, 1938 (p. 6)

[1950]
"Cranberry Nut Bread
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
Juice and grated rind of 1orange
2 tablespoons shortening
1 egg
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup cooked jellied cranberry sauce
Sift dry ingredients together. To the juice and rind of orange add boiling water to make 3/4 cup liquid. Add melted shortening and beaten egg. Mix with dry ingredeints until just blended. Add sifted dry ingredients. Add chopped nuts. Carefully fold in cubes of cranberry sauce. Bake in a greased loaf pan at 325 degrees F. for about one hour or until done."
---"Fruit Breads Give Sparkle to Daily Meals," Oakland Tribune [CA], June 26. 1950 (p.15)

[1960]
"Cranberry-Nut Bread
2 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup (one-hlaf stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup chopped citron
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the soda to the butter and mix well. Gradually blend in the sugar. Beat in the egg. Stir in the orange rind, nuts and citron. Add the flour mixture alternately with the orange juice.
4. Put the cranberries through a food chopper, using the coarse blade. Stir into the dough.
5. Turn into a well-greased, lightly floured 9X5X3-inch loaf pan and bake one hour and twenty minutes. Cool. Yield: one loaf."
---"Cranberries to the fore," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, November 13, 1960 (p. SM108)

Related foods? Banana bread & Carrot cake.

Cupcakes

Individually portioned confections have a long and venerable history. Diminutive iterations of popular traditional baked goods are particularly enjoyed when portability and ease of service is appreciated. Cookies, tea cakes, petits fours and cupcakes all spring from the basic same idea. Commerically packaged "personal size" cupcakes appeared after World War I. Think: Hostess cup cakes.

There seem to be two theories about the origin of recipes titled "cupcake:"

1. The name comes from the amount of ingredients used to make the cake (a cupful of flour, a cupful of butter, cupful of sugar etc.).
---This is very similar to how pound cake was named. In fact, the recipes for cup cakes and pound cakes include pretty much the same ingredients and would have produced similar results.

2. These cakes were originally baked in cups.
---Old cookbooks also sometimes mention baking cakes in small cups. These cups may very well have been earthenware tea cups or other small clay baking pans. These would easily accomodated baking level oven heat and produce individual-sized cakes. This is not the same thing as contemporary metal cupcake pans, enabling cooks to bake a dozen small cakes in one fell culinary swoop.

Which is true? Both! We have historical evidence (old cookbooks) that support both theories. This food historian agrees:

"Cupcake
The name given in Britain and generally in the USA to any small cake baked in a cup-shaped mould or in a paper baking cup. In the USA the term may have originally have been related to the American measuring system, based upon the cup."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson (p. 234)

Small pound cakes baked in individual-portion pans were quite popular in the 18th century. "Queen Cakes" are a good example of these. Food historians tell us this recipe evolved from lighter fruitcakes baked in England.

"Queen cake. A small rich cake made from a creamed mixture with currants, lemon zest, and sometimes chopped almonds, baked as individual cakes. They have been popular since at least the 18th century. Now usually baked in paper cases, traditionally little fluted moulds in fancy shapes were used; Eliza Acton (1845) said that heart-shaped moulds were usual for this mixture."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 644)

20th century cupcake variations are endless. They range from simple to sublime. Baking papers come in designer prints. Individual portions and easy clean-up make cupcakes perennial favorites for classroom birthdays and bake sales. A survey of American cookbooks reveals the interest in cupcakes, as food in their own right, has grown over the years.

Historic cupcake recipes:

[1796]
"A light Cake to bake in small cups.
Half a pound sugar, half a pound butter, rubbed into two pounds flour, one glass wine, one do. [glass] Rosewater, two do.[glass] Emptins, a nutmeg, cinnamon and currants."
---American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, 2nd edition (p. 48)

[1828]
"Cup cake.
5 eggs.
Two large tea-cups full of molasses.
The same of brown sugar, rolled fine.
The same of fresh butter.
One cup of rich milk.
Five cups of flour, sifted.
Half a cup of powdered allspice and cloves.
Half a cup of ginger.

Cut up the butter in the milk, and warm them slightly. Warm also the molasses, and stir it into the milk and butter: then stir in, gradually, the sugar, and set it away to get cool. Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour. Add the ginger and other spice, and stir the whole very hard. Butter small tins, nearly fill them with the mixture, and bake the cakes in a moderate oven."
---Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, By a Lady of Philadelphia [Eliza Leslie](p. 61)

[1833]
"Cup cake. Cup cake is about as good as pound cake, and is cheaper. One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs, well beat together, and baked in pans or cups. Bake twenty minutes, and no more."
---American Frugal Housewife, Mrs. Child (p. 71)

[1871]
"Cup cake. Half a cupful butter and four cupsful of sugar creamed together, five well-beaten eggs, one teaspoonful of [baking] soda dissolved in one cupful of cream (or milk), six cupsful of flour, nutmeg, one teaspoonful of dry cream of tartar."
---Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. M.E. Porter (p. 255)

COMPARE WITH QUEENS CAKES:

[1798]
American Cookery, Amelia Simmons

[1803]
Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter.---click "next" for the rest of the recipe

[1845]
"Queen cakes.
To make these, proceed exactly as for the pound currant-cake of page 451, but make the mixture in small well-buttered tin pans (heart-shaped ones are usual), in a somewhat brisk oven, for about twenty minutes."
---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton , with an introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 460)

Cupcakes in a "nutshell," courtesy of Scientific American, September 2009 (p. 98):

"The yummy baked good is one of America's first and finest contributions to world cuisine Like many acts of pure genius, the invention of the cupcake is lost in the creamy fillings of history. According to food historian Andrew Smith, the first known recipe using the term "cupcake" appeared in an American cookbook in 1826. The "cup" referred not to the shape of the cake but to the quantity of ingredients; it was simply a downsized English pound cake. Lynne Olver, who maintains a Web site called the Food Timeline, has tracked down a recipe for cakes baked in cups from 1796. But we will probably never know the name of the first cook to take the innovative leap or whether it had anything to do with a six-year-old's birthday party. "Just like other popular foods--the brownie comes to mind--it's impossible to pinpoint a date of origin for the cupcake," says culinary historian Andrea Broomfield. That cook almost certainly lived on the left bank of the Atlantic. Broomfield says that the earliest known cupcake recipes in England date to the 1850s and that their popularization was slow. One writer in 1894 had evidently never heard of cupcakes: "In Miss [Mary E.] Wilkins's delightful New England Stories, and in other tales relating to this corner of the United States, I have frequently found mention of cup-cake, a dainty unknown, I think, in this country. Will some friendly reader … on the other side of the Atlantic kindly answer this query, and initiate an English lover of New England folks and ways into the mysteries of cup-cake?" Even to this day true cupcakes--as opposed to muffins or cakes cut up into cup-size portions--are sadly uncommon in Europe. In recent years the U.S. has had something of a great cupcake awakening, as blogs and bakeries have devoted themselves to its pleasures. Some attribute this renewed popularity to the cupcake-indulging characters of HBO's Sex and the City, and food historian Susan Purdy also credits dietary awareness: you can have your low-calorie cake and eat it, too. But true connoisseurs needed no moment of rediscovery. They never forgot what it was like to be six." By George Musser"

Hostess cup cakes: one of America's most popular edible icons
According to the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Hostess brand cake products were introduced to the American Public January 3, 1919. Record here:

"Word Mark HOSTESS Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: BREAD, BISCUITS, AND CAKES. FIRST USE: 19190103. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19190103 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 71115132 Filing Date January 11, 1919 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Registration Number 0126368 Registration Date August 19, 1919 Owner (REGISTRANT) WARD, WILLIAM B. INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES BELT LINE, NEAR GENESEE STREET BUFFALO NEW YORK .(LAST LISTED OWNER) INTERSTATE BAKERIES CORPORATION CORPORATION DELAWARE 12 E. ARMOUR BLVD. KANSAS CITY MISSOURI" 64111

"In 1919, World War I ended, prohibition was about to begin and women were ready to vote. It was also the year that Hostess introduced its first snack cake -- the cupcake. The Hostess Cupcake, which celebrates it 70th birthday Wednesday, has come a long way since its inception. It always has been made of devil's food cake, but the first cupcake lacked the creme filling and the white loop-de-loop icing on top. During the 1920s, cupcakes were hand-iced in either chocolate or vanilla. For a while in the 1940s, they were available with malted milk icing. Orange cupcakes with orange icing, which are still available, also were introduced in the 1940s. But it wasn't until 1947 that the cupcakes began to develop into the cupcake of today after D.R. ''Doc'' Rice was given the task of redesigning it. Rice was hired by the company in September 1923 at the age of 17 as a cake dumper. A cake dumper did just that -- dumped baked cakes onto a table, he said. ''I wanted to go to business college,'' Rice said Tuesday. ''The hours at the bakery worked with my schedule. I usually started around midnight and worked for nine hours, six days a week.'' By the time he enlisted in the Army, Rice had been regional supervisor of five bakeries. When he returned after the war, he went to work in the production department of Continental Baking Co. at its headquarters in New York. ''I began working in the experimental bakery,'' Rice said. ''More ingredients were available, and the dough was improved. The icing was also improved by using pure chocolate to make it. ''Just when we were ready to go to the plants with the cupcake, a machine which would automatically put the creme filling into Twinkies, which had been introduced in 1930, was perfected,'' he said. Before a machine was designed, the filling was pumped into the Twinkies by hand. ''We weren't sure we were going to fill cupcakes. But since the machine was ready, the cupcakes were also filled,'' he said. The new cupcakes had an improved cake mix, purer chocolate icing, creme filling and a straight white line of icing. They were introduced in Detroit, the home of the creme-filled cupcake. ''The white line was received well, but didn't do the new cupcakes justice,'' he said. ''It needed something that would catch the eye and let the buyer know it was quality.'' After a couple of weeks, the white loop-de-loop icing began appearing on the cupcakes. Rice noted that the perfect cupcake should have exactly seven loops.''We began selling 25 percent more new cupcakes than the regular ones,'' he said. ''Eventually the regular cupcakes were discontinued.'' Since the cupcakes were going to have creme filling, the prices had to be increased, Rice said. ''The wholesale price jumped from 8 cents to 10 cents and the retail prices went from 10 cents to 12 cents.'' Although he retired in 1972, Rice continues to work as a consultant for many companies, even outside the country."
---"And By The Way ...Hostess Cupcake celebrates 70th birthday," C.E. EVANS,United Press International, May 10, 1989,

"The man responsible for the curlycue in Hostess cupcakes tells of a brand turnaround. Doc Rice didn't get his nickname because he had a Ph.D. On the contrary, he never graduated from college. His initials, D.R., legally make up his first name, and co-workers at the Continental Baking Companies nicknamed him Doc long before any of them realized Rice would become the "Doctor of Dessert." Rice is considered the father of modern Hostess Cupcakes and has been getting a lot of publicity since the popular mouthful turned 70 this year. At 83, Rice seems a throwback to simpler days in corporate America--days when companies weren't strangled by their own management layers, and when R&D was the function of any employee with good hunches and the necessary amount of luck. He also symbolizes another almost antiquated figure in this era of merger and acquisition-induced redundancies and cutbacks: the career employee. "Today people change jobs a lot," he says. "Back in my days, if you came to me looking for work and had had more than two jobs, I wouldn't hire you because I figured you wouldn't stay with me either. Today it's different." Rice's road to baking's hall of fame started in his native Texas in 1923 when, at 17, he got a job in CBC's Dallas bakery as a "cake dumper" putting baked cakes out on racks to cool. The pay was $ 15 a week. The hours were midnight to 8 or 9 a.m. "I had just gotten out of high school and was married. And I wanted to keep going to school," he said. However, he admits another reason he didn't mind the night shift was it left him time to pursue his passion: baseball. "I was half made up in my mind whether I should play baseball, or do something else," he said. Rice opted for the "something else" of CBC. He relished in a relief shift that opened all facets of bakery production up to him. "At midnight I relieved the mixer, then the oven man, then the icing maker. I learned to do all of those key jobs," he said. This experience soon showed dividends. In 1928 he became the youngest bakery superintendant ever at CBC, taking that post in Cincinnati at the age of 22. By the time he was 29, five plants were under his supervision. In 1939 he got a job as general manager in charge of the CBC's Buffalo bakery. "When I got there it was a depressed town. Our business was based on the steel mills and they were closed. Our one competitor left town. Then, with the war, the work came and Buffalo became a boomtown," Rice says. The cake route averages in Buffalo went from the bottom of the baking tin at CBC to the very top. In 1942, Rice took a hiatus from CBC by enlisting in the Army as a second lieutenant. He remained Stateside, appropriately enough in charge of baking at a training camp. He left the service as a captain and returned to CBC in 1948 as director of production for the cake division. Soon he was to make the major product innovation for which he is remembered. Though Hostess Cupcakes were on the market since 1919, they lacked their characteristic icing and filling. Rice said he was presented with the problem of improving the quality of Hostess Cupcakes, which because of World War Two-induced shortages had suffered. The company was also looking for a way to add value to the cakes so it could sell them at a higher price. Rice decided to put a modified version of the Hostess Twinkies filling into Hostess Cupcakes. Next came a white stripe across the top of the cupcake. "After two weeks we said, Hell, that stripe doesn't look good.' So we decided to do the curlycue thing," he said. The result was the signature seven loops that adorn every Hostess cupcake. Was seven some sort of lucky number? "I wasn't aware of it at the time. That's the number that fit and looked right," says Rice. The price of the cupcakes increased from 8 cents to 10 cents . Product flew off the shelves. Eventually the striped cupcakes were phased out. Rice's looped cupcakes continue to sell today. In 1988 over 400 million Hostess Cupcakes were sold domestically. How much market research and consumer testing was done before the new format was approved? "We didn't go through all of these consumer surveys. We were just lucky. Me and my boss made up our minds on something and we did it," says Rice. The cupcake isn't the only CBC brand Rice had a hand in. In attempting to find uses for equipment that the bakeries had sitting idle, Rice and his cohorts developed both Twinkies and Suzy Qs. "Here we are trying to utilize the money the company spent on these shortbread cake pans and we come up with Twinkies," says Rice, adding he also helped develop the machine that injected the cream filling into the product. A CBC salesman was driving by a shoe store called Twinkle-Toe Shoes and got the idea for the Twinkies, which stuck. Rice says Suzy Q was named after the daughter of one of his bosses. A Different World Although he was eventually named vice president and made head of new product development, Rice feels his best work was done on the line. "I had done most of the good things before I got the title, when I was head of production. I always thought it was our job to develop new products," he said. After retiring in 1972, Rice acted as a bakery consultant, so he is aware of how things have changed since his days at CBC. Even CBC itself has changed. In 1968 it was acquired by International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. and subsequently bought by Ralston Purina in 1984. "It's a different world," says Rice. "I'm glad I'm sitting where I am. Today, you don't have two people running a company, you have committees." As with many involved in packaged goods, Rice feels that costs of bringing a brand to market have strangled new-product development and paralyzed many people charged with coming up with ideas. "We wasted good ability because people are afraid to do things because they fear getting into job trouble," he says. As he approaches 84, Rice still plays golf and consults. Last March he made his 43rd trip to the Society of Baking Engineers convention so he can "keep up." He keeps busy partly on the advice of a friend. "He said, When you retire, don't ever wake up in the morning unless you have something to do.' Now that's good advice."
---"Doctor dessert; D.R. Rice of Continental Baking Co.," Kevin McCormack, Food & Beverage Marketing, March 1990 (p. 16)

Hostess ad circa 1928:
"Greetings to the People of Ogden From the New Hostess Cake Kitchen. We are proud to announce to the people of Ogden that the first supply of Hostess Cup Cakes will be baked tomorrow morning. Ever since we stgarted to plan our new bakery we have worked to make it a real factor in the life of our city. We have looked forward to this day for months. And now Hostess Cakes are here-- here to stay. Now baking cake at home is needless. As in all other cities all over the country, these famous cakes will eliminate all that drudgery. The ultr-modern equipment we have gathered so carefuly insures consistent quality. Our ingredients are the best money can buy. Carefully selected eggs. Fresh, sweet shortening. Soft winter wheat flour. Pure refined sugar. And before being used, all of these materials are carefully tested, right in our own Hostess kitchen. Our ovens are modern in every detail. Every corner of our bakery is as immacualte as any kitchen. Our pastry cooks are masters of their profession. Se owe belive this day has more than ordinary importance to Ogden women. Therefor we urge you to try these new cup cakes at once. Serve them to your famly. Compater them with the finest you can bake yourself. TThen, make your own fair and square decision. Your grocer will have them, starting tomorrow morning. Ask him for these Hostess Cup Cakes in their attractive, airtight package. They are five cents for two, thirty cents a package of twelve...Hostess Cakes, A Continental Product."
---Display ad, Ogden Standard-Examiner [UT], September 3, 1928 (p. 3)

Hostess ad circa 1949:
"Have you tried Les Petits Gateuax Hostess Hostess French Pastry cream-filled Cup Cakes. New! Super Rich! Super Delicious! You Cannot Beat This Cup Cake Treat! Because you cannot buy the secret blend of chocolate from the African Gold Coast and Brazil. And because you cannot imitate this whipped richness of this super smooth creamed-filling. You never go wrong serving the best money can buy. We believe you will agree Hostess French Pastry Cup Cakes are the best you can buy. In fact, we believe, you will agree that Hostess French Pastry Cup Cakes taste better than what you can make at home--even though you may pay up to twice as much for ingredients. Or--you get double your money back from your grocer! Super Rich. Hostess French Pastry Cup Cakes are super rich! More shortening; more milk flavor than ever before. Plus a rich creamed-filling that's whipped lighter than a cloud and smoother than ice cream. You cannot imitate this filling because you cannot make it at home. And you cannot possibly duplicate the famous chocolate flavor of the devil's food or icing of thrilling new Hostess French Pastry Cup Cakes. Because you cannot buy the secret blend of chocolate we use. Exclusive Chocolate Flavor. Here is the palm-shaded treasure of the Gold Coast--the luscious Almonado with the flavor that is as rich as old wine. Here is the prize of Brazil's blue-green jungles--and smooth Forestero with the colors so vivid red-brown. Both combined by hands long skilled in the art of the chocolate trade, into a secret blend with a flavor both grownups and children adore. Save Time, Money. Making cup cakes at home takes about 81 minutes of kitchen mess and bother. And you know what cup cakes cost to make--with prices what they are. Yet Hostess French Pastry Cup Cakes cost only 10 cents for 2. You'll rave about them. Your guests will rave about them. Get new Hostess French Pastry Cup Cakes in cellophane at your grocer now. Baked fresh! Sold Fresh! Just 10 cents for this dessert for two."
---Display ad, Waterloo Daily Courier [IA], February 21, 1949 (p. 7)

If you need more details ask your librarian how to access magazine and newspaper databases. These will help you identify key events in Hostess Cupcake history (plant strikes, product modifications, pricing and market strategy). You will also find some "human interest" stories, such as specially wrapped Hostess cupcakes used to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yankee Stadium ("Yanks' First 50 Years Really a 'Piece of Cake', New York Times, April 14, 1973, p. 26) and Hostess cupcakes as pop art ("Pop-Art Food: Taste is No Object," Mimi Sheraton, New York Times, September 29, 1977, p. 70), and a giant replica of an Egyptian step pyramid composed from 45,000 Hostess Cupcakes ("Edible Art," Jim Buck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 29, 1997, p. D10)

1234 Cake

Culinary evidence confirms the practice of naming cakes for their measurements dates (at least) to the 18th century. In the days when many people couldn't read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes. Pound cake and cupcakes are foods of this genre. In fact? They were composed of the same basic ingredients of your 1234 cake.

There are several variations on the recipe for 1234 cake but "yr basic list" goes like this:

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
4 eggs
This combination, it its purest form, produces a chewey dense cookie-type treat reminiscent of medieval jumbals, or sugar cookies. The Internet confirms many cooks "fudge" (pardon the pun) this classic 1234 recipe by adding other ingredients in various proportions. Most common? Baking powder, milk, fruit juice, spices and nuts. These additions affect the taste and texture of the finished product.

Canadian recipe, circa 1877

1,2,3,4,CAKE.
Augusta Simmers.
One cup of butter, two of sugar, three cups of flour, four eggs; add a little more flour, roll out very thin on sugar, cut any shape, and bake quickly."
---The Canadian Home Cook Book, Compiled by the Ladies of Toronto and Chief Cities and Towns in Canada [Hunter, Rose and Company:Toronto] 1877 (p. 307)

American recipe, circa 1955

1-2-3-4-Cake
Ingredients:
3 cups sifted flour 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg whites
Directions: (Makes two 9-inch layers)
Sift together opposite ingredients three times. Set aside. Cream butter; add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour, alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Fold in vanilla. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold in carefully. Pour batter into two round 9-inch layer pans which have been lined on bottoms with paper. Bake in moderate oven 375 degrees F. About 25 minutes. This cake may also be baked in three 8-inch layer pans. Cool and frost with Orange Butter Cream Frosting and sprinkle with coconut."
---Duncan Hines Dessert Book, Duncan Hines Institute [Pocket Books:New York] 1955 (p. 23)

We do not find any one person/place/company/cookbook claiming to have "invented" 1234 cake. There is no trademark on the name. In the world of food? This is pretty common.

Bundt cake & kugelhopf

Most foods are not invented. They evolve. The same holds true for bakeware. Food historians generally credit H. David Dalquist of Nordic Ware (Minneapolis MN) for creating the first aluminum pan called "bundt" in 1950. It was not a new invention. It was, rather, an economically produced aluminum version of a traditional European kugelhopf mold. Kugelhopf is similar in method and presentation to brioche, baba, Sally Lunn, and savarin, all popular from the 18th century forward.

The earliest recips we find for "Bunt" or "Bund" cake in America were published in Jewish-American cookbooks long before Mr. Dalquist's first bundt pan hit the market. It is probably no coincidence these recipe appear with ones for kugelhopf.

[1889]
"Plain Bund or Napf Kuchen," , Aunt Babette's Cookbook
[1901]
"Bundt Kuchen,", The Settlement Cookbook, Mrs. Simon Kander
[1914]
"Plain Bund Kuchen,", Neighborhood Cookbook, Council of Jewish Women [NOTE: this recipe directs the cook to bake the cake in a "bund form."]
[1919]
"Plain Bunt or Napf Kuchen," & "Baking Powder Bunt Kuchen,", International Jewish Cookbook, Florence Kreisler Greenbaum

"In 1950, a group of Minneapolis women, members of Hadassah, approached Nordic Products owner H. David Dalquist and asked him to make an aluminum version of the cast-iron kugelhupf pan common in Euorpe. Obligingly, he made a few for the members and a few extra for the public. Not many of these fluted tube pans sold until ten years later when the new Good Housekeeping Cookbook showed a pound cake that had been baked in one of them. Suddenly every woman wanted a pan just like it. What really put the Bundt pan on the culinary map of America, however, was the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, which made the finals of the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. Bundt, by the way, is now a registered trademark...By 1972 the grand prize winner in the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest was a Bundt Streusel Spice Cake and eleven top winners also called for a Bundt pan; that same year Pillsbury sold $25 million worth of its new Bundt cake mixes. It's strange to think that fifty years ago there were no Bundt cakes because there were no Bundt cake pans. Today, more than forty million pans exist in America..."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 458)

"Bundt historic? You betcha: The Smithsonian says the icon cake of '60s comfort food, its creator and the company he co-founded all deserve a place beside our greatest treasures," Tom Webb. Feb. 23--Ruby slippers, space capsules and dinosaur bones -- make some room. The Bundt pan, that made-in-Minnesota creation that became an American icon, is on its way to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Museum curators are in the Twin Cities this week, where they're gathering up one of the original aluminum Bundt cake pans, invented in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, co-founder of the cookware company Nordic Ware. Some 60 million Bundt pans later, all of America is familiar with O-shaped cakes, drizzled icings and gooey centers. "It's shaped, in some small way, American culture and how we entertain," said David Dalquist, son of the Bundt cake inventor and the current president and CEO of Nordic Ware. While the Smithsonian curators are big on the Bundt, what has really wowed them is the almost perfectly preserved record of an American business that made such an impact on consumer tastes, popular culture and everyday life. The Dalquist family has owned the St. Louis Park-based business for six decades. "At the (Smithsonian's) American History Museum, we collect objects and documents that represent a wide range of important themes in American history and American life," said Paula Johnson, a Smithsonian curator. "The Nordic Ware story really relates to so many of these themes: entrepreneurship, innovation and the changes in American foodways in the 20th century. "It's the whole story, it's the depth and breadth that we're after," Johnson added. "But the Bundt pan was the way in." This week, Smithsonian officials are packing up 30 cubic feet of old paperwork, engineering drawings, recipe books and early advertisements along with sand-cast molds of bunny cakes and Santa cakes, microwave-cooking devices and financial ledgers. "My dad hung on to everything -- he was one of these collectors -- so we literally have boxes of stuff from over the years," Dalquist said. The family basement has been "like an archeological dig for them," he added. The Smithsonian is charged with documenting the story of America, and "it's really hard to do American history without doing food," Johnson said. So museum officials travel the country to preserve pieces of that story a morsel at a time. To date, they've collected Julia Child's kitchen, chocolate molds from Hershey's, a Krispy Kreme doughnut-making machine, a 1928 bread slicer and more. Eventually, it all will wind up at the National Museum of American History, part of the constellation of museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The Smithsonian houses many great national treasures, including the original Star-Spangled Banner, the Wright Brothers' airplane, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and the Apollo 11 space capsule. Currently, the American History museum is being renovated. But even when it reopens, Johnson said, visitors aren't immediately likely to find a Bundt pan next to such famed icons as Dorothy's ruby slippers or George Washington's military uniform. "We always collect things, for now and in the future," Johnson said. "We have to take the long view. Even though we may not be able to do a big food-related exhibit in the immediate future, that's always in the back of our minds. ... So we have to start collecting now. This is how we begin." Nordic Ware was founded in 1946 by H. David and Dorothy Dalquist. In its early years, the struggling company specialized in making Scandinavian cookie-making items. Then Dalquist "was approached by a group of local women from the local Hadassah society," said Dana Norsten, the company's spokeswoman. "They had an old-world, heavy, heavy ceramic pan with a hole in the middle, called a Kugelhopf." The women wondered if Dalquist would make a lighter-weight aluminum pan. He did, adding the signature folds and later giving it the distinctive name, Bundt. Yet for years, the Bundt pan wasn't a particularly big hit. Then in 1966, a Pillsbury Bake-off winner used the Bundt pan to create the "Tunnel of Fudge" cake -- and it rocketed the Bundt pan to fame. "It was just like a frenzy," David Dalquist said. In the 1970s, Pillsbury introduced a popular line of Bundt cake mixes. Nordic Ware long ago branched out into other kitchenware lines, including its Micro-Go-Round food rotator, which remains popular. The company still sells a lot of Bundt pans, too. But the kitchenware business has changed dramatically. "We are one of only very few people who are still manufacturing in this country," Dalquist said. "Most of them have moved overseas. It's almost all imported today." The elder Dalquist died in 2005, but his widow and Nordic Ware co-founder has been a rich source of material for the Smithsonian curators. And what would the inventor of the Bundt pan think of his life's work ending up in the Smithsonian? "My dad was kind of a publicity-shy kind of person," Dalquist said. "So I think he'd be amazed that there was so much interest in the company and his products."
---Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota), February 23, 2007, SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

The Kugelhopf connection

Kugelhopf is a yeast-based cake similar to French brioche. It is typically baked in a mold with a funnel-shaped center insert to achieve a tall, round, ring-shaped cake. "Kugel" means "round," in German.

"A kugelhopf is a cake made from a yeast-based brioche-like dough in a characteristic shape, rather like an inverted flower pot with a hole down the middle; it usually contains raisins and currants and is dusted with icing sugar. As its name suggests, it originated in Germany and particuarly Austria (where it is usually called a gugelhupf), but it is now perhaps chiefly associated with Alsace. There are several no doubt equally apocryophal stories concerning its introduction to France from further east, one of which implicates Austrian-born Marie-Antoinette's partiality for such cakes."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 181)

"Kugelhopf, a rich, light, delicate yeast cake, made from flour, eggs, butter, and sugar. It is related to Brioche, Baba, and Savarin...the identifying characteristic of kugelhopf is its tall ring shape. It is derived from the mould in which it is baked, round and deep, with a central funnel, and flouted with decorative swirls. After baking, the cake is turned out and dusted with icing sugar which catches in the pattern...Kugelhopf is one of the best-known C. European bakery products...It is made in a wide belt from Alsace...through parts of Germany...and Poland; and into Austria...The traditional pattern in C. Europe was for the kugelhopf to be baked for Sunday breakfast, when the village baker had his day off. It is also popular with Jewish communities who have settled in these areas."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Unviersity Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 441)

"It seems that in "The Bundt Pan Man, Letting Them Eat Cake" [Style, Jan. 11], Hank Stuever wants to have his cake and eat it too. How else could he have come up with the historically incorrect claim that the Bundt pan was "invented" in America (just the "t" in Bundt was invented here)? Stuever writes: "According to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times, the ladies of a Minnesota chapter of Hadassah, the Jewish volunteer organization, sensed the need 55 years ago and went to the Dalquists at Nordic Ware with a request: Please replicate this old ceramic dish that somebody's grandmother had kept for years and years to bake a dessert called kugelhopf." The meanings of "replicate" are "duplicate" or "repeat," a far cry from "invent." Actually, the pan had been invented and used in Europe much earlier. So what did H. David Dalquist really replicate back then? Webster's Third New International Dictionary gives an answer under the German names "gugelhupf," "kugelhopf" or "gugelhopf" : a semisweet cake usually of yeast-leavened dough containing raisins, citron and nuts and baked in a fluted tube pan. And the German Brockhaus Dictionary of 1935 defines the cake baked in a fluted and grooved pan as "gugelhupf," a term used primarily in southern Germany and Austria (and with some linguistic roots traced to Latin). In northern Germany it is called "bundkuchen." Contrary to Stuever's somewhat mystic translation effort in this context, the German word "bund" originated from bundling or wrapping the cake's dough around the pan's center hole. As for the pan's fluted and grooved design, it allows for more of the dough to get exposed to the pan's inner surface than a smooth design would, and provides for a more evenly and deeper heat distribution into the dough. This specific design feature, discovered and applied hundreds of years ago in Europe, apparently was successfully replicated and copied by Dalquist. I grew up in Germany in the 1930s, and my mother baked a gugelhupf about once a month. The gugelhupf and its pan have been ubiquitous in German households for centuries; Stuever's claim that Dalquist gave "the world" millions of Bundt pans is a bit of an exaggeration. Giving them to America would have sounded more plausible. And may H. David Dalquist rest in peace."
--- "Who Brought the Bundt Cake?," The Washington Post, January 22, 2005, Editorial; A15

Why call it "bundt?"

"Bundt: The German word bundt relates to the word for band or bundle, and refers to the banded effect of the flutes (such as would be found in a wheat sheaf or straw wreath, tied at intervals with twine), and probably originated as a harvest celebration cake. Bundt Pan Progenitor. This well-known cast aluminum bundt pan, alternating 8 large scallops with 8 small pointed flutes, first made in 1949 as a "Nordic Ware" product by Northland Aluminum Products of Minneapolis, MN, has been reported over the years as a reproduction of a 19th C. European cast iron bundt pan, brought over- reportedly - by a European immigant to Minnesota. Northland has now registered "Bundt" for their own use. It is not known how long ago the first bundt pan was made, probably in ceramic...Ceramic Progenitor...In 1997, the June 11 issue [of the] Washington Post published an article by Mark Goldman in the food section about bundt pans. Goldman...relates the history of Northland, and the account of H. David Dalquist...[and] about some ladies from the Minneapolis Hadassah chapter who paid him a visit ant told him about a ceramic bake mold used to made Bundkuchens--"party or gathering cakes." They asked if his new company could make such a thing out of aluminum, and the rest is history."
---300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles, Linda Campbell Franklin, 5th edition [Krause Publications:Iola IA] 2003 (p. 187-8)

About Nordic ware

"...As Nordic Ware, the company that invented the beloved Bundt cake pans, marks its 60th anniversary this year, we asked readers to submit stories about the Bundt pans they’ve used for decades in their kitchens. Retired teacher Mildred H. Curtis, 85, of Altus said just reading about our search for Bundt cake memories motivated her to go into the kitchen and pull out her Bundt pan, stored in its original box, along with the recipe book that came with the pan. She quilts at her church each week, and when it’s her turn to provide lunch for the quilters, the menu usually includes a Bundt cake she makes with a German chocolate cake mix embellished with additional ingredients such as canned coconut pecan frosting. “I have given away many of my cooking pans because I do not cook like I used to, but the Bundt pan will be the last to go,” Curtis wrote...Oklahomans are definitely creative when it comes to using their Bundt cake pans, which may be why Nordic Ware has thrived for six decades. It’s not the only company making pans that turn out elaborate cakes, but it has been an industry leader since the Minnesota company began in 1946. In recent years, Nordic Ware has stepped up introduction of new and more elaborately detailed cake pans that now are common in gourmet shops. The Castle pan is one of the newest such designs, Nordic Ware spokeswoman Dana Norsten said...The family-run company started out by making ethnic cake pans like the Rosette Iron, Ebleskiver pan and the Krumkake Iron. That changed in 1950, when the Minneapolis chapter of the Hadassah Society asked company founder, the late H. David Dalquist, to make a “bund” pan similar to one a member had received from her German grandmother. “Bund,” the German word for gathering, was an appropriate name because the fluted cake was often served at a gathering or party. According to Nordic Ware, Dalquist made the pan from cast aluminum and decided to make a few extra “bund” pans to sell at department stores. When Nordic Ware filed for a trademark for the pan, the name was changed from “bund” to Bundt. The rest, as they say, is history. The pans really hit the big time in 1966, when Houston homemaker Ella Helfrich used a Bundt cake pan for her Tunnel of Fudge Cake recipe in the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. She won second place in the contest, and Pillsbury fielded more than 200,000 requests for help in finding the Bundt pans. Nordic Ware stepped up production, working around the clock to meet consumer demand. Bundt cookbooks, with recipes created and tested by Dalquist’s wife, Dorothy, followed. When she and her staff baked cakes to test for the cookbooks, “Nordic Ware’s employee lunchrooms were always well supplied with Bundt cakes, and they were delivered to food shelters and churches, as well,” Norsten said. Dorothy Dalquist, 80, still helps promote the company that’s run by her son, David Dalquist. In 1971, Pillsbury rolled out a line of Bundt cake mixes licensed by Nordic Ware. Those mixes eventually disappeared from supermarket shelves in the 1980s. Nordic Ware has reintroduced the cake mixes in more upscale packaging. ... A few new Bundt pan designs are introduced each year. The formed aluminum pans in classic colors have made a comeback in recent years, too. For Bundt cake pan owners who feel motivated to dust it off and bake a cake soon, we share some recipes, from the popular Tunnel of Fudge Cake to a slimmed-down pound cake and even a cherished recipe from a reader."
---"Bundt pan fans; Fluted cakes popular for six decades, Sharon Dowell, The Oklahoman, May 17, 2006, FOOD; Pg. 1E

US Patent & Trademark records state 1951 as the year the bundt pan was introduced to the American public:

Word Mark BUNDT Goods and Services IC 021. US 013. G & S: CAKE PANS. FIRST USE: 19510000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19510000 Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM Design Search Code Serial Number 72241796 Filing Date March 24, 1966 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Registration Number 0826340 Registration Date March 28, 1967 Owner (REGISTRANT) NORTHLAND ALUMINUM PRODUCTS, INC. CORPORATION MINNESOTA 3245 RALEIGH AVE. MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA 55416 Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT 15. Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 19870328 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Who was David Dalquist?

"H. David Dalquist, whose fledgling Scandinavian cookware company developed its most famous product, the Nordic Ware Bundt pan, with Jewish immigrant cooks, died Sunday of heart failure at his home in Edina. He was 86. The Minneapolis native had worked as a metallurgical engineer for U.S. Steel in Duluth for two years after receiving a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in the early 1940s. He served in the Navy during World War II as a radar technician aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. After the war, he and his brother, Mark, started a company called Plastics for Industry, said his son, David of Minnetonka. Soon it evolved into Maid of Scandinavia, a specialty cookware company run by Mark, and Northland Aluminum Products, Dave's company, which manufactured Nordic Ware...Said his son, "My dad believed the common person could do great things if you give them a chance," and that included keeping his factory in the heart of a U.S. metropolitan area instead of moving it to a foreign country. Dalquist helped develop thermoset plastic molding technology to make products to use in microwave ovens. "He was very good at recognizing product niches, and what the consumer was looking for," said Gene Karlson, a company vice president."
---"Bundt pan inventor H. David Dalquist dies," Trudi Hahn, Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MM), January 6, 2005, Pg. 6B

What was Tunnel of Fudge cake?

This Pillsbury Bake Off winner is generally credited for putting the bundt cake on the American culinary map.

"Did you know that until Ella Helfrich's recipe for her tunnel of fudge cake won second place the Pillsbury Bake-off in 1966, the bundt cake was virtually unknown? Bundt pans were originally made by Nordic Ware (and they still hold the trademark for the name) which was a small baking supply company that made specialty ethnic Nordic baking pans like the Rosette Iron, Ebleskiver Pan and Krumkake Iron. It wasn't until the tunnel of fudge cake recipe became famous that people started looking for bundt pans, which then was a specialty item. Nordic Ware had to open new production plants and hire workers around the clock to keep up with the demand caused by the recipe. Bundt pans were also given away with Pillsbury products as a special promotion. Now the bundt pan is standard in many kitchens although you can no longer make the exact recipe for the tunnel of fudge cake: it calls for packets of instant icing mix (Double Dutch Fudge Buttercream Frosting Mix) that is no longer made."
Arthur Schwartz, The Food Maven

ORIGINAL RECIPE CIRCA 1966:

"Tunnel of Fudge Cake
1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups Pillsbury's Best All Purpose Flour
1 package Pillsbury Two Layer Size Buttercream Double Dutch Frosting Mix
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans
Oven 350 degrees F. Bundt Cake
Generously grease Bundt pan. In large mixer bowl, cream butter at high speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Gradually add sugar; beat at high speed until light and fluffy. By hand, stir in flour, dry frosting mix and walnuts until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degress F. for 60 to 65 minutes. Cool 1 hour; remove from pan. Cool completely before serving. Tips: Buttercream Double Dutch Frosting Mix and walnuts are essential to the success of this recipe. Since the cake has the softened tunnel of fudge, ordinary doneness tests can not be used. Test after 60 minutes by observing a dry, shiny brownie-type crust. Cake may be baked in 10-inch tube pan at 350 degreees F. for 60 to 65 minutes. Serve cake right side up as for a pound cake. *Pillsbury's Best Self-Rising Flour is not recomended for use in this recipe. High Altitude Adjustment--5,200 Feet. Bake at 275 degrees F. for 60 to 65 minutes."
---A Treasury of Bake Off Favorites, Pillsbury Company, 1969 (p. 62) [recipe booklet]

Carrot cake

According to the food historians, our modern carrot cake most likely descended from Medieval carrot puddings enjoyed by people in Europe. Historic evidence suggests Arab cooks of the Carrots are an old world food. imported to the Americas by European settlers. In the 20th century carrot cake was re-introduced as a "healthy alternative" to traditional desserts. The first time was due to necessity; the second time was spurred by the popular [though oftimes misguided] wave of health foods. Is today's carrot cake healthy? It can be. It all depends upon the ingredients.

Related recipes: Pumpkin Pie & Sweet Potato Pie.

History notes here:

"In the Middle Ages in Europe, when sweeteners were scarce and expensive, carrots were used in sweet cakes and desserts. In Britain...carrot puddings...often appeared in recipe books in the 18th and 19th centuries. Such uses were revived in Britain during the second World War, when the Ministry of Food disseminated recipes for carrot Christmas pudding, carrot cake, and so on and survive in a small way to the present day. Indeed, carrot cakes have enjoyed a revival in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century. They are perceived as 'healthy' cakes, a perception fortified by the use of brown sugar and wholemeal flour and the inclusion of chopped nuts, and only slightly compromised by the cream cheese and sugar icing which appears on some versions."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 141)

"In her New York Cookbook (1992), Molly O'Neill says that George Washington was served a carrot tea cake at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan. The date: November 25, 1783. The occasion: British Evacuation Day. She offers an adaptation of that early recipe, which was printed in The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook (1975) by Mary Donovan, Amy Hatrack, and Frances Schull. It isn't so very different from the carrot cakes of today. Yet strangely, carrot cakes are noticeably absent from American cookbooks right through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Before developing a new pudding-included carrot and spice cake mix, Pillsbury researched carrot cake in depth, even staged a nation-wide contest to locate America's first-published carrot cake recipe. Their finding: A carrot cake in The Twentieth Century Bride's Cookbook published in 1929 by a Wichita, Kansas, woman's club. Running a close second was a carrot cake printed in a 1930 Chicago Daily News Cookbook...Several carrot cake contestants also sent Pillsbury a complicated, two-day affair that Peg Bracken had included in one of her magazine columns sometime in the late '60s or early '70s...Whatever its origin, carrot cake didn't enter mainstream America until the second half of this century."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 435)

A survey of carrot cake (& precessor recipes) confirms these items took many forms:

• baked in pastry, like pumpkin pie
• steamed and served with sauce, like plum pudding
• baked in pans and served with icing, like cake

[10th century Arabian cookery]
T'Khabis al-jazar (Carrots): (A carrot pudding)
Choose fresh tender and sweet carrots. Peel them and thinly slice them crosswise. For each pound of honey use 3 pounds of these carrots. Boil the honey and remove its froth. Pound the carrot in a stone mortar. Set a clean copper cauldron with a rounded bottom on a trivet on the fire, and put in it the skimmed honey and carrots. Cook the mixture on medium fire until the carrots fall apart. Add walnut oil to the pot. For each pound of homey used add 2/3 cup of oil. Pistachio oil will be the best for it, but you can also use fresh oil of almond or sesame. Add the oil before the honey starts to thicken. However you do not need to stir the pot. You only scrape the bottom gently when mixture starts to thicken to prevent it from sticking to it. To check for doneness, use a stick or a spoon to see whether the pudding is thick enough or not yet. When pudding becomes thick, put the pot down, and spread the dessert on a copper platter. Set it aside to cool down before serving. It will be firm and delicious."
Source: The Book of Cookery preparing Salubrious Foods and Delectable Dishes extracted from Medical Books and told by Proficient Cooks and the Wise/Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq

[1699]
"26. Pudding of Carrot. Pare off some of the Crust of Manchet-Bread, and grate of half as much of the rest as there is of the Root, which must also be grated: Then take half a Pint of fresh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of fresh Butter, six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of Sugar; and a little Salt; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Dish or Pan, butter'd, to keep the Ingredients from sticking and burning; set it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and so have you a Composition for any Root-Pudding."
---Acetaria: Discourse of Sallets, John Evelyn

[1747]
"A Carrot Pudding
Take a raw Carrot, scrape it very clean, then grate it, take half a Pound of the grated Carrot, and a Pound of grateed Bread, beat up eight Eggs, leave out half the Whites, mix the Eggs with half a Pint of Cream, then stir in the Bread and Carrot, and half a Pound of fresh Butter melted, half a Pint of Sack, and three Spoonfuls of Orange-flower Water, a Nutmeg grated, sweeten to your Palate. Mix all well together; and if it is not thin enough, stir in a little new Milk or Cream. Let it be of a moderate Thickness, lay a Puff-paste all over the Dish, and pour in the Ingredients. Bake it, it will take an Hour's baking, or you may boil it; but then you must melt Butter, and put in White Wine and Sugar."
---The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 London reprint [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995(p.107)

[1803]
Carrot Pudding, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter

[1845]
Carrot Pie, New England Economical Housekeeper, Esther Howland

[1913]
"Crocus Carrot Cake
Rub four good sized cooked carrots through a sieve. Add two tablesoons ground almonds, three tablespoons sugar, the grated rind and strained juice of half a lemon, the well beaten yolks four eggs, three tablespoonfuls melted butter and the whites of the eggs beaten stiff with a pinch of salt. Pour into a small baking tin lined with pastry. Bake in a hot oven until ready and serve hot or cold, cut in square."
---"Woman's Page: How to Fight the High Cost of Living," Odgen Standard [Ogden UT], June 11, 1913 (p. 7)

[1914]
Carrot Cake, Neighborhood Cookbook, Council of Jewish Women

[1930]
"Carrot Cake
Sugar 1 1/3 cups
Seeded raisins 1 cup
Carrots (grated) 1 1/2 cups
Cloves 1 teaspoon
Water (cold) 1 1/3 cups
Butter 2 tablespoons
Cinamon 1 teaspoon
Nutmeg 1 teaspoon
Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and boil very slowly for about 5 minutes. Remove from fire and allow mixture to become perfectly cold (never use while warm) and then add
Walnut meats 1 cup
Pinch of salt
Flour 2 cups
Baking soda 2 teaspoons
Mix well and put in loaf oan and bake for 1 1/4 hours in oven 350 degrees.--Mrs. William Inman"
---Chicago Daily News Cook Book, Edith G. Shuck and Dr. Herman N. Bundesen [Chicago Daily News:Chicago IL] 1930 (p. 47)

[1936]
"Carrot Torte
1 lb almonds
1 lb carrots
2 cups sugar
8 eggs, separated
Rind of one large orange
1 tablespoon orange juice
Cook the carrots, chill, and grate. Blanch the almonds and chop fine. Beat the egg yolks until light and thick. Add sugar gradually, then orange rind and juice, carrots, nuts, combining all ingredients well, lastly fold in the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a greased torte pan in a moderately slow oven (325 degrees F.), 45 to 50 minutes. When cool cover with sweetened Whipped Cream...Place in ice-box for several hours and serve."
---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander, Twenty-first Edition Enlarged and Revised [Settlement Cook Book Co.:Milwaukee WI] 1936 (p. 459)

[1939]
"Ohio Pudding or Steamed Carrot Pudding
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup finely grated, raw potato
1 cup grated, raw carrot (3 small)
1 cup currants of seedless raisins
1 cup seeded raisins
Mix and sift sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and soda. Add remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Steam...2 hours in small molds or 3 hours in large mold. Serve with Ohio Sauce."
---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer [Little, Brown and Company:Boston] 1939 (p.550)
[NOTE: Ohio sauce is made with cream, chopped nut meats, chopped dates and lemon extract (p.610).]

[1939]
"Carrot Cake
Temperature 300F. Time 1 hour. Serving 1 loaf, 9 inches
Part I
2 2/3 cups hot water
2 2/3 cups sugar
2 cups ground carrots
2 cups raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cloves
2 teaspoons nutmeg

Part II
3 3 tablespoons shortening
4 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspooon salt
2 cups chopped nuts
Method:
1. Cook Part I together for 20 minutes.
2. Remove from fire; add shortening, cool to lukewarm.
3. Add flour, soda, baking powder, and salt sifted together.
4. Add nuts.
5. Bake in a well-greased loaf pan at 300 degrees for 1 hour."
---Prudence Penny's Cookbook, Prudence Penny [Prentice-Hall:New York] 1939 (p. 217)

Related recipes? Zucchini bread.

When did the cream cheese icing appear?

The earliest American print references we find to frosting carrot cake with cream cheese are from 1960's:

[1963]
"Cheese Frosting
Another reader recommends a cream cheese frosting for carrot cakes: "Use 4 ounces cream cheese and mix with 1/4 stick margarine. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and half a box of confectioners' sugar. Mix into smooth frosting. Mrs F.F.E. Edgewood Arsenal, Md."
---"Reader Exchange: Carrot Cake Encore," Washington Post, Times Herald, September 10, 1964 (p. D4)

[1968]
"Carrot-Pineapple Cake
Oven 350 degrees F
Sift together into large mixing bowl 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 2/3 cup salad oil, 2 eggs, 1 cup finely shredded carrot, 1/2 cup crushed pineapple (with syrup), and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix till moistened; beat 2 minutes at medium speed on electric mixer. Bake in greased and lightly floured 9 X 9 X 2-inch pan in moderate oven (350 degress F) about 35 minutes or till done. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting (see page 86)."
---The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book [Meredith Corporation:Dew Moines IA] 1968 (p. 69)

"Cream Cheese Frosting
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
In small mixing bowl , combine cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Beat at low speed on electric mixer till light. Gradually add sugar, beating till fluffy. If necessary, add milk to make of spreading consistency. Stir in chopped nuts, if desired. Frosts one 8- or 9-inch square cake."
---ibid (p. 86)
It is very likely other recipes predate this one. If you are a culinary student? Visit your school's library and study the old cookbooks. Also...old magazines/newspaper s can be excellent sources for *first instance.* Your school's librarian will help you access these.

About carrots

Carrots are an "Old World" vegetable. They adapted readily to "New World" soil. Notes here:

"Carrot. A root vegetable of the Umbelliferae family--and thus related to parsley, dill, and celery...although originally native to Afghanistan, is now found all over the world in many shapes, sizes, and colors."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kennth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2001, Volume Two (p. 1746)

"The wild carrot, which grows in much of W. Asia and Europe, has a tiny and acrid tasting root. However, when it is cultivated in favourable conditions the roots of successive generations enlarge quickly. So the evolution of cultivars with enlarged roots is easily explained; indeed, what is puzzling is that it seems to have taken a very long time for D. Carota var sativa , as the modern cultivated carrot is know, to appear. The puzzle is all the greater because archaeologists have found traces of carrot seed at prehistoric lake dwellings in Switzerland. Also, the plant is included in a list of vegetables grown in the royal garden of Babylon in the 8th century BC. Here there is a clue: the plant is not in the list of ordinary vegetables but in that or aromatic herbs. It was probably being grown for its leaves or seeds, both of which have a pleasant carrot fragrance. It seems likely that this had also been the purpose of carrot cultivation in classical times, for there is little or no evidence to suggest that the Greeks and Romans enjoyed eating the roots. Many writers state that the carrot in something like its modern form was brought westwards, at least as far as the Arab Afghanistan, where the very dark red, even purple, carrots of antiquity are still grown. The introduction is variously dated at the 8th or 10th century AD, ie the period of Arab expansion in to the Middle East and C. Asia. This fits well enough with the fact that the earliest surviving clear description of the carrot dates from the first half of the 12th century, and was by an Arab writer...The first sign of truly orange carrots is in Dutch paintings of the 17th century...Cultivated carrots of the European type were brought to the New World before 1565..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 140)

"Adding to the confusion of early carrot history is the wold white carrot...that is native to Europe and was subsequently naturalized in America. Now popularly known as Queen Anne's lace, the most famous for its ornamental flower, the woody root has been used interchageably with its visually similar cousin, the parsnip...The late-fourth-century Roman cookery book of Apicius lists recipes suitable for either carrots (presumably wild and cultivated) or parsnips, advice repeated nearly fifteen hundred years later in Lettice Bryan's The Kentucky Housewife (1839) that "carrots may be cooked in every respect like parsnips." English carrots were the first to be introduced into the colonies, accompanying colonists to Jamestown in 1609 and early Pilgrims to Massachusetts no later than 1629, where they grew "biger and sweeter" than anything found in England. Dutch Menonnites brought orange and scarlet carrots with them into Pennsylvania, from whence they spread through the rest of the colonies."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 191)

About carrots/National Geographic
The Carrot Museum (all sorts of interesting facts & trivia!)

Chiffon cake

Chiffon cake is a light confection made with salad oil instead of butter. It has been described as a cross between angel food and rich butter cakes. Food historians generally credit Harry Baker, a Los Angeles insurance salesman, for the "invention" of this new cake in the 1920s. Mr. Baker sold the recipe to General Mills in the 1940s. The corporate version of this cake, promoting two of General Mill's products, Softasilk Flour and Wesson Oil, debuted in 1948.

A survey of cookbooks and magazine/newpaper articles confirms Chiffon cake was agressively promoted from the late 1940s to early 1960s. General Mills blitzed the media with Chiffon cake ads (including recipes) beginning in 1948. The earliest mention in the New York Times states: "Cake No. 1 is high and handsome, yellow as an Easter chick, faintly orange-flavored, delicate and most, tender crusted. It's made in the manner of the new General Mills' chiffon cake, which almost every one seems to applaud." (March 22, 1948, p. 26).

New recipes were introduced two or three times monthly in the New York Times Sunday Magazine section commencing February 1949. This survey also reveals other companies took advantage of the chiffon cake craze. An ad titled "Ever make a cake with Mazola?" published by Corn Products Refining Company (New York Times, March 27, 1947, SM p. 41) states "This is the new "Shadow cake. You'll love its rich chocolate flavor, its wonderful texture. Like the famous "Chiffon" cake, it is easy to make with Mazola, the pure golden oil that "make so many good things...better"." Unlike the General Mills/Betty Crocker ads, this one does not provide a recipe. It invites the reader to send away for a free recipe book.

Who was Harry Baker?

ABOUT CHIFFON CAKE

"Betty Crocker played a part in the notorious rise of one very expensive cake--Chiffon, heralded as "the first new cake in 100 years!" Before 1948, cakes were traditionally classified as either butter or sponge...But an aptly named cake baker, Harry Baker, from Hollywood, California, challenged conventional cake wisdom and started his own mini baking revolution. Baker, originally an insurance salesman and recreational cook, enjoyed all cakes, but dreamed of combining the richness of butter cake with the lightness of sponge cake...Baker's ambitious pursuit took years...in 1927, his efforts brought forth an upside-down cake that was described as light, tender, delicate, glamorous, and delicious, with sensational volume. Dessert lovers clamored for a taste, hoping to name Baker's reputed mystery ingredient. Baker doggedly guarded his secret...As word of Baker's miracle cake spread throughout Hollywood, orders soared beyond his capacity to fill them...Both MGM and RKO granted screen time to his creations, and chiffon cake as added to the menu at the Brown Derby restaurant...Almost twenty years passed before Baker went public with the recipe, timing the sale of his secret of the lifting of wartime restrictions. After reading the Fortune magazine citation of Betty Crocker as the second most popular woman in America, he decided to pay her a visit. Rumors of Baker's Hollywood mystery cake preceded him. Upon his arrival in Minneapolis, intrigued General Mills executives offered him free run of Betty's kitchens...Once samples of his cake had eared the Betty Crocker seal of approval, negotiations began. However, General Mills would not strike a deal until the secret ingredient was revealed. With that, baker exposed his cake for what it was: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, five egg yolks, a cup of egg whites, lemon rind, cream of tartar, and, instead of shortening, cooking oil. While Baker contemplated what he would do with the large (undisclosed) sum, Betty's staffers got to work. Behind closed doors, General Mills' food chemists and home economists fine tuned Baker's somewhat unstable recipe for eleven months. Finally, in 1948, the recipe for Betty Crocker's Orange Chiffon Cake debuted in Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, and McCall's. The Minneapolis Tribune and others broke the news under the headline Mystery Cake--Secred Ingredient X Revealed for Baking Mammoth Chiffon...General Mills conducted market research on the Chiffon Cake and concluded it a success."
---Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food, Susan Marks [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2005 (p. 158-162)

"The first dessert the Brown Derby ever served was a cake made by a former bond salesman named Harry Baker. It was a fluffy, golden cake, neither angel food nor sponge, but infinately lighter and more delicious than either. For almost twenty years Baker baked these cakes for the Derby, refusing to divulge the secret of its recipe. In 1947 he took it to General Mills in Minneapolis, and they paid him handsomely for the recipe. Lauched as the first new cake idea in a hundred years," this is the famous Cake, which differs only slightly from the Brown Derby favorite."
---The Brown Derby Cookbook [Doubleday & Company:Garden City NY] 1949 (p. 6)
[NOTE: The chiffon cake recipe from this book is included in these notes, see below.]

"Chiffon. A very light, sweet, fluffy filing for pie, cake or pudding. The word is from the French meaning "rag"...Chiffon pie is first mentioned in American print in 1929...The 1931 edition of Irma S. Rombauer's Joy of Cooking gave a recipe for lemon chiffon, and the Better Homes and Gardens Heritage Cook Book (1975) says that "chiffon cake was invented by a professional baker and introduced in May 1948. Made with cooking oil instead of solid shortening and beaten--not creamed--this light cake was the first new cake to have been developed in one hundred years of baking." Other authorities, however, credit an amateur baker with creating the confection in 1927."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Freidman:New York] 1999 (p. 74)

"...chiffon cake, invented in the 1920s by Harry Baker, a Los Angeles insurance salesman turned Hollywood caterer. Baker sold the formula to General Mills in the 1940s. The secret of Baker's formula was cooking oil, a then unheard-of ingredient in cake."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, volume 1 (p. 163)

"Chiffon Cake. "The first really new cake in 100 years!" trumpeted Better Homes and Gardens which introduced the cake in its May 1948 issue. Neither a sponge cake nor a butter cake, chiffon cake used the newly popular salad oil and was beaten rather than creamed. The cake was invented by a California salesman named Harry Baker in 1927. Although he kept the recipe a secret for many years, the cake became famous in Hollywood where Mr. Baker made it for celebrity parties. He finally sold the recipe to General Mills in 1947--which posted gains of 20 percent on sales of cake flour after the recipe was published. Just about every flavor was popular in chiffon cakes, with lemon and orange leading the pack."
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovgren [MacMillan:New York] 1995 (p. 154)

"In the late 20s, word trickled out of California of a high-rising new cake that melted in your mouth. It's creator, a Los Angeles insurance salesman and hobby cook named Harry Baker, was soon baking his "chiffon cake" for fancy Hollywood functions as well as for the Brown Derby restaurants. But he wouldn't divulge his recipe until General Mills paid him for it in 1947. The "secret ingredient," it turned out, was vegetable oil. General Mills home economists went to work fine-tuning Baker's chiffon cake recipe, experimenting with different flavors. The company printed the basic recipe...in a leaflet in 1948 and again in 1950 in Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook, calling this the "first new cake in a hundered years" and describing it as "light as angel food, rich as butter cake."
---American Century Cookbook, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 451)

Selected recipes

[1948]
"You can bake this new cake 4 ways
"Have you tried the new cake? It's not a sponge cake, not a butter cake But a tender, airy combination of the two, called chiffon cake. We've been busy with both hand and beater and electric mixer in the Tasting-Test Kitchen--making this latest cook's wonder in new shapes and sizes, with new flavors, and with both enriched and cake flour. The method of mixing is so different, we will show you photographs from the time we pick up the flour sifter to the moment the cake comes out of the oven. Prop the pictures along side your mixing bowl and bake a Maple Crunch Cake, Pineapple Daisy Cake, or Golden Lemon Cake...Bake it big...Large recipe of new cake fills 9- by 12-inch pan. Trim with posies...Or cut Nut Bars: Dip in thin icing, then nuts. Ice Cream Cake: Cut 1/2 inch-slice as one on board. Toothpick in circle. Fill with ice cream; drizzle with chocolate sauce. Funny-Man Sundae: Cut cake with cooky cutter. Top with ice cream. Eyes are raisins; nose and mouth, cherry; hat, apricot and gumdrop... Bake it angel-size...Large recipe fills your 10-inch angel-cake pan. This is our favorite--Pineapple Daisy Cake. Pineapple juice is used for the liquid. The big cake looks like an angel, below, cuts like a butter cake. Frosting on cake, left, is Pineapple Butter Cream--bits if juicy pineapple in a creamy, rich confectioners' sugar frosting that goes on in soft swirls. Daisies decorate the top and the crystal plate...Bake it square...large recipe makes two 8- or 9-inch layers. Or if you want to make just one layer, we give you a small-size recipe...Baked, its the beginning for a spring shortcake or a Washington Pie. Strawberry Cream Cake, left: Top the cake square with whipped cream or ice cream. Fill the center with big, sugared strawberries...

Golden Lemon Cake
Bake in 8- or 9-inch square cake pan
1 1/8 cups cake flour (1 cup plus two tablespoons)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup salad oil
2 unbeaten egg yolks
3/8 cup cold water (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 cup egg whites (4)
1/4 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Bake in moderate oven 350 degrees F. 30 to 35 minutes. Or bake in 5-by 10- by 3-inch loaf pan in moderately slow oven (325) 45 to 55 minutes.

Pineapple Daisy Cake
Bake in 10-inch angel-cake or 9-by 13- by 2-inch pan
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup salad oil
5 unbeaten egg yolks
3/4 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
1 cup egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Bake in 10-inch tube pan in moderately slow oven (325) 55 minutes, then in moderate oven (350) 10 minutes. Or bake in 9- by 13- by 2 inch pan in moderate oven (350) 45 minutes. Frost cool cake with Pineapple Butter Cream Icing: Cream 1/2 cup butter or fortified margarine and 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar. Stir in 6 tablespoons well-drained crushed pineapple and 1 to 2 tablespoons pineapple juice. Beat thoroly.

Maple Crunch Cake
Bake in 5- by 10- by 3-inch loaf pan
1 cup enriched flour
3/8 cup granulated sugar (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
3/8 cup brown sugar (packed in cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup salad oil
3 unbeaten egg yolks (medium
3/8 cup cold water
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
1/2 cup egg whites (4)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup very finely chopped pecans or California walnuts
Bake in moderately slow oven (325) 50 to 55 minutes. Spread cool cake with Browned Butter Icing: Melt 1/4 cup butter; keep over low heat until golden brown. Blend in 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons cream, 1 teaspoon salad oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, 1 tablespoon hot water. Stir until cool and consistency to spread."

How to make the new cake, step by step
1. Sift flour. Spoon lightly into measuring cup. Level with a straight knife. Set sifter over big bowl. Add measured flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, sift. Maple Crunch Cake: Mix brown sugar with dry ingredients after they are sifted.
2. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Into the well in this order put the salad oil, egg yolks, liquid, vanilla or other flavoring, and grated peel.
3. Beat with a spoon or electric mixer (use low to medium speed. Beat until satin smooth. Notice how smooth the batter looks in the photograph.
4. Pick your largest mixing bowl. Measure in egg whites. Add cream of tartar. For beating, you can use a rotary beater, electric mixer, or wire whip.
5. Beat the egg whites until they form very stiff peaks. They should be stiffer than for pie meringue or angel cake. Check the egg whites you've been whipping for those in photograph. Note how small peaks hold their shape."
---You can bake this new cake 4 ways," Tasting-Test Kitchen Staff, Better Homes and Gardens, May 1948 (p. 66+)

[1949]
Here are the Chiffon Cakes, mentioned in Chapter 1, which were first introduced at the original Derby more than twenty years ago

"Basic Chiffon Cake, Serves 16-20
2 1/4 cups sifted Softasilk Cake Flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Wesson or Mazola Oil
5 medium-sized egg yolks, unbeaten
3/4 cup cold water
2 tsp. Vanilla
Grated rind 1 lemon (optional)
7 or 8 egg whites
1/2 tsp. Cream of tartar
Sift flour onto paper, then measure. Sift together into mixing bowl the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of ingredients and add, one at a time, oil, egg yolks, water, vanilla, and lemon. Beat with wooden spoon until smooth. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in large mixing bowl and whip until whites form very stiff peaks. Do not underbeat, as this must be much stiffer than for angel food or meringue. Pour egg-yolk mixture gradually over whipped egg whites, gently folding batter into whites with rubber scraper or heavy spoon until mixture is just blended. Do not stir. Pour into ungreased pan immediately. Bake in a 10-in. Tube, 4 in. deep, for 55 minutes at 325 degrees F. And then for 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. If a 9 X 13 X 2-in. Oblong pan is used, bake in 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Cake is done when top springs back when lightly touched. Remove pan and immediately turn upside down, placing tube part over neck of funnel or bottle to cool. If loaf pans are used, turn upside down and rest edges on 2 other pans. Allow cake to hand, free of table, until cold. Loosen from sides of tube with spatula, turn pan over, and hit edge sharply on table to loosen."
---The Brown Derby Cookbook [Doubleday & Company:Garden City,NY] 1949 (p. 231)
[NOTE: the other recipes in this book are for Orange, Chocolate and Walnut Chiffon cake.]

[1949]
"Fudge Chiffon Cake
Make it light! Make it right with this Betty Crocker recipe and dainty Wesson Oil!
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix 3/4 cup boiling water with 1/2 cup cocoa. Cool.
Step 1 Measure (level) and sift together 1 3/4 cups sifted Softasilk cake flour (spoon lightly, don't pack), 1 3/4 cups sugar, 3 tsp. Baking powder, 1 tsp. Salt
Make a well and add in order: 1/2 cup Wesson Oil, 7 unbeaten egg yolks (medium) the cooled cocoa mixture, 1 tsp. Vanilla, 14 tsp. Red coloring (optional)
Step 2 Whip to form very stiff peaks: 1 cup egg whites (7 or 8), 1/2 tsp. Cream of tartar. Do not underbeat.
Step 3 Pour Wesson Oil mixture gradually over whipped egg whites, gently folding with rubber scraper just until blended. Do not stir. Pour immediately into ungreased 10-in. Tube pan, 4-in. Deep. Bake 55 min. At 325 degrees, then 10 to 15 min. At 350, or until top springs back when lightly touched. Immediately turn pan upside down, placing tube-part over neck of a bottle. Let hang, free of table, until cold. Loosen sides and tube with spatula. Turn pan over; hit edge sharply on table to loosen. 16 to 20 servings. Extra luscious with:
Fudge Icing: Melt 3 tbsp. Vegetable shortening (such as nbowdrift) or butter, and 3 one-oz. Squares of unsweetened choclate over hot water. Stir 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar and 1/2 tsp. Salt into 5 tbsp. Hot milk. Add melted chocolate, beat well. Add 1 tsp. Vanilla. Add 1 more tbsp. Hot milk if needed."
---"Betty Crocker's Newest Chiffon!," New York Times, February 13, 1949 (p. SM 51)

[1951]
"Chiffon Cake
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Mazola Salad Oil
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup egg whites (7 to 8)
Mix and sift first four ingredients. Make a well and add in order, Mazola Salad Oil, egg yolks, water, lemon rind and vanilla. Beat with spoon until smooth. Add cream of tartar to egg whites. Beat until egg whites form very stiff peaks. Gently fold first mixture into egg whites until well blended. Fold, do not stir. Turn batter into ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Bake in slow oven (325 degrees F.) 70 to 75 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lighty with finger. Immediately invert pan over funnel or bottle to cool. Let stand until cold. To remove from pan loosen sides with spatula. Frost with Berry or Orange icing. For 9-inch tube cake use 1/2 the above recipe; prepare as directed. Bake in slow oven (325 degrees F.) 1 hour, or until done."
---Mazola Menu Magic [Corn Products Refining Company:New York] 1951 (p. 17)

[1956]
"Chiffon Cake.
Light as angel food, rich as butter cake. "It's the first thing I think of when planning a party," says Dorothy Quinn..."It's so easy to make, everyone likes it, and it can be served in so many glamorous ways."

Set out but do not grease....10 X 13" tube pan or 13X9" oblong pan

Sift together into bowl...1 1/4 cups sifted Softasilk or 2 cups Gold Medal flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 tsp. Baking powder, 1 tsp. Salt

Make a "well" and add in order...1/2 cup cooking (salad) oil, 5 egg yolks, unbeaten (if you use Softasilk) or 7 egg yolks (if you use Gold Medal Flour), 3/4 cup cold water, 2 tsp. Vanilla, 2 tsp. Grated lemon rind

Beat with spoon until smooth

Then measure into large mixing bowl...1 cup egg whites (7 or 8), 1/2 tsp. Cream of tartar

Beat until whites from very stiff peaks. Pour egg yolk mixture gradually over beaten whites, gently folding with rubber scraper just until blended. Pour into ungreased pan. Bake until top springs back when lightly touched. Invert on funnel. Let hang until cold.

Temperature and Time:
Make 10" tube at 325 degrees F. For 55 min., then at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 min. Bake oblong cake at 350 degrees F. For 50 to 55 mins."
---Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, Revised and Enlarged, 2nd edition [McGraw Hill:New York] 1956 (p. 162)
[NOTE: This book also offers chiffon cake recipes for Maple pecan, Butterscotch, Orange, Chocolate chip, Spice, Bit O'Walnut, Holiday fruit, Mahogany (with chocolate), Peppermint, Cherry-Nut and Banana.]

[1957]
"Lovelight Chocolate Chiffon Cake
1 3/4 sifted Softasilk [flour]
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cooking (salad) oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
2 sq. Unsweetened chocolate (2 oz), melted
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. (Mod.). Grease and flour two 8 or 9 X 1 1/2 layer pans or 13X9" oblong an. Sift into bowl flour, 1 cup sugar, soda, salt. Add oil, 1/2 cup buttermilk. Beat 1 min. Add rest of buttermilk, egg yolks, chocolate. Beat 1 min. Fold in very stiff meringue of egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar. Pour into pans. Bake 8" layers 30 to 35 min., 9" layers 25 to 30 min., oblong 40 to 45 min."
---Betty Crocker's Softasilk Special Occasion Cakes [General Mills:Minneapolis]1957 (p. 11)
[NOTES: (1) This booklet also contains recipes for Mahogany and Yellow Chiffon cakes, iced with Brown Beauty, Cocoa Fluff or Peppermint Cream toppings. (2) General Mills also manufactured Wesson Oil]

[1962]
"Chocolate Chiffon Cake
1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup vegetable oil
7 egg yolks
3/4 cup cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup egg white (9-10)
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, the sugar and cocoa into a large bowl. Make a well in the center and in it put the oil, egg yolks, water and vanilla. Beat until thoroughly blended. Beat together the egg whites, salt and remaining cream of tartar until very stiff. Fold into the chocolate mixture carefully but thoroughly. Pour into a 10-inch tube pan. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Invert and let cool in the pan (upside down) for 2 hours. (If tube pan doesn't have legs to keep top of cake away from a rack, put the center part in a bottle. Air must circulate.) Run a spatula around the edges and center tube, then turn out."
---Cakes, Cookies, and Pastries, Myra Waldo [Galahad Books:New York] 1962 (p. 20)

What about Chiffon Pie?

Chocolate molten lava cake

Decadently rich tream-filled cakes, cookies and pastries have been around for hundreds of years. They became very popular in the 19th century. Chocolate cake likewise debuted in this time period, although it did not make a regular appearance until the beginning of the 20th century. Pain au chocolate, possibly a progenitor of chocolate molten lava cake, was popular in the early 20th century.

Our survey of articles published in USA newspapers and magazines confirm recipes with this moniker begin surfacing in the early 1990s. Print evidence confirms similar recipes existed in the early 1980s. Think: Maida Heatter. In the food world, this is not unusual.

Articles reveal the first "molten cakes" were positioned as haute cuisine. They were served in trendy restaurants and featured in upscale publications (Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Ladies Home Journal). Although originally described as 'comfort food" and employing similar ingredients, it seems unlikely molten cakes originated as humble pudding cakes promoted by Mazola and Betty Crocker.

Somehow, somewhere, someplace, traditional Hot chocolate souffle rose through the culinary ranks, becoming Chocolate Souffle Cake which morphed triumphantly into Chocolate Molten Lava Cake. The evolution and attribution are unclear. Decadent chocolate desserts proliferated in the 1980s. This particular item was signature 1990s. A culinary culmination, of sorts. Upscale operations & chain restaurants celebrated together in this meltingly delicious chocolate glory.

Our survey of chocolate souffle cake recipes through time

"Chocolate Souffle-Cake
5 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 squares bitter chocolate, melted
1 cup toasted finely shredded almonds.
Beat yolks until thick; add sugar gradually, beathing thoroughly. Add salt and vanilla; stir in melted chocolate and chopped almonds; quickly fold in stiffly beten egg whites. Turn into a greased baking dish, set in pan of hot water and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 35 minutes or until firm. Serve at once, garnished with whipped cream. Yield: 6 portions."
---"She Carries Her Kitchen Along," Grace Turner, Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1940 (p. J18)

[1982]
"One of the most talked-about chocolate cakes in New York City is the Chocolate Souffle Cake from Fay and Allen's Foodworks...I have heard raves about it. It was described as a soft, moist, rich, dark chocolate mixture with a crisp, brownie-like crust! In September 1980, my husband and I were on a tour to promote my chocolate book, and were in New York only for a few hectic days. As we were checking out of our hotel I suddenly remembered the Chocolate Souffle Cake...I spoke to Mr. Mark Allen, the man who bakes the cakes...He told me that he got the recipe when he attended the Culinary Institute of America. It is a flourless mixture similar to a rich chocolate mousse, baked in a large Bundt pan. During baking, a crisp crust forms on the outside; the inside stays moist. The recipe calls for long, slow baking...

8 ounces semisweet chocolate
8 ounces (two sticks) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons salad oil
8 eggs (graded large), separated
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Optional: confectioners sugar

Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees. You will need a 10-inch Bundt pan or any other fancy-shaped tube pan with a 12-cup capacity...Butter the pan (even if it has a nonstick lining); the best way is to use room-temperature butter, and brush it on with a pastry brush. The sprinkle granulated sugar all over the pan; in order to get the sugar on the tube, sprinkle it on with your fingertips. Shake the pan to coat it all with sugar, and then invert it over a piece of paper and tap to shake excess. Set the pan aside. Break up or coarsley chop the chocolate and place it in the top of a large double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. Cut up the butter and add it, and the oil, to the chocolate. Cover and let cook until completely melted and smooth. Remove from the hot water. In a mixing bowl, stir the yolks a bit with a wire whisk just to mix. Them gradually, in a few additions, whisk about half of the hot chocolate mixture into the yolks, and then, off the heat, add the yolks to the remaining hot chocolate mixture (the mixture will thicken a bit as the heat of the chocolate cooks the eggs). Add the sugar and vanilla and stir to mix. Set aside. In a large bowl of an electric mixer add the salt to the egg whites and beat until the whites hold a point when the beaters are raised but not until they are stiff or dry. Fold a few large spoonfuls of the whites into the chocolate mixture. Then add the remaining whites and fold together gently only until incorporated. Gently turn the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 2 2/4 hours. During baking the cake will rise and then sink; it will sink more in the middle than on the edges. That is as it should be. It is O.K. Remove from the oven and let stand in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then cover the cake with an inverted serving plate. Hold the pan and the plate firmly together, and turn them over. The sugar coating in the pan forms a crust and the cake will slide out of the pan easily. Let stand until cool or serve while warm. If you wish, cover the top of the cake generously with confectioners sugar, sprinkling it on through a fine strainer held over the cake. Brush excess sugar off the plate."
---Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1982(p. 36-38)

"A flourless French chocolate cake--really a type of souffle--first received wide welcome from cooks in the United States when Dione Lucas taught them how to make it. Lucas was a pioneer in introducing French recipes to Americans in her The Cordon Bleu Cookbook (first published in 1947) has been reprinted many times. Lucas' flourless French chocolate cake was made in a jellyroll-style pan so it could be baked, filled with whipped cream and rolled. now a similar recipes, named Chocolate Souffle Cake, has cropped up in regular round shape and may be cut in wedges...

"Chocolate Souffle Cake
4-oz package sweet cooking chocolate
1/4 pound stick unsalted butter
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped cream (slightly sweetened and flavored with vanilla)
Chocolate curls for garnish, if desired
Butter bottom and sides of 8-inch springform pan. Coat with sugar, shaking ot excess. In medium saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat. Whisk in egg yolks, one at a time, until blended. Gradually whisk in 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla. In medium bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form when beater is slowly withdrawn. Fold in chocolate mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in preheated 300-degree oven until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean--1 hour and 20 minutes. Place on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. With small spatula, loosen edges andturn out on rack. Cool completely--cake will sink in center. Transfer to serving plate. At serving time, fill indented center with whipped cream and garnish with chocolate curls."
---"A New Form for Chocolate Cake Favorite," Cecily Brownstown, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1986 (p. 29)
[NOTE: Our 1947 copy of Ms. Lucas' Cordon Bleu Cook Book contains recipes titled: Roulage Leontine (Chocolate roll filled with whipped cream, possibly referenced above), Chocolate Cake (baked in deep cake tin, frosted), and Hot Chocolate Souffle (baked in souffle dish).]

[1990]
"Wolfgang's Individual Bittersweet Chocolate Souffles"
...Wolfgang is...one of the world's greatest chefs...A hot souffle is the most elegant and posh of all desserts, but it is surprisingly quick and easy to make. Although this must be served immediately when it is done, the preparation can be completed (in 10 to 15 minutes) up to about 2 hours before serving...It would take all of Hollywood's hyperbole to properly describe this. Itg has more chocolate than most souffles, with a lush, rich texture and a densley bittersweet and extgravagant flavor..."
---Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever, Maida Heatter [Random House:New York] 1990 (p. 307) [book offers recipe.]

[1991]
"New Yorkers are calling it the best dessert. Ever. Tiramisu has had it. Creme brulee, watch out. The confection in question is a small warm chocolate cake that, when cut, oozes with intensely rich molten chocolate. This year, some version of it is being served in more than a dozen restaurants. New ones are added to the list almost daily. 'Sirlo wanted me to put it on the menu,' said Jacques Torres, the pastry chef at Le Cirque, referring to Sirio Maccioni, the owner. 'A lot of people were asking for it.' A number of other chefs are preparing some version of this dessert...But Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the chef and co-owner of Jo Jo, exclaimed when asked about the runny little chocolate cakes, 'They're mine!' At Jo Jo's the dessert is called chocolate Valrhona cake with vanilla ice cream. 'Maybe there is a surprise factor,' said Lois Freedman, the manager of Jo Jo, 'The description on the menu doesn't prepare people for what to expect. But it's becoming like a cult thing, with people saying it's the best dessert they ever had...Miss Freedman said the phenomenon was especially curious because Mr. Vongerichten, who said he got the recipe from his mother, served the same dessert at Lafayette for two years before opening Jo Jo, yet it had much less impact there. Perhaps it's the element of comfort, the same mode that is driving people to want mashed potatoes in fancy restaurants. The innocent-looking cake--a classic fluted bundt shape in miniature with a dusting of confectioner's sugar and a scoop of vanilla ice cream--has an easy, unsophisticated look about it, just like the photograph on a box of cake mix. But the first bite reveals the rish, meltingly warm bittersweet chocolate inside--too good to be true...Mr. Vongerichten's recipe is elementary, calling for chocolate and butter to be melted together, then combined with eggs and egg yolks beaten with sugar. A little flour is sifted in, and the batter is poured into molds and baked for five minutes. 'It's simply underbaked, so it reminds you of when you were a kid and licked the batter bowl,' said Mr. Nish, of March, where a similar cake is made using a combination of Mexican chocolate, with its hint of cinnamon...Mr. Nish said his recipe originally came from Mr. Ducasses in Monte Carlo and he started making it two years ago when he as still at La Colombe d'Or. 'My sous-chef there, Mark May, had worked with Ducasse,"...For his part, Mr. Ducasse said he started making the cake some five years ago, but did not invent it. 'It reached a point where we were practically obliged to make it, but when it began showing up in every restaurant I took it off the menu."...Then there's Sarabeth Levine, the owner of Sarabeth's Kitchen, who said she was making little warm chocolate souffle cakes with deliciously moist centers years ago...Wolfgang Puck, the owner of Spago in Los Angeles, has been serving a similar dessert, chocolate suprise cake, for a couple of months...At Mesa Grille in New York, Bobby Flay makes a similar fallen souffle cake with a ganache center sharpened with a touch of ancho chili...Despite the variations and embellishments conceived by various chefs, the genesis might well be French home cooking as done by Mr. Vonerighten's mother...Mr. Payard of Le Bernadin said it's really not any chef's recipe at all, but something everyone's mother makes at home in France..."
---"The Cakes that Take New York Erupt with Molten Chocolate," Florence Fabricant, New York Times, November 27, 1991 (p. C3)

[1991]
"Chocolate Surprise Cake (adapted from Mary Bergin at Spago)
Total time: 2 hours, including chilling

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate
11 tablespoons unsalted butter plus soft butter for greasing molds
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons Jack Daniel's whiskey or other bourbon
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Whipped cream or coffee ice cream

1. Melt 4 ounces of the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of the butter. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
2. Combine cream and whisky in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then pour over the melted chocolate. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Place in the refrigerator and allow to cool, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is firm enough to handle, about an hour. Using a melon baller or a teaspoon, quickly form the chocolate mixture into eight truffle-sized balls. Place on a pan or plate lined with waxed paper and refrigerate.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a muffin tin or tins with 8 cups that are each 4 inches in diameter, preferable of 1 cup capacity.
4. Melt the remaining 5 ounces of chocolate and 10 tablespoons butter in the top of a double boiler over simmering water; stir and set aside.
5. Beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture thickens, triples in volume and forms a ribbon. Fold in the melted chocolate. Sift the flour over the mixture and quickly fold it in.
6. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups. Insert a chilled truffle in the center of each, place in the oven and bake 12 minutes, until the top springs back when touched lightly. Do not insert a cake tester. 7. Unmold the cakes: run a knife around the edges, then place a baking sheet over the the tin and, holding both together, invert, then carefully lift off the muffin tin. Serve at once with whipped cream or ice cream. Yield: 8 servings."
---"The Cakes that Take New York Erupt with Molten Chocolate," Florence Fabricant, New York Times, November 27, 1991 (p. C3)

[1992]
"Chocolate lava cakes
Preparation time: 35 minutes Chilling time: Several hours Cooking time: 30 minutes
Yield: 8 servings. These individual chocolate cakes have a soft center of chocolate fudge that erupts in a rich, dark puddle from the warm cakes. They're best served just out of the oven.

Chocolate lava filling: 3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped 6 tablespoons whipping cream 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla Cakes: 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped 1/4 cup hot coffee or water 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup sugar 3 large eggs, separated Cocoa powder for the tops Ice cream or custard sauce for serving.
1. For the filling, line a plastic ice cube tray with a large piece of plastic wrap. With your fingers, gently poke the plastic down into eight of the cubes so they are fully lined with plastic.
2. Melt the chocolate with the cream and corn syrup; whisk until smooth. Add the vanilla; set aside to cool until tepid. Fill the eight lined ice cubes with the chocolate; freeze at least 4 hours or cover and freeze up to a month.
3. For the cakes, place rack in center of oven and heat to 425 degrees. Generously butter eight 4-ounce souffle dishes or ramekins. Place them on a jelly-roll pan.
4. Melt the chocolate with the coffee. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes; stir in vanilla.
5. Cream the butter with 1/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stop the mixer and stir in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour and salt with a spatula.
6. Beat the egg whites with a clean mixer until they hold soft peaks. Add the remaining sugar, one tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition. Continue beating until thick and glossy. Thoroughly mix one quarter of the beaten whites into chocolate batter; gently fold in the rest.
7. Fill each prepared souffle dish about halfway full with the chocolate batter. Gently bury a frozen chocolate cube into the center of each; add remaining batter, filling cups almost to the top.
8. Bake until cakes are puffy and set, 18 to 20 minutes. Gently loosen from the sides of the dishes and invert onto serving plates. Sift cocoa over the top and serve with ice cream or custard sauce as desired."
---"Easy to Prepare Turkey Breast Plus Chocolate Lava Cakes, Ring In Holiday Celebrations," Pat Dailey, Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1992 (Food Guide, p. 5)

Coffee cake

Coffee cake (also sometimes known as Kuchen or Gugelhupf) was not invented. It evolved...from ancient honey cakes to simple French galettes to medieval fruitcakes to sweet yeast rolls to Danish, cakes made with coffee to mass-produced pre-packaged treats.

Food historians generally agree the concept of coffee cake [eating sweet cakes with coffee] most likely originated in Northern/Central Europe sometime in the 17th century. Why this place and time? These countries were already known for their traditional for sweet yeast breads. When coffee was introduced to Europe (see notes below) these cakes were a natural accompaniment. German, Dutch, and Scandinavian immigrants brought their coffee cake recipes with them to America.
The first coffee cake-type foods were more like bread than cake. They were simple concoctions of yeast, flour, eggs, sugar, nuts, dried fruit and sweet spices. Over time, coffee cake recipes changed. Sugared fruit, cheese, yogurt and other creamy fillings are often used in today's American coffee cake recipes.

"Much of the American appetite for sweet rolls and cakes comes from these specific Germans as well as from the Holland settlements that had so much influence on early New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. All of those colonial cooks made fruity, buttery breakfast or coffee cakes from recipes that vary only slightly from methods used in the twentieth century. They also share some of the responsibility for the national zest for doughnuts..."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage Books:New York] 1981 (p. 91)

"...Scandinavians were perhaps more responsible than anyone else for making America as coffee-break-conscious as it is, and for perfecting the kind of food that goes well with coffee. German women had already brough the Kaffeeklatcsh to their frontier communities, but it was in the kitchens where there was always a pot brewing on the back of the stove that Scandinavian hospitality and coffee became synonymous...The term coffee klatch became part of the language, and its original meaning--a moment that combined gossip with coffee drinking--was changed to define the American version of England's tea, a midmorning or midafternoon gathering at which to imbibe and ingest....Like the cooks from Central Europe, most Scandinavian cooks have prided themselves on simple forms of pastry making that include so called coffee breads, coffee cakes, coffee rings, sweet rolls, and buns..."
---ibid (p. 163)

According to the book Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner, it wasn't until 1879 that the term "coffee cake" became a common term. Historic American cook books bear this out. We find plenty of early American recipes for tea cakes, but the oldest recipes we find for "coffee cake" were published in the last quarter of the 19th century. Curiously enough, these cakes listed coffee as an ingredient!

Coffee cake recipes through time

[1877] Buckeye Cookery, Estelle Woods Wolcox
[1884] Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln
[1896] Boston School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer

Recipes for coffee cake [as we know it today] begin to appear in American cookbooks the turn of the 20th Century.

[1909] Coffee Cake.
Enough for 2 Cakes.
3 1/2-4 cups of flour, 1 pt. of milk, 1/4 lb of butter, 1/2 grated lemon rind, 1/4 lb of sugar, 3 eggs, 1 cent yeast.
Preparation: The milk is made lukewarm and stirred to a smooth batter with 1 1/4 cups of flour, then the yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of lukewarm milk is mixed in quickly and put in a warm place to rise. After the sponge has risen well, mix in the melted butter, sugar, grated lemon rind, the eggs and the rest of the flour, stir the dough a while with a spoon. Butter 2 tins and put in the dough about 1 inch thick, then set to rise, after this strew on sugar, cinnamon and put on small pieces of butter and some chopped almonds. Bake in medium hot oven to a nice color.

Streusel coffee cake
Preparation of the Streusel.
A piece of butter the size of an egg, 1/2 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 1/4 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of ground almonds, yeast dough like No. 8 [above coffee cake].
Preparation: The dough is prepared as given under No. 8, Coffee Cake. Instead of strewing on sugar, cinnamon and pieces of butter you make sugar crumbs as following: Melt the butter, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and almonds with it and rub to crumbs with the hands. Sprinkle over the cakes before baking."
---The Art of German Cooking and Baking, Mrs. Lina Meier [Wetzel Bros.:Milwaukee WI] 1909 (p. 335-6)

Did you know kuchen is the state dessert of South Dakota?

Crumb cake & Streusel
"Crumble is the name of a simple topping spread instead of pastry on fruit pies of the dish type with no bottom crust, such as are popular in Britain. Recipes for crumble do not appear in old books of English recipes, nor is it recorded until the 20th century. Crumble is much quicker and easier to make than pastry and it seems probable that it developed during the Second World War. It is like a sweet pastry made without water. The ingredients of a modern crumble are flour, butter, and sugar; a little spice is sometimes added...The butter is cut into the dry ingredients, and the mixture spooned onto the pie filling without further preparation...Crumble may have been inspired by a similar cinnamon-flovoured topping traditional in Australia and Central Europe for a rich tea bread or cake. The topping is called Streusel, and the cake Streuselkuchen (German streusen, to scatter). Streusel contains much less flour in proportion to sugar than British crumble, so that when baked it has a crisp and granular rather than crumbly texture, and remains firmly attached to the top of the cake. It is spread over a coating of melted butter on the raw cake, which helps it to adhere."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 230)

"Streusel. A crumb topping of flour, butter, and spices that is sprinkled and baked on breads, cakes, and muffins (1925). The term is from the German, for "something strewn together," although these toppings are certainly of German origin, although they are sometimes referred to as "danish" or "Swedish."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 312)

Sample recipe here.

A little bit of coffee history
"Coffee and coffeehouses reached Germany in the 1670s. By 1721 there were coffeehouses in most major German cities. For quite a while the coffee habit remained the province of the upper classes...By 1777 the hot beverage had become entirely too popular for Frederick the Great, who issued a manifesto in favor of Germany's more traditional drink [beer]...Four years later the king forbade coffee's roasting except in official government establishments, forcing the poor to resort to coffee substitutes, such as roast chickory root...They also managed to get hold of real coffee beans and roast them clandestinely, but government spies, pejoratively named 'coffee smellers' by the populace, put them out of business. Eventually coffee outlived all the efforts to stifle it in Germany. Frauen particularly loved the Kaffeeklatches, gossipy social interludes that gave the brew a more feminine image..."
---Uncommon Grounds : the history of coffee and how it transformed our world, Mark Pendergrast (p. 11-12)

Coffee in Europe

About galettes
The history of bread and cake starts with Neolithic cooks and marches through time according to ingredient availability, advances in technology, economic conditions, socio-cultural influences, legal rights (Medieval guilds), and evolving taste. Where does galette fit in? This is how the food historians sum it up:

"Galette. In Fance, galette is a general term for a 'round flat cake'. And not just any sweet cake, etiher (although one of the best known is the traditional puff-pastry galette des Rois, 'Kings' cake,' baked on Twelfth night), The word is also used for thin fried cakes made from potato, or for pancakes. It comes from Old French galet, 'pebble'."
---An A to Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 136)

"Galette. A flat, round cake of variable size. The galette probably dates from the Neolithic era when thick cereal pastes were cooked by spreading them out on hot stones. In ancient times people made galettes from oats, wheat, rye and even barley, sweetened with honey. Then came the hearth cakes of the Middle Ages and all the regional varieties: the galette of Correze, made with walnuts or chestnuts; the galette of Roussillon, made with crystallized (candied) fruits; the marzipan galette of the Nivernais; the curd cheese galette of the Jura; the puff pastry galette of Normandy, filled with jam and fresh cream; the famous galette of Perugia, a delicate yeasted pastry, like brioche, flavoured with lemon rind (zest) and topped with butter and sugar; and, of course, the traditonal puff pastry Twelfth Night cake (galette des Rois or gateau des Rois). Galettes are not always sweet. In rural France galettes are traditionally made with potatoes (finely sliced or pureed) or with cereals (maize, millet, oats.)."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 540)

"Galette. A flat, round cake; the word being derived from galet, a pebble weatherworn to the shape that is perfect for skipping. Buckwheat or maize crepes are also called galettes in some regions...As a cake, a galette is made of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs in infinite variations, or simply of puff pastry. The glowing galette des rois [in Britain known as twelfth night cake] found in Paris, Lyons, and generally north of the Loire is fashioned almost exclusively from the latter, the classic feuillatage. The kings' they honour are the three Wise Men come to pay homage to the newborn King of Kings in Bethlehem. The appear around the Feast of Epiphany."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 328-9)

Related food? King cake.

ABOUT DANISH
The history of cheese danish is most likely traced to ancient galettes (sweet yeast cakes) and mideastern baklava-type pastries. These foods were often filled with spiced fruits and soft cheese then topped with nuts. About cheesecake/cheese fillings.

"Danish pastries are rich confections based on a yeast dough with milk and egg, into which butter...has been folded by a method similar to that employed for making croissants...Of the various fillings, the most correct' must be the traditional Danish one, remonce; this is a Danish...term which means butter creamed with sugar and often almonds or marzipan too. But confections called Danish pastries are made in vast numbers outside Denmark, and common alternative fillings include differently flavoured sugar and butter mixtures, almond or hazelnut mixtures, jam, creme patrissiere--alone or in any combination, often with dried fruit or candied peel...The Danish name for Danish pastries is Weinerbrod, 'Vienna bread' (the name by which these recipes are known throughout Scandinavia an N. Germany, where they are also popular). "
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 242)

"The Danish pastry (for Danish, as it is often abbreviated in American English) is a comparatively recent introduction from continental patisserie; the first reference to it in English does not appear until 1934. And the connection of this rich confection of yeast dough with Denmark is fairly tenuous; it seems to have originated in Vienna, and the Austrians for some unexplained reason associated it with Scandinavia. The Danes, paradoxically, refer to it as Wienerbrod--'Viennese bread'."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 108)

"Danish pastry...A term encompassing a variety of yeast-dough pastries rolled and filled with cheese, prune, almond paste, fruit preserves, nuts or other condiments. These pastries are a staple breakfast item, especially on the East Coast, where one orders a "Danish" prefixed by the filling desired. Although the pastries may have danish origins, these flaky buns and rolls are more often associated with New York Jewish delicatessens and bakeries. With this meaning the word first appeared in print in 1928. In California Danish pastries are sometimes called "snails," because of their snaillike appearance."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 109)

"The Danes call the pastry Vienna bread because when the Danish bakers went on strike in the late nineteenth century, they were replaced by Viennese bakers who made a light, flaky pastry dough. When the Danish bakers returned to work, they adopted the dough, improving it by adding their own variations and fillings, and making it uniquely theirs." ---The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections, Carole Bloom [Hearst:New York] 1995 (p. 97-8)

ABOUT BEAR CLAWS
"Bear Claws wasn't the easiest recipe we've tested, but the results were well worth the effort -- we loved them and so will you. Bear claws are made with a sweet yeast dough or Danish pastry dough. Danish pastry comes in a variety of shapes and fillings. The bear claws we made are filled with dates, raisins and nuts. Why are they called Bear Claws? Three or four small cuts are made in the pastry. Gently bending and spreading the pastry forms a bear claw."
---"BEAR CLAWS AREN'T EASY, BUT THEY ARE DELICIOUS," Arlene Burnett, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 29, 2001, Pg. F-2,

"Bear claw. A large sweet pastry shaped like a bear's paw. 1942, San Francisco [Another variety of "snail" pastry], with raisin filling, is (from its shape) known as a "bear claw."
---Dictionary of American Regional English, Frederick G. Cassidy, chief editor [Belknap Press:Cambridge MA] 1985 , Volume I (p. 186)

Then? There's this:

"Isleta bread. A Pueblo Indian bread shaped like a bear's claw, hence the alternate names "bear claw" or "paw bread."

---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 168) Related foods? Kolache & Kuchen

"The Lane cake, one of Alabama's more famous culinary specialties, was created by Emma Rylander Lane of Clayton, Barbour County. It is a type of white sponge cake made with egg whites and consists of four layers that are filled with a mixture of the egg yolks, butter, sugar, raisins, and whiskey. The cake is frosted with a boiled, fluffy white confection of water, sugar, and whipped egg whites. The cake is typically served in the South at birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and other special occasions. The recipe was first printed in Lane's cookbook Some Good Things to Eat, which she self-published in 1898. According to chef and culinary scholar Neil Ravenna, Lane first brought her cake recipe to public attention at a county fair in Columbus, Georgia, when she entered her cake in a baking competition there and took first prize. She originally named the cake the Prize cake, but an acquaintance convinced her to lend her own name to the dessert. Lane's recipe states that the cake should be baked in medium pie tins lined on the bottom with ungreased brown paper, rather than in cake pans. She specified "one wine-glass of good whiskey or brandy" for the filling and that the raisins be "seeded and finely clipped." She also insisted that the icing be tested with a clean spoon. In Lane's time, the cake would have been baked in a wood stove. Lane also suggested that the cake is best if made a day or so in advance of serving, presumably to allow the flavors to meld. Lane used the cake recipe as the basis for other cakes in her book, some frosted with orange or lemon cream. The Lane cake has been subjected to countless modifications and twists over the years. Coconut, dried fruit, and nuts are common additions to the filling described in the original recipe. Home bakers who wish to avoid the whiskey or brandy in the original recipe have substituted grape juice, especially for children's birthdays. Another common variation is to ice the entire cake with the filling mixture. The Lane cake is often confused with the Lady Baltimore cake, another fruit-filled, liquor-laced dessert with a different pedigree. In Alabama, and throughout the South, the presentation of an elegant, scratch-made, laborious Lane cake is a sign that a noteworthy life event is about to be celebrated. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Alabama native Harper Lee, character Maudie Atkinson bakes a Lane cake to welcome Aunt Alexandra when she comes to live with the Finch family. Noting the cake's alcoholic kick, the character Scout remarks, "Miss Maudie baked a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight." Shinny is a slang term for liquor."
---Encyclopedia of Alabama,

Recipe evolution
According to the Dictionary of American Regional English (p. 287), the oldest print reference to "Lane Cake" is from 1951:
"Lane Cake. n. [Etym uncert, but see quot 1985] South, eps. AL, GA. A layer cake with a rich filling often including nuts, raisins, and brandy. 1951. Brown. Southern Cook Book 249, Mrs. Merrill's Lane Cake--Four layers--many Southerners claim this famous Lane Cake, which is simialr to the "Rocky Mountain Cake," made extensively in the Carolinas. The difference is in the filling. The Lane Cake has a rich egg-yolk filling with coconut, raisins, and nuts, while the filling for the Rocky Mountain Cake is generally white. it is said that this cake originated in Eufaula, Alabama...1985: WI Alumnus Letters, [Quoting Chicago Tribune article c. 1960;] Who really did invent Lane Cake and what is the original recipe? Emma Rylander Lane who lived in Clayton, Ala. wrote a cookbook called "A Few Good Things to Eat," published in 1898, which included Mrs. Lane's "prize recipe,"...Lane cake was served at holiday teas when guests came visiting..."
[NOTE: We do not (yet) have a copy of Mrs. Lane's cookbook. The earliest print reference we found is from 1941. See below for recipe.]

Our survey of historic American newspapers and mainstream cookbooks reveals recipes titled "Lane Cake" commanded national attention in the 1950s. Even then, recipes were few & far between. Why? Possibly because this cake contains an alcoholic kick. Similarity in ingrediets and method suggests Lane Cake descended from popular 19th century White Mountain cakes. Popular period cakes containing alcohol were Fruitcakes (white & dark, brandy & other beverages added to batter & baked in cake. A Christmas holiday favorite) and Tipsy Cakes/Puddings (alcohol added after baking, to be soaked up in cake). Perhaps Mrs. Lane "married" the White Mountain (sponge) and the Tipsy (cream custard & alcohol) to enjoy the best of both recipes? This might also explain why Mrs. Lane instructed cooks to make this cake a day or two ahead for the flavors to mature. We wonder if the judges knew about this recipe's alcoholic content before they awarded it first prize.

Survey of historic recipes & notes

[1877]
White Mountain Cake (similar ingredients & proportions, no specified filling or alcohol):

[1887]
White Mountain Cake (mentions cocoanut, no alcohol)

[1896]
Tipsy Pudding

[1941]
"Lane Cake
3 egg whites
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix as any cake, and bake in three layers.
Filling
8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup raisins
1 cup pecans
1 wineglass of wine
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Beat yolks, add other ingredients, mixing well. Cook in double boiler until thick. Spread filling between layers. Cover the cake with white icing."
---Southern Cooking, Mrs. S.R. Dull [Grosset & Dunlap:New York] 1941(p. 247)

[1952]
"Have you ever heard of a "Lane Cake"? It is a favorite down South and has coconut, nuts, and raisins in the filling. I would love to find a recipe for it...This famous cake is claimed by a lot of Southern States...and is similar to the "Rocky Mountain Cake" made in the Carolinas...

Lane Cake
Batter:
8 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup sweet milk
3 1/2 cups flour
Pinch salt
2 teaspoons baking powder (more if larger amount of flour is used)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together 4 or 5 times. The more the flour is sifted, the lighter the cake. Cream butter and sugar together until foamy. (If sugar is sifted, the cake is better.) Add to butter-sugar mixture the flour and milk alternately, using a little of each. Begin with flour and end using flour. Add vanilla and, lastly, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in four 8-inch layer-cake pans or three larger pans which have greased brown paper fitted in the bottom. After pans have been greased and floured, bake in 375 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes, depending on thickness of the layers. Allow cake to set in pans for few minutes, turn out, and fill with the following:

Filling:
8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup raisins, seeded chopped
1 1/2 cups freshly grated coconut
1 cup chopped pecans or other nuts
Pinch salt
1 cup brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the egg yolks until lemon colored. Add sugar, salt, and continue beating until mixture is light. Melt butter in top of double boiler and add egg-sugar mixture; stir constantly until thickens. Remove from heat; stir in the raisins, coconut, nuts, brandy, and vanilla. Let cool; spread between layers; then ice the whole cake with a white boiled vanilla icing."
---"Lots of Southern States Claim Recipe Rights To This Famous Cake," Ask Anne, Washington Post, February 13, 1952 (p. B6)

"There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with butter," the old lady of the mountains used to say. There are also more ways of making any one dish than this column could print in a month of Sundays. Recently, we ran a recipe for Lane Cake, oen contributed to "The Southern Cook Book," (University of North Carolina Press) by a lady in Eufaula, Ala. It immediately brought forth this protest from--guess where?--Eufaula, Ala.! Dear Anne: I have just had a letter from my sister, Anne, who lives in Washington. She enclosed a clipping from your column about the famous Lane Cake from the South. She was distressed (and so was I) that the sender of the recipe didn't give the one we used down here in Eufaula, Ala., Barbour County. For generations, this recipe has been handbed down from mother to daughter. An old story goes that Mrs. Lane who lived in Clayton, Ala., made up the recipe. It is as "Christmassy" as the smilax and the holly wreath. Lane Cake is always served with the Christmas egg nog. Here is the recipe used in my famiily for generations. You'll find not cocoanut or brandy in it. Bourbon is what makes Lane Cake tick!

Lane Cake
Whites of 8 eggs, beaten stiff
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 cups sifted flour
1 cup sweet milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
Cream butter well, add sugar, then the liquid and sifted dry ingredients, alternately. Fold in egg whites. Bake in three layers.
Filling: Beat yolks of 8 eggs light. Add 1 cup sugar, 1 stick of butter, softened, 1 cup raisins, and 1 cup shelled pecans. Stir all together and cook until thick in double boiler. Just before filling is done, add 3/4 cup bourbon whiskey. Spread between layers. Cover cake wtih white icing. C.S.G. "The Little Brown House," Eufaula, Ala."
---"Eufaula, Ala., Registers a Protest About recipes for its Famous Lane Cake," Ask Anne, Washington Post, March 2, 1952 (p. S4)

[1955]
"Lane Cake
Ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
8 egg whties-beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
Directions (Makes two 10-inch layers or one tube cake)
Cream butter and sugar together until very ligth. Sift dry ingredients together four times. Add milk to creamed mixture, alternately with the flour. Add vanilla to egg whites and fold into mixture. Bake in two 10-inch layer pans or one tube oan in 350F degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until cake springs to touch. Test with straw.

Lane Cake Filling
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
7 egg yolks-beaten
1 cup raisins-chopped
1 cup nut meats-chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 wineglass brandy
Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg yolks and cook in double boiler, stirring ingredients to mixture while it is still hot. Add brandy to mixture and spread over the cake."
---Duncan Hines Dessert Book [Pocket Books:New York] 1955 (p. 65)

"In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Monroeville, Alabama, native Harper Lee, when Aunt Alexandra comes to live with the Finch family, Miss Maudie Atkinson bakes a Lane cake to welcome her. Noting the cake’s alcoholic kick, the character Scout remarks, “Miss Maudie baked a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight.” “Shinny” is a slang term for liquor."
---Source.

[1871]
"Marble Cake.
One pound each of sugar, flour and butter, the whites of sixteen eggs, quarter of a pound of bleached and split almonds, half of a citron sliced and sufficient cochineal (which should be procured at confectioner's, as that prepared by druggists is not so suitable); cream together the buttter and flour; beat together very light the egg-whites and sugar; put all together and beat thoroughly; color onte-third of the batter any shade you like; put well-greased tissue-paper around the mould, then put in half of the white batter, a layer of citron and almonds, the colored batter, another layer of citron and almonds, and the remainder of white batter; bake in a moderate oven."
---Mrs. Porters' New Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. M.E. Porter, c. 1871, introduction and suggested recipes by Louis Szathmary [Promontory Press:New York] 1974 (p. 219-220)

[1877]
"Marble Cake"
Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, Esther Woods Wilcox

[1889]
"Marble Cake.
White part.--Whites of four eggs, one cup of white sugar, half a cup of butter, half a cup of sweet milk, two teaspoonfuls fo baking-powder, one teaspoonful of vanilla or lemon, and two and a half cups of sifted flour.
Dark part.---Yolks of four eggs, one cup of brown sugar, half a cup of cooking molasses, half a cup of butter, half a cup of sour milk, one teaspoonful of ground cloves, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, one teaspoonful of mace, one nutmeg grated, one teaspoonful of soda, the soda to be dissolved in a little milk and added after a part of the flour is stirred in; one and a half cups of sifted flour.
Drop a spoonful of each kind in a well-buttered cake-dish, first the light part then the dark, alternately. Try to drop it so that the cake shall be well-streaked through, so that it has the appearance of marble."
---White House Cook Book, Mrs. F.L. Gillette [J.A. Hill:New York] 1889 (p. 261-2)

[1901]
"Marble Cake.
White Part.--Whites of 7 eggs, 3 cups white sugar, 1 of butter, 1 of sour milk, 4 of flour sifted and heaping, 1 teaspoon soda; flavor to taste.
Dark Part.---Yolks of 7 eggs, 3 cups brown sugar, 1 of butter, 1 of sour milk, 4 of flour, sifted and heaping, 1 tablespoon each of cinnamon, allspice and cloves, 1 teaspoon soda; put in pans a spoonful of white part and then a spoonful of dark, and so on. Bake an hour and a quarter. The white and dark parts are alternated."
---The Woman's Exchange Cook Book, Mrs. Minnie Palmer [W.B. Conkey Company:Chicago] 1901 (p. 232)

[1921]
"Marble Cake
3/4 cup of butter or shortening
2 cups sugar. 1 cup milk.
3 eggs. 3 cups flour.
3 teaspoons baking powder.
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. 1/4 cup cocoa.
Cream the sugar and shortening together; add the well-beaten yolks of eggs and beat until very light; add the milk slowly to the mixture. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add half, then half the whites of eggs, which have been beaten until dry, also the remainder of flour and hwites of eggs. Divide into two parts. To the one part you add the sifted cocoa and cinnamon; mix well. Brush pan with melted shortening and dust with flour and put in first a spoonful of the dark and then a spoonful of the light dough. As there is a difference in the flours, it may be necssary to add 1/2 cup of flour to the light mixture. Your mixture must be stiff before putting in pan. Bake in moderate oven 40 minutes. It can be iced if desired."
---
Mrs. Scott's North American Seasonal Cook Book, Mrs. Anna B. Scott [John C. Winston Company:Philadelphia] 1921 (p. 45)

[1941]
"Straight to our kitchen from Mrs. Alcott's old home in New England came the receipt for Marble Cake, and it was tested faithfully and given a place in Mother's collection of cakes suitable for company, and extra nice for family fare. Mrs. Alcott herself made it on several occasions, with Emily as helper and the rest of us, more or less, hanging over the mixing bowls and spoons. Marble Cake was made in two parts, which was novel and interesting. One was light, the other dark, and the batters were arranged in the baking pan by large spoonfuls, light and dark alternating, and the cake was baked in a moderate oven about three quarters of an hour. Mrs. Alcott confessed it was the one and only cake she could make successfully, as dressmaking was her forte; but she was so neat-handed and skillful, and her Marble Cake was so delicious that we decided she was entirely too humble. But here is her receipt:

Marble Cake
Light Part
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
4 egg whites
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Dark Part
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 squares cooking chocolate
4 egg yolks
Dash of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Each part of the cake was mixed separately, flour sifted with the leavening, butter and sugar creamed, and so on. The chocolate was melted in a small saucepan set in a larger one of hot water. When Mrs. Alcott became spooning the batters in the pan, first a spoonful or two of light, then one of dark, it was quite exciting, but it was even more exciting when she took her loaves from the oven, fragrant and delicious, and iced them. The operation went something like this: first a thick white coating of frosting was applied evenly all over the top and sides, and the cake was set aside to dry. Then she would drizzle melted chocolate all over it in streaks, in order further to carry out the marble effect. At times, if the white icing had not entirely set, the chocolate would blend into it in a very realistic way, which was greatly admired."
---Victorian Cakes, Caroline B. King [Caxton Printers:Caldwell, ID] 1941 (p. 120-1)

Additional notes/Barry Popik.

About pineapples in the United States
The love and lore of pineapples, like many South/Central American commodities, was introduced to North America by European colonists. New England's classic pineapple decorative motifs reflect this heritage. Fresh fruit delivery was made possible in the mid-19th century by advances in shipping technology.

"The earliest known [English] reference to the presence of a pineapple in North America comes from William Strachey. One of hundreds of brave or deluded men willing to sail into all but the unknown where the climate was harsh, the resources limited and the natives unfriendly, Strachly arrived in Jamestown in 1609 and was soon appointed secretary of Virginia. He had heard tell of a 'dainty' and 'nice' fruit that looke a little like a pinecone...As more and more ships arrived, there were undoubtedly repeated attempts to naturalize the pineapple...The fact was that Virginia and the surrounding area simply did not suit it. To consent to grow outside its natural habitat, the pineapple demands time, attention and a finely tuned climate and soil. In the American colonies it experienced none of these...Nonetheless, it managed to maintain an imaginative presence thought the many reports of what it was said to be'...It was not long before the struggle for survival in the American colonies receded to such a degree that the great planters could at last, with sufficient time and funds, concentrate on attaining the stylish living so exalted in England...As one of the most prevalent decorative forms in the age in England, it is no wonder that the first pineapples to find a role within American cultural life were those made of stone, silver, wood or porcelain...Preserved pineapple eaten as a sweetmeat had been available in the colonies for some time...it was not long before fresh pineapple in all its luscious and exotic reality also became an option for those so long starved of treats--albeit only for the very richest. Pineapple has featured in cargoes coming north from the Caribbean (in particlar the Bahamas) since the beginning of the [18th] century, but it was not unitl the 1750s that they began arriving all through the summer months at ports along the east coast from New York to Charleston and everywhere in between. One day in the summer of 1752...the Virginia Gazette announced the arrival in Williamsburg port of seen dozen pineapples form New Providence in the Bahamas...Local grocers stocked imported fruit--if you had the ready cash..."
---The Pineapple: King of Fruits, Fran Beauman [Chatto & Windus:London] 2005 (p. 125-131) [NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Your local public librarian will be happy to help you get a copy.]

"The speed of the clipper ships was reflected in their high freight rates, which meant they carried only luxury goods, high priced enough to be able to absorb the cost...and also destined them to transport perishable cargoes, mostly food--fruit from the Mediterranean, spices from Indonesia, wheat from Australia...In the East, as the speed of coastwise vessels increased, the danger of foods decaying en route diminished, and the North could call upon the produce of the South...by the 1850s ships from Florida were delivering fruits and vegetables there [New York City] twice a month; and by the middle of the century pineapples and coconuts were arriving from Cuba, from other West Indian islands, and even from Central America."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 154)

"The pineapple was introduced to Hawaii by Captain James Cook in 1790, but it was not commercially cultivated there because of the difficulty of shipping between the islands and the United States. Throughout the nineteenth century the fruit was a rarity for most Americans, even though it was grown in Florida. In the 1880s, however, widespread cultivation was encouraged in Hawaii with the onset of the steamship trade in the Pacific, and in 1903 James Drummond Dole began canning the pineapple at Wahiawa for shipment everywhere. Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple Company had by 1921 established the fruit as the largest crop in those islands...The most popular variety there is the 'Smooth Cayenne', followed by the 'Red Spanish'. Americans eat pineaple fresh, as part of a salad or fruit cocktail, in sherbets, ice cream, and ices, in gelatin, in cocktails, and as a flavoring, including in cordials. Canned varieties include sliced rings, chunks, and crushed pieces. Pineapple juice is extremely popular and often used in mixed drinks like the Mai Tai and Pina Colada. Dishes made with pineapple are often called 'Hawaiian style'."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 242-3)

"The pineapple...originated in South America, probably in the area around the Orinoco and Negro river basins. Technical, it is not a single fruit but the fruits of a hundred or more separate flowers that grow on a central plant spike...In pre-Columbian times, pineapples grew widely in Central America and the Caribbean, where they were called anana. Caribbean Indians introduced the pineapple to early Spanish explorers...The Spanish promptly shipped some pineapples back to Spain, wehre they became an instant sensation...In North America, English colonists imported pineapples from the Caribbean beginning in the seventeenth century. The pineapple became a symbol of hospitality in America; pineapple motifs were common in the decorative arts of colonial America, including in architecture, furniture, gateposts, and silverware. Pineapple recipes appeared in English cookbooks during the eighteenth century and in American cookbooks by the early nineteenth century...Pineapples were also canned in small quantities in Florida and the Caribbean by 1882. The major American pineapple industry started in Hawaii. Pineapples had appeared in Hawaii well before it became a U.S. territory in 1898. Plantations grew pineapples that were shipped to West Coast American cities, but this was expensive. Canning in Hawaii began in 1885 but was of little importance until Jim Dole founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901...The vast increase in supply created the need to expand the market, and pineapple growers encouraged publication of pineapple recipes, which soon appeared in cookery magazines and cookbooks."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York], 2004, Volume 2 (p. 282)

History of the Dole Company

ABOUT PINEAPPLE SYMBOLISM

"Early Europeans commonly called any kind of fruit an apple; and the Spanish thought the "pineapples" they found when they arrived in South America resembled the pinecones that grew on the large stone pines of southern Europe. Pineapples and pinecones have nothing in common botanically, yet their resemblance led people to link them in myth and symbol. Both have been linked to fertility, for example...When the people of the Old World did learn of pineapples, they recognized some of the same symbolism the people of South America and the Caribbean lands recognized. The pineapple symbolized friendship and hospitality to the Caribs. These people often hung pineapples ouside their huts as a kind of welcome mat, inviting people to visit. But in Europe, other factors also came into play. Because pineapples were difficult to cultivate in European soil, the fruit quickly became and expensive product. Europeans began to associate pineapples with nobility because only the rich could afford them. Interestingly, the pinecones of the Holy Land also served as symbols of nobility...In Europe, the pineapple remained a symbol of hospitality and friendship, just as the nobitilty stood for hospitality and friendship as well as wealth and privilege. The link people recognized between pineapples and hospitality led to the use of pineapples as an architectural motif. Images of pineapples adorned entrance halls and dining rooms and served much the same purpose as the pineapples hanign outside huts in the Caribbean. A number of scholars who have identified pineapple motifs on ancient altars have suggested that the pre-Columbian Americans may have invested thei pineapples with religious significance."
---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara CA] 2000 (p. 177,179)

Trendy cooks in late 19th century America were fascinated with creating foods with interesting colorful patterns. Among the most popular items were cakes, candies, cookies, sandwiches and ice cream. These recipes were often distinguished by the term "harlequin" or "neapolitan" in the title. 20th century cooks continued to experiment. Before long, they created what is known today as the "checkerboard effect." As expected, recipes for Checkerboard Cake are all over the culinary map. Different colors, various flavors, scratch cakes, box mixes, special pans, and generic kitchenware all vie for attention on this particular cake stand.

[1884]
"Harlequin Cake," Boston Cooking School Cook Book/Mrs. D.A. Lincoln [layers, not checkerbooard]

[1905?]
"Checkerboard Cake," [Los Angeles] Times Cook Book [cooked in "jelly tins."]

[1925]
"Mrs. Genevieve Beatty, demonstrator of Estate Gas Stoves, is in the Stove Department, giving talks and explaining, among other things, how the famous Estate "Checkerboard Cake" is made."
---Display ad, Estate Gas Ranges, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1925 (p. B5) [NOTE: recipe not offered.]

[1930]
"Checker Board Cake
...You will have to procure a checkerboard cake pan to be able to make this cake. One cupful of butter or shortening, two cupfuls of sugar, six cupfuls of flour, eight level teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one-half a cupful of ground chocolate, one and one-half teaspoonfuls of salt, the yolks of three eggs, the whites of six eggs, two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice and two cupfuls of water. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, sifting them three times, sifting the flour once before it is measured. Cream the butter and sugar together, adding the sugar a little at a time and creaming well. Add alternately with the water to the creamed shortening and sugar, add the lemon juice and three tablespoons of vanilla extract. Divide the mixture into two equal parts, mix the chocolate with one-third of a cupful of water, add to it the well-beaten egg yolks and cook until smooth. To one part of the mixture add the cooked eggs stiff and add half of them to each one of the mixtures, folding in well. Pour into the checkerboard pans alternating the white and chocolate. This will make three large layers. Place in a moderate oven and bake."
---"Page for Food Shoppers: Practical Recipes Chef Wyman's Answers," Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1930 (p. A7) [NOTE: this article does not describe or illustrate the "checkerboard" pans.]

Making the cake using standard layer cake pans:

[1960]
"No magic...no special pans are required for this imaginative cake. Sherry and chocolate mint cake mixes are your only trick. Bake both chocolate mint and cherry cake mixed according to package directions. Pour batters into four 9-inch pans. Bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes or until cakes test done. Cool 10 minutes. Turn out cool thoroughly. To make checkerboard: With a coffee can, mark ring on one layer of both chocolate mint and cherry supreme cakes. With a 3-inch cookie cutter make second ring in the center of the first. Cut along marked lines. To build cake: Place outer ring of chocolate mint cake on serving plate. Fill-in with cherry ring and then the small chocolate mint center ring. Cover with layer of pale pink fluffy frosting. Top with second layer of cherry supreme outer ring and fill in with inner circles of chocolate mint and cherry center. Swirl sides and top with remaining fluff-pink frosting. The two remaining layers may be filled and frosted for freezing."
---"Checkerboard Cake Delights Yule Guests," Chicago Daily Defender, December 14, 1960 (p. 18) [NOTE: photo of cake included in this article.]

[1966]
"Pink Checkerboard Cake. Grease and flour two round layer pans, 9 X 1 1/2 inches. Make circle dividers for center of pans by folding two pieces of foil, 13 X 6 inches, lengthwise twice, forming two strips, each 13 X 1 1/2 inches. Shape strips into 4-inch circles; fasten each with a paper clip. Place a foil circle divider in center of each prepared pan. Prepare Betty Crocker White Cake Mix as directed on package. Divide batter in half. Tint half light pink and blend in 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Fill center of foil divider in one pan with pink batter and the outer circle with white batter. Fill center in other pan with white batter and outer circle with pink. (Batter in both inner and outer circles should be level.) Remove foil dividers and bake as directed on package. Cool. Prepare Betty Crocker Cherry Fluff Frosing Mix as directed on package. Use layer with white center as bottom layer; fill and frost cake."
---Betty Crocker's Cake and Frosting Mix Cook Book [Golden Press:New York] 1966 (p. 80) [EDITORS NOTE: Make sure you find & remove the paper clip before serving to your guests!]

Cheesecake is a food rich in history, culture, tradition and ceremony. It is not the invention of a single person but a result of culinary evolution. The origins of cheesecake are grounded in ancient agricultural practice, tempered by local resources, and tweaked by technological advancement. In short, cheesecake is a perfectly good example of the dedicated human quest for good tasting food. Cheeseless cheesecakes (sweet, rich custard pies) began to appear in English cookbooks in the 17th century. Chess pie, a popular Southern American favorite, is descended from these.

Before there was cheesecake, there was cheese...

"...Cheese actually dates back to the earliest domestication of animals, at about 9000BC and it had been made wherever animals produced more milk than people use in fluid form....Archaeologists have established that cheese was well known to the Sumerians (4000BC), whose cuneiform tablets contain references to cheese, as do the Egyptian and Chaldean artifacts. It is as much a staple of the Old Testament as honey and almonds and wine, and is associated with stories of great daring...The Greeks were so fond of cheese that they rewarded their children with it as we give ours candy--and "little cheese" was a special term of endearment. Their Olympic athletes also trained on a diet consisting mostly of cheese....and the island of Samos was noted for cheese-cakes, for which Athenaeus even gives us a recipe: "Take some cheese and pound it, put in a brazen sieve and strain it, then add honey and flour made from spring wheat and heat the whole together into one mass." Wedding cakes of that early era were almost invariably cheesecakes, and at Argos it was customary for the bride to bring little cakes that were roasted, covered with honey, and served to the bridegroom's friends."
---The Cheese Book, Vivienne Marquis & Patricia Haskell [Leslie Frewin:London] 1966 (pages 18-19).

"Every market in Greece sold cheeses to those who could not make their own, and by the fourth century BC the popular fresh white Greek cheeses were being flavored with herbs and spices and baked into all manner of cakes and pies...The Roman Empire used cheese a great deal in cooking....Cato mentions a sauce based on salt which was used to preserve cheese and gives the recipe for a celebration wedding cake, in which the main ingredient was cheese, spiced and flavoured with grape must, fat, aniseed and bay leaves; this was also baked on top of bay leaves which impaired their agreeable aroma to the concoction....Apicus, the foremost Roman gastronome, included a very elaborate dish among his recipes, served cold, in which the cheese was blended with honey, peppermint, watermelon, vinegar and many other ingredients."
---Cheese: A Guide to the World of Cheese and Cheesemaking, Battistotti, Botazzi et al. (pages 12-14).

"Curds were still incorporated in certain cooked dishes which had survived from medieval times. The spiced cheese tarts of that period were continued in tarts of curds which were still known a cheesecakes in the seventeenth century...Fresh curds formed the basis of the filling, supported by eggs, spices and sometimes currants. By the middle of the century, some cheesecake recipes contained neither cheese nor curds, but instead a rich custardy mixture of eggs, butter, flour and unrenneted cream, duly sweetened and spiced....A further development a few decades later was the lemon cheesecake. Its filling consisted of pounded lemon peel, egg yolks, sugar and butter...Orange cheesecakes were made in similar fashion, from the skins of Seville oranges which were first boiled in two or three waters to take off their bitterness."
---Food and Drink in Britain, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 172-173).

ABOUT CREAM CHEESE
Cream cheese is a complicated topic. According to the food historians, soft, fresh country cheese (cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, farmer's cheese, Neufchatel) were probably the first cheeses known to man. Soft cheese were injoyed by Ancient Romans and Greeks. Creamier cheese were produced and perfected by European countries, most notable France. Medieval cookery books contain several recipes which include soft cheese both savory and sweet. When cheesemakers immigrated to the United States, they brought their craft with them. Food historians generally agree that cream cheese, as we Americans know it today, was first manufactured in upstate New York in the latter half of the 19th century. There is, however, evidence suggesting cream cheese was manufactred earlier in the Philadelphia area (1861/D. Bassett Co.).

"Those curds and whey Miss Muffet was addressing herself to before the arrival of her uninvited guest were, of course, the sixteenth century forerunner of our cottage cheese. Even at that time, however, it had a venerable history, for although its origins are obscure, there is little doubt that this sour and separated milk--curds and whey--was the beginning of what we now call cheese...In piecing together the story of how fresh cheeses were first made, it seems likely that early nomadic tribesmen, wandering with their flocks, must at times have had a good deal of sour milk to dispose of. After using what they could, they were faced inevitably with the choice of throwing the rest away or carrying it with them--a hard decision for poor people who had to keep moving to keep alive. At some point or other--some say about 9,000 years ago--these wanderers appear to have realized that milk, like meat, could be more easily preserved and transported if it could somehow be dried. Eventually they hit upon two ways of doing this. One, probably the first, involved the process of evaporation: they put fresh milk into shallow earthenware unensils and exposed it to the heat of the sun. The milk first turned sour and then began to evaporate. The result was a semi-dry acid curd characteristic of the fermented milk preparation we know today as yoghurt. This was also probably the primitive beginnings of cream cheese, for the first cream cheeses were--and some are today--simply dried cream...In any event, the simplest way to make a cream cheese...it is pour heavy cream into a perforated box lined with two loose layers of cheesecloth. In about four days, the cream's superflous moisture will have evaporated or drained away, leaving a firm but spreadable cheese...Many variations of pot cheese and cream cheese can be found in every country that makes cheese...Even India, which makes practically no cheese, has a kind of cottage cheese called Surti and a cream cheese called Surtal. The list is endless..."
---The Cheese Book, Vivienne Marquis and Patricia Haskell [Leslie Frewin:London] 1966 (p. 25-7)

"Cream-cheese. A soft, rich kind of cheese, made of unskimmed milk enriched by the addition of cream; a cheese of this kind."
---Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Volume III (p. 1132) [NOTE: The OED traces this phrase in print to 1583.]

"Up to the eighteenth century a great deal of cheese was eaten in Europe, and especially France. The people of high rank developed a sweet tooth. Sweet desserts became so popular that the only kind of cheese considered elegant was cream cheese heavily sweetened and flavoured with perfumed oils. Rove sheep's milk cheese sprinkled with orange-flower water is still a specialty of Marseilles. Eaten in the evening, it is supposed to be an aid in slumber."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 117)

Martha Jefferson's cream cheese recipe.

"'Cream cheese although so called, is not properly cheese, but is nothing more than cream dried sufficiently to be cut with a knife' Thus Mrs. Beeton in in 1861. Her comment was pertinent in that the simplest form of cream cheese is made by draining cream through a muslin and leaving it for a few days until it becomes as firm as butter. But what is normally offered as cream cheese is produced in a more sophisticated manner, and is rarely made from cream alone. Most kinds of cream cheese are made from a mixture of cream and milk, inoculated with lactic acid-producing bacteria chosen to produce the desired degree of acidity. The mixture may or may not need rennet to precipitate the curd. Although the bacteria are allowed some time in which to do their work, a cream cheese is not matured...The most important cream cheese, in terms of quality, must be Philadelphia cream cheese; it has long been the principal American variety, and cream cheeses are said to account for a quarter of all cheese eaten in the USA. Well-known French cream cheese include...Fontainbleu, Boursin, Brillat-Savarin, and Explorateur...The Scottish caboc, known since the 15th century, was Sir Walter Scott's favorite kind of cheese. It became extinct but had been revived as a rich cream cheese, made from double cream and given a crust of toasted pinhead oatmeal."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.225)

ABOUT CHEESECAKE
The process for making cream cheese and recipes for cheesecake originated in Europe. They were brought to America by the first waves of European settlers. The English, French, and Germans each developed their own recipes, according to cultural taste and period technology. Certainly, each culture's cheesecakes contribute to the melting pot of American cuisine.

Ancient Roman cheesecake

"Libum means cake'. What kind of cake? It is often talked of by Roman poets, but what they say does not always match Cato's recipe. Libum was sometimes a sacrificial cake such as was offered to household sprirts in the early years of Roman history; it was sometimes a farmhouse cake, served hot; it as sometimes a delicate honey cake that was served at the very end of an elaborate Roman dinner...All the ancient writers associate Libum with honey--all except Cato, and he is the only one who actually gives a recipe...Cato's libum is a delicious savoury cheesecake, very successful when served hot. The cheese that is used can be quite salty and mature...and the resulting texture, with golden-brown crust and soft centre, is similar to that of a modern baked cheesecake. If, on the other hand, we take it that the proper thing was to add honey, a soft unsalted cheese must be chosen: the combination of salty cheese and honey is unappetising."
---The Classical Cookbook, Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger, [J.Paul Getty Museum:Los Angeles CA] 1996 (p. 92-96)
[NOTE: This book contains translations of Cato and modernized recipes.]

[1st century AD] Sweet Libum, Cato

"...the earliest actual recipe for a cheesecake is found in the Forme of Cury (14th Century). Hannah Wooley's Queen-Like Closet (1664) gives a cheesecake recipe which sounds quite modern."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 158)

A brief survey of historic cheesecake recipes

• [1390:London] Tart de Bry, Forme of Cury

• [1545:London] To Make a Tarte of Chese, Proper newe Booke of Cookery
• [1669: London] To Make Cheese-Cakes, Closet of The Eminently Leaned Sir Kenelme Digbie Opened
• [1720s:London] Chees Cakes, Receipts of Pastry and Cookery For Use of His Scholars, Ed. Kidder
• [1803:New York] Cheesecakes after the best manner, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter (keep paging for more recipes)
• [1866:Philadephia] Orange, Lemon, Curd & Cottage-Cheese cakes, National Cook Book, Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson (recipes p.123-5)

Need more details? Ask your librarian to help you obtain the following books:

• Cheesecake, Lou Pappas, 1993
• Cheesecake Extraordinare, Mary Crownower, 1994
• Joy of Cheesecake, Dana Boubjerg & Jeremy Iggers, 1980

NOTE: Not all recipes for cheese cakes were sweet desserts made with creamy cheese. Evidence here:

"Cheese cakes
2 tablespoons butter
3 1/2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons grated American cheese
Whites 3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
few grains cayenne

Melt butter, add flour, and stir until well blended; then add cheese and cut and fold in whites of eggs beaten until stiff. Season with salt and cayenne. Drop from tip of spoon on a buttered sheet one inch apart and bake in a moderate oven."
---Catering for Special Occasions with Menus and Recipes, Fannie Merritt Farmer [1911] (p. 76)

Philadelphia cheesecake
Primary sources reveal cooking methods relating to early Phildadelphia-area cheesecakes.

"The German element was an influential one in Philadelphia well into the latter half of the 19th century. In many areas of food production, such as bread and biscuit baking, the manufacture of chocolate and mustard, butchering, and tavernkeeping, the Germans reigned supreme. However, love of cheesecake was shared by both English and German-speaking Phildadelphians, and early in the 18th century, this love became something of a local cult at the Cheesecake House. Situated on the west side of 4th Street, on grounds extending from Cherry Street to Apple Tree Alley, the Cheesecake House stood in the middle of a pleasure garden shaded by cherry and apple trees...Even in 1848, nearly a century after it had disappeared, the Cheesecake House was still fondly remembered in the Sunday Dispatch."
---35 Receipts From "The Larder Invaded," William Woys Weaver [Library Company of Philadelphia and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania:Philadelphia] 1986 (p. 18)
[NOTES: (1) This book contains a German recipe for cheesecake (with English translation), circa 1791. If you need this ask your librarian to help you obtain a copy. (2) William Woys Weaver is considered to be a leading expert on Pennsylvania Dutch foodways. The second edition of his book, Saurerkraut Yankees, was recently published. It contains excellent notes regarding the foodstuffs/primary sources connected with this culture and cuisine.]

[1866:Philadephia] Orange, Lemon, Curd & Cottage-Cheese cakes, National Cook Book, Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson (recipes p.123-5)

NEW YORK CHEESECAKE
The history of "New York Style" cheesecake begins with upstate New York creameries which developed a unique American type cream cheese. "New York Style" cheesecake became famous in the 1920s when it was featured by popular Jewish Delis (Lindy's, Junior's etc.) in the greater New York area. Molly O'Neill hits it right on the head: "Just as the city cannot claim to have invented steak, New York can't claim to be the birthplace of cheesecake. But historic detail has never stopped New Yorkers...New Yorkers wave a dismissive hand to...facts...and say that cheesecake wasn't really cheesecake until it was cheesecake in New York."--New York Cook Book, Molly O'Neill [Workman Publishing:New York] 1992 (p. 436)

What makes it New York cheesecake?

"Say Cheesecake
Q. I've heard that the recipe for cheesecake, that classic New York dessert, came here from Italy. A friend insists that it was "invented" here at the turn of the century. Care to get mixed up in this?

A. You're both at least partly correct. New York cheesecake, the kind made famous this century in restaurants like Reuben's, Lindy's and Junior's, is considered by some to be a dense, sweet, creamy adaptation of traditional Italian cakes made with curd or cottage cheese. Recipes for coarser, less sweet ricotta cakes like the Tuscan crostata di ricotta and the Neapolitan pastiera have been around for centuries, according to Matt Sartwell, a resident scholar at the Kitchen Arts and Letters store in Manhattan. In fact, the writings of Cato the Elder, the Roman statesman and moralist of the second century B.C., include a recipe for "savillum," a relatively simple honeyed ricotta cheesecake. But it wasn't until about 1872 that cheesecake baking as we know it in New York become practical and popular, according to "Cheesecake Madness" by John J. Segreto (1996, Biscuit Books). That was when William Lawrence of Chester, N.Y., accidentally developed a method of producing cream cheese while trying to duplicate the French Neufchatel. Soon after, a dairyman living in South Edmeston, N.Y., produced a particularly silky version for the Empire Cheese Company, which was later sold under the brand name Philadelphia Cream Cheese. "The New York-style cheesecake that we know depended on the development of this cheese," Mr. Sartwell said. He added that the graham cracker crust, another American innovation, would have been impossible before the cracker was introduced early this century."
---"Say Cheesecake," Daniel B. Schneider, New York Times, September 21, 1997 (p. CY2)

"Many nineteenth-century American cookery books do include recipes for cheesecake, beginning, as often as not, with the curdling of the milk with rennet. But the silky, cream-cheese cheesecake is something else again, a turn-of-the-century arriviste introduced, for the most part, by Jewish delicatessens in New York City. [Merle] Evans even traces the beginning of "the New York cheesecake saga" to the 1920s and attributes it to "an enterprising delicatessen owner, Arnold Reuben [who] opened a restaruant on 58th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues" at that time. Soon Reuben had rivals, among them Leonard's...Juniors...Lindy's, a Broadway restaurant...According to Molly O'Neill...the smooth, rich cheesecake served at Lindy's in the 1940s became the quintessential "New York Cheesecake," the one by which all others are judged."
---The American Century Cookbook, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 390)

"What we mean when we say cheesecake
In the case of New York Cheesecake, an Eastern-European-style cake made from pot and cream cheeses was claimed as the city's own...Early versions of the cake were probably heavy. In Bronx Primitive, her memoir of growing up in the Bronx, Kate Simon recalls the "cementlike cheesecakes" that her mother made on Fridays. The confection moved from homes to resturants. Bt 1940, cheesecake was the main call at Lindy's, the fabled theater-district restaurant that actors and actresses jammed for late-night dessert. The Guys & Dolls razzle-dazzle that surrounds Lindy's cheesecake may not be the only reason that Lindy's became synonomous with New York cheesecake. Between homes like the Simon's and restaurants like Lindy's, Eastern European cake experienced an unbeatable lightness of being. The recipe for Lindy's smooth cake has appeared in numerous cookbooks... "
---New York Cook Book, Molly O'Neill [Workman Publishing:New York] 1992 (p. 436-7)

About Lindy's:
"Sturgeon Saga of the Main Stem," Meyer Berger, New York Times, May 22, 1949 (p. SM20)
[NOTE: The New York Times Historic database (1851-2001) in an excellent resource for researching New York style cheesecake. Here you will find articles on companies, restaurants, and cheese. If you would like to pursue, ask your librarian to help you find this database.]

Immigrants Helped Create a Cake to Celebrate the Holiday, Linda Morel, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The Jewish Cook Book, Florence Kreisler Greenbaum [Block Publishing:New York] 1918 contains three recipes for cheesecake: "Topfa Dalkeln. Cheese Cakes (Hungarian)" (p. 222) and "Cheese Cake or Pie" (p. 227) and "Covered Cheese Cake" (p. 250).

Need recipes? Try these!

"Lindy's New York-Style Cheesecake
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 pounds (5 large packages) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
5 whole eggs
1/4 heavy (whipping) cream
1. In a bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour with 1/4 cup of the sugar, 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest, and 1/4 teaspoon of the vanilla. Form a well in the center and add 1 egg yolk and all fo the butter. Work with a fork to make a dough. Add up to 2 tablespoons of water, if necessary, to make a pliable dough. Form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
3. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the cream cheese, the reamaining 1 3/4 cups sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest, and all of the orange zest and beat well. Add the 5 whole eggs, the remaining 2 egg yolks, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and beat well. Add the heavy cream and beat well.
4. Roll out one-third of the chilled dough on a floured surface; the dough witll be very moist and fragile. Roll it out in pieces and evenly press them, with your hands, into the bottom of the prepared pan. Don't worry if it looks like it is going to fall apart. Bake until golden, 15 minues, and cool in the pan on a wire rack.
5. Roll out the remaining dough in pieces and evenly shape them to fit the sides of the pan, a piece at a time. Make sure that there are no holes in the curst and try to keep the edges neat.
6. Increase the oven temperature to 550 degrees F. Pour the cream cheese mixture into the crust. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 200 degress F and continue baking or 1 hour. Turn of the heat and keep the oven door open wide. Let the cake cool in the oven for 30 minutes.
Serves 8 to 10.

"Junior's Cheesecake
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons sifted cornstarch
30 ounces (3 3/4 large packages) cream cheese, softened
1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan. Lightly coat the bottom of the pan with the graham cracker crumbs and refrigerate the pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and cornstarch. Beat in the cream cheese. Beat in the egg. Slowly drizzle in the heavy cream, beating constantly. Add the vanilla and stir well. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is golden, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 3 hours. Serves 8 to 10."
---New York Cookbook, Molly O'Neill [(p. 434-5) [Workman Publishing:New York] 1992

ABOUT PHILADELPHIA CREAM CHEESE IN NEW YORK

"William A. Lawrence was in the creamery business in Chester [New York, Monroe County] in 1872 when he entered the cream cheese business...'Legend among the old timers of Chester is that Mr. Green and his cheese making friend were discussing the recipe...and Mr. Lawrence came into the barn, heard them talking, stopped and listened throught a knot-hole in the wall. Heard the recipe given by the Swiss man, and promptly went home and made cream cheese.'...The American product known as cream cheese was made in the manner of Neufchatel, with extra cream added to the mixture. Mr. Lawrence labeled his product Philadelphia cream cheese (not to be confused with Philadelphia Brand cream cheese) because he sent it to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to be packaged a shipped to his buyers. Early production amounted to only a few pounds each day. Made in cylinders of about two and three-quarters by one a half inches, the cheeses were rolled in tissue paper and padded with straw for shipping in empty boxes obtained from grocers...Cream cheese production in Central New York began around 1880 at the Crystal Palace Factory in McDonough, R. Johnston and Co. In Afton, and the Empire in South Edmeston. The region was known for fine dairy herds...The high quality cream cheese packed under the label of the "Philadelphia Brand" was made at South Edmeston for nearly one hundred years...The origin of the "Philadelphia Brand" has been the subject of countless debates between legislators as well as cheese makers and local residents who remember the heyday of its manufacture in their valley. Although the word "Philadelphia" was included in the name of the cream cheese made in Chester about 1872 and in Philadelphia, New York, in the 1880s, this brand name was legally established for the cheese made in the Empire Factory in South Edmeston. It signified that the cheese was of the traditional high quality of foods produced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."
---The History of Cheese Making in New York State, Eunice R. Stamm [Lewis Group:Endicott NY] 1991 (p. 180-2)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be pararphrased here. If you need more details ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

According to the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov) Kraft's Philadelphia Brand cream cheese was first used in commerce September 1, 1880 (registration #0392212).

"Kraft company records place the invention of cream cheese in the hands of a New York Dairyman named William A. Lawrence, who first experimented with it and saw potential in the mixture he fashioned from milk and cream in 1872; he called the product Star Brand. The cream cheese became so popular that other dairies in the New York area began manufacturing a smimlar product. In 1880 a cheese distributor named C.D. Reynolds forged a deal with Lawrence for the latter to supply a steady flow of cream cheese. At the same time, Reynolds purchased another cream cheese production facility, the Empire Cheese Company of South Edmeston, New York. The name "Philadelphia" was adopted for the product because the Pennsylvania city was treasured as the seat of high-quality foods, particularly dairy products...In 1924 J.L. Kraft & Bros. Co., which had produced and provided processed cheese to the U.S. government armed forces in World War I, went public as Kraft Cheese Company and entered the cream cheese market. Four years later, Kraft merged with Phenix [Cheese Company], continuing the production of Philadelphia Brand cream cheese and introducing new products like Velveeta pasteurized process cheese spread...Compared to Camembert and other rich, soft cheese of Europe, Philadelphia Brand cream cheese was originally made in U.S. locations that could easily provide production plants with fresh milk and cream...Because of several patented adjustments to the production process in the mid-1940s, the life span of the cheese jumped from an original couple of weeks to about four months...Central to Kraft's success at positioning Philadelphia Brand cream cheese as one of the most recognizable products in the American marketplace was the company's unflappable committment to media saturation and advertising..."
---"Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese," Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands, Janice Jorgensen editor [St. James:Detroit] 1994 Volume1: Consumable Products (p. 452-453)
[NOTE: This book has much more information than can be paraphrased here. You librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy.]

"Cream cheese became available to everyone after Isaac and Joseph Breakstone of the Breakstone Company produced "Breakstone's Downsville Cream Cheese" (named after the New York Commuity where it was made) in 1920. It became immediately popular among Jewish communities in New York City as a spread for bagels."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 106)

Washington cakes

"Washington Cakes" have been popular up and down the east coast for hundreds of years. Both George & Martha versions come in several varieties. In the most traditional sense, "Washington Cake" is a dense, creamy fruit cake with white icing. Philadelphia-style Washington Cakes are completely unique.

Traditional recipe, courtesy of Mt. Vernon. Modernized version here

"Washington Cake" can also be a spice cake without fruit. This type of cake was more like gingerbread. Modernized recipe courtesy of Old Sturbridge Village.

"George Washington" cakes are all over the culinary map. Many popular versions feature cherries in some way (cake, icing, decorations, etc.). Some recipes features apples. In the 1950s-1970s there was also a George Washington brand cake mix.

Philly-style Washington cake Over the years several people have written to us in search of the recipe for Philly area "Washington Cake." This item was sold in bakeries circa 1950s-1960s.It is generally described as a dark spice cake (akin to gingerbread, sometimes with chocolate) with chocolate frosting. This product was made in sheets and sold by the piece. We find several references, but no recipes. So far. If you have a recipe please send it in!

"If it's a normal Tuesday, you will find beneath the carved oak art deco paneling at Haegele's Bakery (est. 1930) shelves bearing handmade jelly rolls and flaky pastries called Lady Locks, banana cream pies, and bacon-and-egg-studded breakfast bread, sliced almond cookies the color and shape of ivory domino tiles, golden honey buns and honest-to-goodness cinnamon buns, Washington Cake - a spice cake frosted with chocolate icing - and, finally, in the precise spot in the cases that most of them have commanded for more than half a century, the Tuesday items - apple fritters, egg-washed tea biscuits, lush lemon meringue pie, and an airy, supremely moist, rum-soaked Rum Ring coffee cake unlike any you will encounter elsewhere in rowhouse Mayfair - or the city beyond."
---"Before Lent's fast, the fastnacht At Haegele's in Mayfair, they're gearing up for the German doughnut's big day," Rick Nichols, Inquirer Columnist, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 22, 2004

Haegeles is still in business. No Web site, company contact here:
4164 Barnett Street, Philadelphia, PA 19135
(215)624-0117

George Washington Cake/Philly discussion (gingerbread-type cake with chocolate icing)

Another Philly-area variety:
"Hanscom Washington Birthday Specials Decorated Washington Log...choice of lucious chocolate cake with a marshmallow filling or a rich, yellow sponge cake with jelly filling, .49 each Decorated Cherry Iced Layer Cake...A delightful cherry frosting surrounds this egg-rich yellow layer cake, $1.10... 20 Candy and Bake shops in Philadelphia, Norristown and Camden."
---Ad placed in Philadelphia Inquirer February 22, 1958 (p. 27)

Wedding cake

There are plenty of Web sites offering brief histories of wedding cake, many citing to ancient Roman rituals [crumbling cake on the bride's head], medieval customs [piling cakes to signify good luck and wealth], 17th century improvements [an unkown French chef is often said to have iced the conglomeration of heretofore medieval cake offerings and created the first true wedding cake]. Are these stories true? According to Wedding Cakes and Cultural History by Simon R. Charsley, most of this information was created in the Victorian era in to satisfy late 19th century cultural demands. It is not documented fact. Wedding Cake: A Slice of History/Carol Wilson, Gastronomica, sums the topic up nicely.

"The Victorian myth of origin
The degree to which the wedding cake and the uses to which it is put in twentieth century Britain have become standardized may well mislead when the past is considered. Even the degree of standardisation already present in the later nineteenth century misled J. C. Jeaffreson whose Brides and Bridals [1872] offered a pioneering account of the history of the cake. Other writers have subsequently followed him, sometimes themselves adding to the confusion by misinterpreting his words in terms of the cakes with which they were familiar in their own day...
...Jeaffreson's history is...an interesting example of the myth-making of its period. Like others...he was led by a sense that, to be properly grounded, contemporary practice must have a lineage going back to ancient Rome. This was to make a link with the region of history so special for the identity of European societies as they developed out of the middle ages as to be labelled classical'. At times and amongst people aware of their own imperial status, such links were at a premium...The story Jeaffreson told began, therefore, with an ancient Roman marriage practice involving the breaking of a cake over the bride's head. It jumped to evidence from the England of a thousand and more years later, for the pouring or throwing of grain, and from this to supposed survivals around Britain as late as his own century of the breaking of biscuit, 'cake' or bread' over the bride...
...It was, Jeaffreson considered, with the arrival in England of French confectionery skills and influences at the Restoration in 1660 that the pile of cakes was consolidated with an overall covering of icing and decoration....There is no doubt that this story is fanciful and wrong, though its subsequent repetition shows that he had created a myth which would appear appropriate to those few who have thought to question the cake's origins."
---Wedding Cakes and Cultural History, Simon R. Charsley [Routledge:London] 1992 (p. 29-30)
[NOTE: this book examines the culinary history, social traditions and cultural variations of fancy cakes in several cultures. It is well documented and contains an extensive bibliography for further reading]

Does this mean cake was not served at weddings before Victorian times? Of course not!
Across all eras, cultures and cuisines, the very finest foods are traditionally saved for the most important celebrations. Weddings are considered quintessential human affirmations of the continuing march of human life. In ancient times, it was quite possible that honey and other sweet cakes might have been served as part of the wedding feast. Medieval wedding feasts typically included fine cakes and puddings made with dried fruit. Traditional European holiday fruitcakes and plum puddings descended from this tradition. These confections, however, did not assume the elevated position of today's wedding cake. It has been suggested by some food historians the ritual of wedding cake may derive from religious practices. In Christian religions, the sharing of bread-type products (communion) signifies committment. Some other religions have similar traditions.

"In the medieval period neither cakes in the usual modern sense nor icing had yet appeared. Nothing directly equivalent to the wedding cake could thereforh have any part in the celebration of marriages. Feasts and celebations might be held but marriage was simply their occasion. No specialized food object had a place at them, not was there as far as has been recorded any special action of a ritual nature using any food item as part of the wedding. Medieval feasting is nevertheless one of the roots from which cakes and their use in weddings were to grow....Decoratively presented foods and those using imported ingredients of high cost were features of medieval feasting. Dishes, often combining both, were developed in the highest reaches of society where the wealth for their creation was available and display was an important prop to status and power..."
--- and Cultural History, Charsley (p. 36)

About cake-breaking traditions in the British Isles

"...one ancient custom continued unabated. This was the strewing of grain over the bride's head, though by the eighteenth century the wheat of tradition was likely to have been joined or replaced by comfits. These sugar-coated nuts and seeds became a universal feature of weddings throughout Europe from the Renaissance onwards...Closely related to the strewing of wheat or comfits was the custom of breaking a cake over the bride's head...No evidence for the breaking of cake over the bride's head exists from the Tudor period, and it is not until the time of Herrick that we hear of it at all. Herrick's verse, with its constant use of antique poetical forms and classical allusions, does not necessarily reflect the actual folk practices of his day. His wassails, wakes and hock carts could just have easily taken place in Arcadia as in rural England. Aubrey mentions the practice in passing and makes a point by linking it with the ancient Roman custom. Eighteenth-century accounts of bride-cake breaking are rather scant, or are in the context of fictional acounts and therefore not reliable. However, there are a number of trustworthy reports of the practice from nineteenth-century folklorists, all from northern England or Scotland. The Reverend Willian Carr, a local historian from Craven in Yorkshire, cites one of the most interesting: 'The bridal party, after leaving the church, repair to a neighborouring inn, where a thin currant-cake, marked in squares, though not entirely cut through, is ready against the bride's arrival. Over her head is spread a clean linen napkin, the bride-groom standing behind the bride, breaks the cake over her head, which is thrown over her and scrambled for by the attendants.' A variation of this procedure is reported from the Scottish Borders, through a piece of shortbread rather than a currant hearthcake is used to scatter on the bride's head. 'As the newly-married wife enters her new home on returning from the kirk, one of the oldest inhabitants of the neighbourhood who has been stationed on the threshold, throws a plate of short-bread over her head, so that it falls outside. A scramble ensues, for it is deemed very fortunate to get a piece of the short-bread, and dreams of sweethearts attend its being placed under the pillow.' This particular rite of passage, which took place on the threshold of the house, ir reminiscent of the widespread train- and comfit-throwing practices of other European countries."
---"Bridecup and Cake: The Ceremonial Food and Drink of the Bridal Procession," Ivan Day, Food and the Rites of Passage, Laura Mason editor [Prospect Books:Devon] 2002 (p. 56-57)

"There are always problems in inferring social practice from fiction. While authors necessarily produce texts from their own culture and time, they are more likely to present events that are in some way unusual, and therefore interesting to themselves and to their expected readers, than they are to describe the entirely usual. Here, clear evidence is provided that ideas of cake-breaking were around in the late eighteenth century, but the important implications are otherwise negative. It can be inferred from this account that no such practice was either general amongst likely readers of the book or even regarded as having been general in the recent past. nor was anything of the kind thought to be in any way essential. There is however other sporadic evidence of such practices from England at the perood...and from Scotland the evidence may even suggest something more generalised. The earliest Scottish report is not indeed of bread or cake of any kind, but the analogy is clear: at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Lady Grisell Baillie bought in Edinburg for her daughters; marriage ribbon 'for the Garland that is brock over the Birds head', as well as 'Confections Plumcaks and Bisket from Mrs Fenton'...It is tempting to see this as a modification, suitable for gentry who had already joined the plum cake class, of an earlier, more earthy cake-breaking. Smollett's reference to 'ancient Britons' may draw similarly on Scottish experience... It is tempting ot imagine that it was from his youth there that he remembered the cake-breaking which he now called into his narrative. Certainly, for soon after Smolette was writing, cake-breaking is directly documented...In parts of Scotland an oatcake or shortbread might be broken over the head of a bride as she entered a house after the marriage. This was often her entry into the groom's house where she would henceforth be living (as was indeed implied by Herrick's poem), but Gregor, a folklore researcher in the north-east of Scotland whose testimony has already been quoted, suggests a wider range of possibilties. It might be an oatmeal cake that was broken over her head. 'In later times a thin cake of "short-bread", called the bride-cake substituted for the oatmeal cake. It was distributed among the guests, who carefully preserved it, particularly the unmarried, who placed it below their pillows to "cream on".'."
---Wedding Cakes and Cultural History, Simon R. Charsley [Routledge:London] 1992 (p. 104-105)

"...the term "bridecake" does not simply refer to the special status of the cake baked for the wedding feast, but rather it alluded more specifically to the practice of breaking the cake over the bride's head. In Ireland, this custom was well established in a band of counties running from County Louth on the east coast to County Sligo on the west. It was also widespread in County Galway. It was not, however, unique to Ireland and the practice is well attested in England and Scotland. many Irish accounts indicate that the cake was broken over the bride as she entered her new home, a point ot transition symbolizing her imminent role as the first woman of the house...In contrast to these procedures, the cake was often broken after the wedding feast as the bride sat at the table, or stood amongst the gathered assembly. Alternatively, the cake might be broken by attendant guests who then threw bits at the bride, a variation that is highly reminiscent of the custom of throwing wheat, rice or confetti, suggesting that the practice may have been bound up wtih the question of fertility. However, those informants who could remember witnessing or hearing of this ritual understood that it was enacted with the wish that the bride would not want or go hungry. If the cake was broken over the bride's head, slices or pieces were often distributed to the guests; but if the cake were crumbled for throwing, this was not an option. instead, young, unmarried girls, who subsequently saved them to dream upon, eagerly seized upon the crumbs that fell to the floor. The understanding was that such creams would reveal the identity of their future husbands."
---"Food and Drink at Irish Weddings and Wakes," Regina Sexton, Food and the Rites of Passage, Laura Mason editor [Prospect Books:Devon] 2002 (p. 125-126)

During the 17th-18th centuries, both the English and Americans feasted on "great cakes," sometimes called "bride's cakes" or "bride's pies" as the event required. These special cakes were also not unlike traditional fruitcake. Our notes on colonial wedding feasts include authentic 18th century British and American recipes for wedding cakes.

19th century wedding cakes:

[1833]
"Wedding Cake
Good common wedding cake may be made thus: Four pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, three pounds of sugar, four pounds of currants, two pounds of raisins, twenty-four eggs, half a pint of brandy, or lemon-brandy, one ounce of mace, and three nutmegs. A little molasses makes it dark colored, which is desirable. Half a pound of citron improves it; but it is not necessary. To be baked two hours and a half, or three hours. After the oven is cleared, it is well to shut the door for eight or ten minutes, to let the violence of the heat subside, before cake or bread is put in. To make icing for your wedding cake, beat the whites of eggs to an entire froth, and to each egg add five teaspoonfuls of sifted loaf sugar, gradually; beat it a great while. Put it on when your cake is hot, or cold, as is most convenient. It will dry in a warm room, as short distance from a gentle fire, or in a warm oven."
---The American Frugal Housewife, Mrs. Child, Boston [1833] (p. 72)

[1845]
"Wedding Cake, No. 1.
Four pounds of flour, four pounds of sugar, three of butter, forty eggs, five pounds of stoned raisins, three pounds of currants, on e ounce of mace, half an ounce of nutmeg, six tea-spoonfuls of rose-water, four teas-spoonfuls of cream of tartar, stirred in the flour, two tea-spoonfuls of saleratus well dissolved. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream; beat the yolks and whites separate, add the flour gradually, then the spice and saleratus. Bake it two hours and a half."

"Wedding Cake No. 2.
Four pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, three pounds of sugar, four pounds of currants, two pounds of raisins, twenty-four eggs, one ounce of mace, and three nutmegs. A little molasses makes it dark-colored, which is desirable. Half a pound of citron improves it. Bake it tow and a half or three hours."

Wedding Cake, No. 3
Four pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, four pounds of sugar, thirty eggs, three and a half pounds of currants, one pound of citron, one ounce of mace, a little cinnamon, very little cloves; make it into loaves of convenient size. Bake it two and a half or three hours."

Frosting for Cake, No. 1
Beat the whites of eggs to an entire froth, and to each egg add five teas-spponfuls sifted loaf sugar, gradually; beat it a great while. Put it on when your cake is hot or cold, as is most convenient. A little lemon juice squeezed into the egg and sugar, improves it. Spread it on with a knife, and smooth it over with a soft brush, like a shaving brush."

Frosting for Cake, No. 2
Three and a half pounds of loaf sugar, the whites of twelve eggs, lemon juice, and a little potato starch."
--- The New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book, Mrs. E.A. Howland [E.P. Walton and Sons:Montpelier VT] 1845 (p. 22-23)

[1879]
Wedding Cake
Four pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, three pounds of sugar, four pounds of currants, two pounds of raisins, twenty eggs, half a pint of brandy or lemon brandy, once ounce of mace, three nutmegs. A little molasses makes it dark-colored, which is desirable. Half a pound of citron improves it, but it is not necessary. To be baked two hours in a half or three hours. An excellent recipe."

Very Rich Wedding Cake
Take four pounds of fine flour, four pounds of fresh butter; sift two pounds of powdered sugar, and grate to it quarter of an ounces of nutmeg; break eight eggs (yolks and whites separately) for each pound of flour; wash and pick four pounds of currants, and dry them before the fire; crush the butter between the hands until it is reduced to a cream, then beat it up with the sugar for fifteen minutes; beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and mix with butter and sugar; beat the yolks half an hour, and mix them in; put in the flour and nutmeg, and beat it up; pour in a pint of brandy, and add a quantity to taste of citron cut in strips; pour it into the baking-tin, and when it has risen and browned, cover with paper, lest it should burn. Great care must be taken in baking this cake to have the oven of the proper heat."
---Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. M. E. Porter, facsimile 1879 edition [Promontory Press:New YOrk] 1974 (p. 240-1)

[1861] Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Managment, recipe number 1753 [London]
[1877] Buckeye Cookery
[1884] Boston Cooking School Cook Book
[1896] Boston Cooking School Cook Book

About Mexican wedding cakes & cookies

Groom's cake

Groom's cake seems to be relatively modern tradition that probably originated in the Southern United States sometime in the 19th Century. The traditional cake ingredients and folklore are reflect ancient Wedding cake customs; current recipes and serving ideas reflect modern wedding tastes.

"Already in the 1890s, therefore, a choice of cakes had been established in America. The types could be played with, for commercial and/or symbolic effect. One idea was to give the bridegroom a cake to match the bride's, and this might be simply achieved by renaming the rich fruit style. A 'Lady Cake or Plain Bridegroom Cake' for which the recipe was published in "The British Baker" in 1897 as an importation from 'across the herring pond'...was, however, a white cake. The author explains that it is 'supposed to be cut by the bridegroom and distributed with a glass of wine to the bridesmaids before going to church'. In Britain neither practice nor cake met with any success, but in the United States the two cakes did persist, with the light cake usually being associated with the bride, the dark with the groom. From the mid-century a possible combination of the two has been described from Virginia. The bride's would be on the bottom..."
--Wedding Cakes and Cultural History, Simon R. Charsley [Routledge:London] 1992 (p. 23)
[NOTE: this book contains notes to primary sources, ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book [c. 1871] features an interesting collection of cake recipes named for love & courtship. Here you will find recipes for Bachelor's cake (quite similar to groom's cake, see recipe below), Acquaintenceship cakes, Introduction cake, Ancient Maiden's cake, Flirtation cake, Rival cake, Engagement cake, Kisses & Jealousy puffs. This book was reprinted in 1974 by Promontory Press in its "Cookery Americana series.

"Bachelor's Cake
One pound of flour, half a pound of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter or lard, four wine-glasses of milk, half a pound of Sultana raisins, quarter of a pound of currants, the same of candied peel, quarter of a nutmeg, two teaspoonful of ground ginger, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda; mix well together, and bake slowly for an hour and a half."
---Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. M. E. Porter (p. 236)

Food historians generally agree these two rich chocolate desserts are late twentieth century stars supported by a cast of historic recipes. Pudding and cake combinations are nothing new. Consider the history of the English trifle.

ABOUT MUD CAKE/PIE
There seems to be some controversy regarding the history of this particular dessert. Also sometimes known as "Missisippi Mud Cake/pie, Louisiana Mud Pie," many food historians trace this dessert to the 1970s and when it hit mainstream restaurants. The name may belong to the 1970s, and the popularity to the 1980s, but the recipe is certainly older. One of our readers sent us pages from a cookbook published in 1963 containing recipes for "Glorified Brownies" and "Marshmallow Fudge Brownies." These would have approximated Mud cake (with the addition of marshmallows). Our reader also sent us a mud pie recipe from Vickburg, MI circa 1985. Recipes here.

So, who really invented this delicious dessert? We don't know. We do know from primary culinary sources that double-fudge recipes of all kinds and textures proliferated in the early decades of the 20th century. Some were promoted by food companies, many were concocted by creative home cooks, and the balance were crafted by innovative chefs. The standard ingredients of Mississippi mud cake/pie indicate this recipe was "invented" (for lack of a better term) by post WWII home cooks. Why? They are simple items found in most supermarkets assembled without the aid of special equipment. Print evidence places this recipe in the heart of the deep American south.

In the big scheme of things, this is not the first example of top chefs "borrowing recipes" from home cooks in order to create trendy menu items. Happens all the time. Think Waldorf Salad.

This is what the food historians have to say about mud cake & pie

"Where did all this mud stuff start? Not many people are willing as John (Chappy) Chapman...to venture an explanation. Chapman, who grew up in New Orleans has spent all of his life in Gulf Coast towns, said mud pie was invented years ago in the Vicksburg-Natchez area...It was [mud pie]...a pre-baked pie crust filled with "a layer of [baked ] chocolate cake, a layer of chocolate pudding, another of cake, another of pudding, another of cake, topped with chocolate icing." Sometimes people added hot-fudge sauce and/or chocolate ice cream, he said."
---Mississippi Mud Pie (or Cake), Bernadette Wheeler, Newsday [New York], July 13, 1988 Food (p. 7)

"I remember distinctly when and where I first tasted this pie...It was in the mid- 70s at the newly rebuilt Mills House Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina...I naively believed [Mud Pie] to be a creation of the chef. Also sometimes called "Mississippi Mud Pie," this is a Nabisco recipe, which begins with a pie shell made of finely crushed Oreo cookies..."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 381)

"Mississippi mud pie.
A very dense chocolate pie that takes its name from the thick mud along the banks of the Mississippi River. According to Nathalie Dupree in New Southern Cooking (1986), the top is what she calls "Mississippi Mud Cake" should be "cracked and dry-looking like Mississippi mud in the hot, dry summer." It does, however, seem to be of fairly recent origin; according to Mississippi-born food authority Craig Claiborne, writing in 1987, "I never heard of a Mississippi mud pie or Mississippi mud cake until I moved North."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 207)

RECIPES

[1963] Glorified Brownies
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Butter
3 T. Cocoa (or 2 sq. Chocolate)
3/4 c. Flour
Pinch of salt 1 c. Nuts
12-15 marshmallows
Mix in order given. Spread in pan and bake 20 minutes at 400F. When done, cut marshmallows fine over top of brownies while still hot and cover with the confectioners' sugar or other favorite fudge icing. Decorate with nuts.--Letha A. Chastain, Pamplico H.S. Pamplico, South Carolina

Marshmallow Fudge Brownies and Icing
Number of servings--8 to 12
1/2 c. Shortening
3/4 c. Sugar
2 eggs beaten
3/4 c. Sifted flour
1/4 t. Baking powder
2 T. Cocoa
1/4 t. Vanilla
1/2 c. Chopped nuts
18 marshmallows, halved
Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs. Beat well. Sift dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture. Mix well. Add vanilla and nuts. Bake in 12X8 pan 20 minutes at 350F. Take from oven and put marshmallow halves on top. Return to oven for 3 minutes. Spread until top is covered with marshmallows. Let cool. Frost with following: Icing
1/2 c. Brown sugar
1/4 c. Water
1 sq. Unsweetened chocolate
3 T. Butter
1 t. Vanilla
1 1/2 c. Powdered sugar
Combine and boil for 3 minutes brown sugar, water, and chocolate. Add butter and vanilla and let cool. Then stir in powdered sugar. Spread on brownies. Cut in squares."--Mrs. Maxine King, Unity H.S. Mendon, Illinois"
---Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: Desserts edition including Party Beverages [Favorite Recipes Press:Montgomery AL] 1963 (p. 146-7)

[1976] Mississippi Mud Cake
1 c. Butter
2 c. Sugar
1/3 c. Cocoa
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder 1/3 c. Coconut
1 c. Chopped pecans
1 pt. Marshmallow cream
Cream butter, sugar and cocoa. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Sift flour and baking powder together; add to mixture. Fold in coconut and pecans. Bake in (12X9X2-inch) greased and floured pan at 350F. Until done. While still hot, cover with 1 pint of marshmallow cream. Let cake cool in pan, then spread frosting over the marshmallow cream.

frosting
1/2 c. Butter (room temperature)
1/3 c. Cocoa
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 lb Powdered sugar
4 tbsp. Evaporated milk
Put all ingredients in bowl and beat with electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy." ---She Cooks by Ear: Old Southern Cookery, Frances S. James [S.C. Toof & Co.:Memphis TN] 1976 (p. 60)

[1985] Mississippi Mud Pie
1/2 (8 1/2-ounce) package chocolate wafers
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 quart coffee ice cream, softened
1 1/2 cups fudge sauce or chocolate fudge sauce ice cream toppings
Whipped cream, sliced almonds, or chocolate curls for garnish (optional)
Crush chocolate wafers and set aside. Melt butter in large frying pan over low heat. Add crushed wafers and toss in butter to coat well. Press crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie plate and allow to cool. Soften ice cream and spoon onto wafer crust. Freeze until firm. Top with cold fudge sauce. Store in freezer about 8 to 10 hours. To serve, top with whipped cream and sliced almonds or chocolate curls. Remove form freezer and allow to stand 5 to 10 minutes before service. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.--Mrs. Kenneth Kussmann, New Orleans, Louisiana."
---Vintage Vicksburg, Vicksburg [Mississippi] Jr. Auxiliary [Wimmer Companies:Memphis] 1985.

ABOUT DIRT CAKE
According to newspaper and magazine articles, a recipe called "dirt cake" seems to have originated in the Midwest sometime in the 1980s. None of the articles we checked attribute this recipe to a particular person or food company. Nor do they reveal the story behind the name. It is plausable that "dirt cake" borrowed its moniker from another trendy rich chocolate dessert: "mud pie." Whatever the case, it was an immediate hit. Dirt cake was served at class parties, Brownie meetings, birthday parties and the like. It didn't take long for food companies to cash in on the deal. Dirt cake mixes were first marketed as packaged items in the early 1990's.

The earliest mention we find of a recipe specifically called "Dirt Cake" was printed in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette [newspaper], June 15, 1988 in a recipe exchange column. This article references a local reader who sent in a recipe for "Kansas Dirt Cake." The St. Louis Dispatch wrote an article on the topic July 24, 1989, Food section (p. 2): "Tickle Fancy With Dirt Cake." This article states "This recipe is apparently making the rounds of the area..." attesting to its popularity at that time.

[1988]
Kansas Dirt Cake
1 small package of Oreo cookies
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
8-ounce carton Cool Whip
2 boxes (3 1/2 ounces each) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups milk
Crush cookies and spread half over bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan. Mix cream cheese and margarine with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in confectioners' sugar. Then fold in Cool Whip. In separate bowl, combine pudding mix, vanilla and milk until smooth and mixture begins to thicken. Fold pudding mixture into cream cheese mixture. Spread over cookie crumbs and sprinkle remaining crumbs over top. Freeze overnight. Let sit at room temperature 5 to 10 minutes before servings.
---Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR), June 15, 1988

Articles from 1990 reference a "new" packaged product called "I Can Bake Dirt Cake With Mud Frosting Mix." This kit was manufactured by Pelican Bay Ltd.. According to the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Pelican is the only company to have trademarked this name. Registration#74059580 was first used in commerce January 7, 1990. Pelican is still making this product. Information here.

About Eccles
About Manchester

If you would like more information on the evolution and history of British baked goods we recommend these sources:
1. English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David
2. Food in Britian, From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson
3. Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson (separate entries for specific items)

Realated foods? Portable pies...pasties, turnovers and such.

[1796]
"Election cake
Thirty quarts of flour, 10 pound butter, 14 pound sugar, 12 pound raisins, 3 doz eggs, one pint wine, one quart brandy, 4 ounces cinnamon, 4 ounces fine coriander seed, 3 ounces ground allspice; wet flour with milk to the consistency of bread over night, adding one quart yeast; the next morning work the butter and sugar together for half an hour, which will render the cake much lighter and whiter; when it has rise light work in every other ingredient except the plumbs, which work in when going into the oven."
---American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, facsimile of the Second Edition, printed in Albany, 1796 with an introduction by Karen Hess [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 1996 (p. 43-44)
[NOTES: This recipe is cited by some food historians as the first recipe for Election Cake. In the 18th century, the word plumb was often used interchangeably with the word raisin]

[1839]
"Election cake
Take half a pint of lively yeast, mix with is half a pint of sweet milk and enough flour to make it a good batter; cover it, and set it by the fire to rise. This is called setting a sponge. Sift two pounds of flour into a broad pan, cut up in it a pound of fresh butter, add a pound of powdered sugar, two grated nutmegs and six beaten eggs. When the sponge is quite light, pour it on the flour, &c., make the whole into a soft dough, knead it well, and make it into small flattish loaves. Sprinkle a shallow iron pan with flour, lay the rolls in it close together, put them at first in a very slow oven, that will permit them to rise, and when risen, bake them with moderate heat."
---The Kentucky Housewife, Lettice Bryan, facsimile edition [Image Graphics:Paducah KY] (p. 299-300)

[1844]
"Hartford Cake
Rub two pounds of butter into five of four; add sixteen eggs, not much beaten, one pint of yeast, and one of wine. Knead it up stiff like biscuit; let it stand till perfectly light. When light, work in thoroughly, two and a half pounds of raisins soaked several hours in a gill of brandy, a gill of rose-water, two and a half pounds of powdered loaf sugar, half an ounce of mace, and a spoonful of cinnamon. Put it in your pans, let it rise, and bake as "Loaf Cake."
---The Improved Housewife, Mrs. A.L. Webster [Hartford, CT] 1844 (p. 113)
[NOTE:Hartford Cake is another name for this recipe. It is interesting to note this author (from Hartford) calls it such.]

[1844]
"Old Harford Election Cake (100 years old)
Five pounds dried and sifted flour.
Two pounds of butter.
Two pounds of sugar.
Three gills of distillery yeast, or twice the quantity of home-brewed.
Four eggs.
A gill of wine and a gill of brandy.
Half an ounce of nutmegs, and two pounds of fruit.
A quart of milk.
Rub the butter very fine into the flour, add half the sugar, then the yeast, then half the milk, hot in winter, and blood warm in summer, then the eggs well beaten, the wine, and the remainder of the milk. Beat it well, and let it stand to rise all night. Beat it well in the morning, adding the brandy, the sugar, and the spice. Let it rise three or four hours, till very light. When you put the wood into the oven, put the cake in buttered pans, and put in the fruit as directed previously. If you wish it richer, add a pound of citron."
---Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt-Book, Catharine E. Beecher, facsimile 1844 reprint [Dover Publications:Mineola NY] 2001 (p. 146)
[NOTE: Miss Beecher was born to a very prominent Hartford family. Her sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.]

[1866]
Election cake, National Cookbook, Hannah Peterson

[1877]
Buckeye Cookery, Estelle Wood Wilcox provides these recipes for Salem Election Cake & Old Hartford Election Cake. Notes in this book indicates both versions are "100 years old."

[1918]
Election cake, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Merrit Farmer
[NOTE: this recipe is more like modern cake]

[2004]
Election Cake; historic notes & modernized recipe courtesy of the Washington Post

Culinary evidence confirms this recipe was a staple in American cookbooks up until the 1940s. The last recipe we have for Election cake was printed in the 1939 edition of Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking School Cook Book. In recent years, the recipe and its history are sometimes printed in newspaper articles the week preceding our current November election date.

Modernized recipe, redacted by Stephen Schmidt, culinary historian.

Related food? Irish soda bread.

"29 March 1969, Kingston (Jamaica) Daily Gleaner, pg. 7: Press kits presented included Jamaican menu modified for American kitchens, and featured recipes like the Doctor Bird cake, made from bananas."
SOURCE: American Dialect Society

"When it comes to cake, the Dr. Bird or Hummingbird Cake recipe has been one of the most popular through the years. Originally the recipe came to me during the late `60`s, as I recall, from the Jamaican airlines...Ruth Threat of Matthews even sent a picture of a Dr. Bird, a national symbol of Jamaica "
---"HUMMINGBIRD CAKE FROM JAMAICA REMAINS POPULAR," Helen Moore, Charlotte Observer, November 23, 1986

"JAMAICAN NATIONAL BIRD - The Doctor-Bird (Trochilus Polytmus) or Swallow-Tail HummingbirdThe doctor bird or swallow tail humming bird, is one of the most outstanding of the 320 species of hummingbirds. It lives only in Jamaica. These birds’ beautiful feathers have no counterpart in the entire bird population and they produce iridescent colours characterstic only of that family. In addition to these beautiful feathers, the mature male has tow long tails which stream behind him when he flies. For years the doctor bird has been immortalized in Jamaican folklore and song. The origin of the name ‘Docor-bird’ is somewhat unsettled. It has been said that the name was given because the erect black crest and tails resemble the top hat and long tail coats doctors used to wear in the old days. Other schools of thought believe that it refers to the way the birds lance the flowers with their bills to extract nectar."
SOURCE: Government of Jamaica, national symbols

This is what the food writers say:
"But the sweetest import from below the Mason-Dixon line might be hummingbird cake, which has started popping up at popular baking spots around town with little fanfare - fine Southern upbringing indeed. To many Southerners living in New York, the concoction of mashed banana, pineapple, pecans, and cream cheese icing weighing more than your average one-year-old serves as a sweet, immediate reminder of home. The impressive looking three-layer treat seems like it would be tough to make, but is, in fact, quite easy; it can be whipped up in a little more than an hour. The exact origin of the cake remains a mystery. In 1978, a Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, N.C., submitted the recipe to Southern Living magazine, the Southern belle bible of gracious hostessing, and the cake became renowned. "It is still our most requested recipe," says Donna Florio, a senior writer at the magazine."
---"The Recipe for Hummingbird Cake, Food & Drink," ELIZABETH SCHATZ, The New York Sun, November 13, 2002 , Pg. 1

"IT SEEMS as if just about everyone but yours truly had a recipe for the Cake That Doesn't Last. Then a reader clued me with a December 1972 date and I found our copy in the older files. Meanwhile we have been swamped with telephone calls and letter, far too many to credit individually. Be assured, however, that all assistance was appreciated. Elizabeth Bartlett of North Little Rock, the first to reach us via telephone, said that the cake also is known as Hummingbird Cake. The bird connection puzzles me, just as it does Juliet Macy of Bull Shoals, who describes the cake as very rich and heavy. Macy also said it is a delicious cake, an evaluation with which everyone seems to agree. Virginia Raney of Russellville, who has made the cake many times, said, " Sure enough, it doesn't last!' Pat Jefferson of Paron, noting that it is a family favorite, added that it has replaced fruit cake at their holiday table. Never Ending Cake is the name turned in by Pauline Isley. A Benton respondent supplied Jamaican Cake, a title that might not be far afield considering the ingredients. Ella Sheets knows it as Granney's Best Cake. Nothing Left Cake is the name supplied by Patricia H. Downes of Jacksonville, who, with her 8-and 11-year-old sons, prefers it sans icing. More than 75 copies of the recipe have been received, most of them identical. The variations _ notably in mixing directions, oil measurement and additional fruits _ are incorporated in the recipe that follows. Cake That Won't Last."
---Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR), April 3, 1985

We wonder if hummingbird cake was named in reference to how these birds eat. These tiny creatures are drawn to intensely sweet food sources. They engage the food source quickly and disperse when sated. Some of the descriptions we read regarding how this cake attracts people and is consumed quickly reminds us of hummingbirds eating patterns. PLEASE NOTE: This is our theory, not a documented fact.

Mrs. Wiggins' recipe [1978]

"Hummingbird cake
3 cups all-pupose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups salad oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, divided
2 cups chopped bananas
Cream cheese frosting (recipe follows)
Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and salad oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat. Stir in vanilla, pineapple, 1 cup chopped pecans, and bananas. Spoon batter into 3 well-greased and floured 9-inch cakepans. Bake at 350 degrees F. For 25 to 30 minutes; remove from pans, and cool immediately. Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with 1 cup chopped pecans. Yield: one 9-inch layer cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 (16 ounce) packages powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Combine cream cheese and butter; cream until smooth. Add powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Yield: enough for a 3 layer cake.--Mrs. L.H. Wiggins, Greesnboro, North Carolina"
---"Making the most of bananas," Southern Living, February 1978 (p. 206)

The Kentucky Derby Cook Book [Kentucky Derby Museum:Louisville KY, 1986] contains a recipe for Hummingbird Cake on p. 204. A note printed in this book states "Hummingbird Cake. Helen Wiser's recipe won Favorite Cake Award in the 1978 Kentucky State Fair."

Our survey of historic cookbooks confirms ice box recipes (cakes, pies, cookies) became popular in the 1920s. Cakes were promoted as festive party fare (they were easy to make and pretty to present); cookies as convenience items (think: slice and bake). As technology progressed and America became electrified, Ice Box items were renamed Refrigerator. Mainstream cookbooks generally made the name switch in the late 1930s/early 1940s. Recipes also evolved...from homemade cake and filling to box mixes with brand-name ingredients. Nabisco's Famous Wafer chocolate cake is an excellent example of corporate promotion capitalizing on a trendy recipe.

Who invented the Ice Box Cake?
History does not record this person. Culinary experts agree most recipes evolve from extant formulas. Such is the case with Ice Box Cake. This rich confection descends from 19th century ice cream bombes which descended from Colonial Era Charlottes which descended from Renaissance-era Trifles. Notes here:

"Icebox cake is an adaptation of either a charlotte or Bavarian cream, or a mixture of both. It always calls for whipped cream in some form and freqently for butter. Nuts are often added and the mould is either decorated or put together with some sort of a cake mixture, as macaroons, sponge cake, angel cake, or lady fingers. In any case the dessert is so extremely rich that it should be served only in small quantities in a meal containing very little fat."
---Ida Bailey Allen's Modern Cook Book, Ida Baily Allen [Garden City:New York] 1924 (p. 602)

A SURVEY OF CHOCOLATE REFRIGERATOR ICE BOX CAKES THROUGH TIME

[1917]
"An absolutely new confection is the refrigerator cake, which is being served occasionally at parties in Kansas City when the hostess takes a vacation from Hooverizing, for the ingredients are expensive. However, it makes a very large cake. The unique feature is that no baking is required, and the cake is served cut in wedge shaped pieces like pie. In fact, it is really more like a very sumptuous pudding. To make it, take half a pound of unsalted butter (which can be purchased at the larger markets), one half pound of powdered sugar, one-half pound of crushed macaroons, one-half pound of blanched almonds, one-half dozen eggs, and one and a half dozen lady fingers. Beat the egg yolks till thick and lemon colored; beat the whites till stiff; cream together the butter and sugar, chop the almonds and crush the macaroons. Mix all together. In a round loaf cake pan arrange the lady fingers, split in halves around the edge, so that they all form an upstanding border. The pour in the cake batter. The best pan to use is a large one that has removable sides and bottom. The success of the cake depends largely on the thorough beating given the yolks of the eggs. They would be beaten until as thick as mayonnaise. Instead of being baked the cake should stand in the refrigerator for at least thirty hours before being cut. Serve with whipped cream piled on top."
---"Ever Eat Refrigerator Cake? Instead of baking you put it in the ice box," Kansas City Star, October 19, 1917 (p. 2)

[1919]
"Ice Box Cake
There are two recipes for icebox cake in the new Stevenson Memorial Cook Book whcih,a s we knwo, has been put out for one of the best of causes...

One dozen lady fingers; one tablespoonful sugar; three eggs, separated; one cake sweet chocolate. melt chocolate in double boiler with tablespoonful of warm water. Add mixture of yolks of eggs and sugar, well beaten, a little vanilla, and lastly, well beaten whites of eggs. Dip each ladyfinger in mixture, arrange in form which has been wet with cold water, and fill in. Place in icebox over night. Serve with whipped cream."

The other recipe is for a larger cake ang gives fuller directions: "Three cakes sweet chocolate, three tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, three tablespoonfuls hot water, two dozne ladyfingers. Melt chocolate, sugar and water in double boiler and add half beaten yolks of six eggs. Line a mold with ladyfingers and pour half the mixture on them, then fill with ladyfingers, repeating with the chocolate mixture. Make twenty-four hours before serving. Just before serving whip one half pint of cream and put on top of cake. Grate a little chocolate over all."
---"Ice Box Cake," Jane Eddington, Chicago Daily Tribune, December 1, 1919 (p. 24)

[1923]
"Ice Box Cake
(Rich but oh, so good! If you are trying to reduce, turn the page.)
One-fourth cup water
One-half cup sugar
Two squares chocolate
Four egg yolks
One cup butter
One cup powdered sugar
One teaspoon vanilla
Four egg whites
Two dozen lady fingers.
Cook the water, sugar and chocolate together in a double boiler until the mixture is smooth. Add the beaten egg yolks. Cook for one minute, beating constantly. Cream the butter, and slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Beat the egg whites very stiff and add to the first mixture. Line a square cake pan with waxed paper. Arrange lady fingers, split, around the sides and across the bottom. Add a layer of the cake mixture. Add another layer of the lady fingers and place the rest of the mixture on top. Set in an ice box with whipped cream. It is delicious but very rich."
---Bettina's Best Desserts, Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles Le Cron [A.L. Burt Company:New York] 1923 (p. 36)

[1924]
Chocolate Icebox Cake
Follow the recipe for almond icebox cake, omitting the nuts and adding to the creamed butter and sugar a half pound of grated sweet chocolate, melted."

"Almond Icebox Cake
3/4 cupful fresh butter
1 1/4 cupfuls sifted powdered or confectioner's sugar
3 eggs
1 cupful finely chopped toasted almond meats
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/2 teaspoonful almond extracts
12 macaroons
1 1/2 dozen single lady fingers
Beat the butter to a cream and work in the sugar, almond extract, and egg yolks. The add the egg whites, whipped stiff, and the copped nut meats, and combine the mixture with the cream, which should be whipped stiff and folded in. Line a three-pint mould with waxed paper, put a layer of macaroons on the bottom, interspersing them, if desired, with whole toasted almond meats, to form a design. Line the sides of the mould with lady fingers, arranging them vertically, put half of the cream mixture in the mould, of this lay the remaining macaroons, adding the balance of the mixture, and set in the coolest part of the refrigerator for twenty-four hours. To serve, unmould and garnish with additional sweetened whipped cream, putting it on by means of the pastry bag and tube."
---Ida Bailey Allen's Modern Cook Book, Ida Baily Allen [Garden City:New York] 1924 (p. 603)

[1931]
"Ice Box Cake.
To be made with Lady Fingers, Sponge Cake, or Angel Food and Custard. Line a bowl with wax paper. Place lady fingers (or slices of cake) around the sides and over the bottom. Put part of the custard into the bowl, then a layer of cake, then custard and last cake. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 12 hours, or more. Invert the contents of the bowl onto a plate, cover the cake with whipped cream and serve it.

"Fillings for Ice Box Cakes...
Chocolate Custard:
3/8 pound sweet chocolate
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons water
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Melt the chocolate, add the sugar, water and egg yolks. Cook this mixture over hot water or over a low flame until it is smooth, stirring it constantly over hot water or over a low flame. Cool the mixture and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites."
---Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer, fascimile 1931 edition [Scribner:New York] 1998 p. 266)
[NOTES: Also contains a rcipe for Cocoa Custard filling. The 1953 edition of this book calls this recipe "Refrigerator Cakes. The recipe & fillings are virtually unchanged.]

[1937]
"Chocolate Refrigerator Cake
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 1/3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1 egg, separated
1/3 cup chopped preserved ginger
2 tablespoons ginger syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Ladyfingers, split
Heavy cream, whipped
Melt chocolate in top part of double boiler, stir in condensed milk and cook until thickened. Stir 2 tablespoons chocolate mixture into beaten egg yolk; then add to remaining chocolate in double boiler and cook 3 minutes longer; cool. Stir in ginger, ginger syrup and vanilla and fold into stiffly beaten egg white. Line bottom and sides of mold or loaf pan with waxed paper, then with ladyfingers, round side out. Fill center with chocolate mixture, and if a loaf pan is used, arrange additional ladyfingers and chocolate mixture over top. Chill in refrigerator at least 4 hours. Unmold, slice and serve with slightly sweetened whipped cream. Approximate yield: 4 to 6 portions."
---America's Cook Book, Compiled by the Home Institute of The New York Herald Tribune [Charles Scribner's Sons:New York] 1937 (p. 710)

[1944]
"Chocolate Refrigerator Cake
(For a Party)
1 7 oz pkg. Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablesp. Granulated sugar
3 tablesp. Cold water
3 eggs, separated
1 c. Heavy cream, whipped
1 teasp. Vanilla extract
1/2 teasp. Peppermint extract (optional)
18 lady fingers, split
Melt chocolate in top of double boiler. Add sugar and water, and mix well. Remove from heat. Stir gradually into egg yolks, and beat smooth with a spoon. Cool. Meat the egg whites stiff, and fold into the cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in the whipped cream and extracts. Arrange some of the lady fingers on the bottom of a loaf pan 10" X 5" X 3", and pour in some of the chocolate and whipped cream mixture. Then alternate layers of lady fingers with the chocolate mixture until the loaf pan is full and all lady fingers and chocolate mixture have been used, having lady fingers on top. Chill in refrigerator fo 24 hrs., and serve with or without whipped cream. Serves 12."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Completely Revised 7th Edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 653)

The art of stuffing dough with with sweet and savory fillings is ancient. Sweet pastries, such as kolache, harken back to Medieval days. Most European countries and cuisines adapted this simple formula to incorporate local ingredients and please local tastes. The names of the recipes are different but the basic idea is the same. About pie (& related foods..esp.check baklava) & galette (yeasted sweet cake filled/topped with fruit & nuts).

ABOUT KOLACHE
"Kolachy, kolache. A sweet flaky pastry usually made with a cream cheese and butter dough, occasionally with a yeast-risen dough. Kolachys have several traditional fillings, including poppy seed, cream cheese, jam, nuts, and berries or other chopped fresh fruit...Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia."
---International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections, Carole Bloom [Hearst Books:New York] 1995 (p. 163)

"The oldest ritual leavened loaf which came into being soon after the Slavs embraced Christianity is shaped in a round, ring or like a cart and is called kolach in Bulgarian and Macedonian or kolac in Serbo-Croat and Slovenian, from the old Slavonic word for wheel, kolo. The term has been disseminated far beyond the Slavic languages; it has becom kulac or kullac in Albanian, kakacs in Hungarian, extended further to mean all types of breads, cakes and yeast cakes. Leavened bread, made from the finest flour, is used by the Orthodox Church for communion."
---The Melting Pot: Balkan Food and Cookery, Jaria Kaneva-Johnson [Prospect Books:Devon] 1999 (p. 231)

"With the records written in Latin, traces of everyday life buried in medieval kitchen refuse, and no extant cookery books from the [Medieval] period written in Polish or even claiming to be Polish, how do we arrive at the Polish table with a firm sense of cultural identity? Surely medieval Poles understood who they were and readily recognized certain foods as peculiarly their own. But perhaps this identity was also an evolving one, just as the Polish language itself was evolving at the time. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Polish was heavily influenced by Czech, from which it borrowed many words and concepts. Was food likewise influenced by this same flow of ideas? The appearance in Polish of the Czech terms like kolace (from Latin collatio) would suggest this."
---Food and Drink in Medieval Poland: Rediscoveirng a Cuisine of the Past, Maria Dembinska, revised and adapted by William Woys Weaver, translated by Magdalena Thomas [University of Pennsylvania Press:Philadelphia] 1999 (p. 9)

"The Polish term for flat cakes, plaki, derives from the Latin placenta (cake) and covers a variety of forms without conveying a fixed meaning other than flat shape...Special recipes were prepared for Good Friday in waver irons...They were unleavened and generally eaten on fast days. Special recipes were prepared for Good Friday and stamped with appropriate religious symbols. There were also flat cakes baked with apples, evidently something akin to an apple pizza, and related in for to the kolace of Moravia."
---ibid (p. 117)

ABOUT KOLACHE IN AMERICA

"Kolache. Also "kolach" and "kolacky." A sweet pastry bun filled with cheese, poppyseeds, sausage, or, more commonly, jam or fruits like cherry, apricot, peach, pineapple, or prune, first mentioned in print in Willa Cather's novel My Antonia (1919). It is of Czechoslovak origins (the Czech word is kolace) and, as "kolacky," entered print about 1915. Kolaches are most popular in West Texas, where Czech immigrants settled in 1852."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 177)
[NOTE: Recommended reading: Cather's Kitchens: Foodways in Literature and Life, Roger L. and Linda K. Welsch. Sorry, no authentic Cather recipe. "We found no recipes for kolaches in the Cather files, but that isn't surprising: they were a part of the Czech kitchens she visited and described rather than those in which she grew up." (p. 82)]

ABOUT TEXAS-STYLE KOLACHE
If you want to hook in the local angle (is this if a history/sociology class?) you might want to include some background on Czech immigration. Czechs in Texas

"Between 1850 and 1920 thousands of Czechs left their homes in Moravia and Bohemia to come to Texas in search of a better life. Todat you can visit towns like Fayetteville, Praha and Hallettsville where the Czech language is in everyday use...The Czechs who settled in Texas in the middle and late 19th century were known mainly for two things. First, wherever they settled they worked hard and became useful, productive citizens. Second, the Czechs, or Bohemians as they were known, knew how to celebrate...In the 1880s pratically all Czech Texans libed in rural areas. Almost all were farmers who settled in a geographic triangle bound by Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. Some others made their homes in the lower Gulf coast and the Texas panhandle...Czech Texans continnue to celebrate weddings with a magnificent feast...Czech sausage, colaches, potatoes and other traditional favorites are still served...Today a typical menus might include soup, baked pork loin, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes and kolaches for dessert."
---The Melting Pot: Ethnic Cuisine in Texas, Institute of Texas Cultures [University of Texas at San Antonio:San Antonio] 1977 (p. 37-8)

• Kolache festival, Caldwell, TX
• Czech Heritage Society of Texas

Kolache is also quite popular in Nebraska. Sample pioneer-era recipe:

"Kolaches
Scald one pint of milk, let cool to lukewarm. Dissove one and one-half cakes compressed yeast in one-fourth cup lukewarm water to which one teaspooon of sugar has been added. Let rise while milk cools. Add dissolved yeast to cooled milk and make a sponge. Let rise until light. Cream together one cup sugar one one cup butter. Add three egg yolks and two whole eggs, well beaten, and two teaspoons salt. Add to the sponge and mix well. Stir in nour enough to handle well. Let rise until light and roll out to one-half inch thickness. Cut with a biscuit cutter. Make a depression in the center and fill. Let rise and bake in a quick oven. Any of the following fillings can be used:
Fruit filling: Mash stewed prunes. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste, and sprinkle with coconut or chopped nuts. Apricots, peaches, apples, or any canned fruit may also be used.
Poppy seed filling: bring poppy seed and boil it in just enough water to keep moist. Then add sugar, cinnamon, and maple syurup to taste; raisins; and three or four gingersnaps, ground.
Cottage cheese filling: Combine grated rind of lemon, one-half cup sugar, one tablespoon cream, two egg yolks, and one pint of dry cottage cheese."
---Nebraska Pioneer Cookbook, Compiled by Kay Graber [University of Nebraska Press:Lincoln NE] 1974 (p. 86-7)

Related food? Danish & Kuchen

Apfelkuchen descended from a long line of sweet yeast breads. Food historians tell us ancient bakers in the middle east often used fruits and nuts in their breads, cakes, pastries, and cookies. This tradition was also practiced by the Ancient Romans, who are credited for spreading fruits (apples) and recipes throughout Europe.

Apfelkuchen in a German word that literally translates into "apple cake." There are dozens of variations on this simple theme ranging from apple chunks in basic dough to complicated compotes encased in batter cakes. While the title of this particular cake is German, the recipe is also known in other European countries. The central core is generally this: apfelkuchen is a simple recipe, one enjoyed by the 'average' person. Streusel topping is traditional.

Recipes for kuchen of all types were introduced to America by settlers of Northern European descent. Most notably are the Germans, who settled here in great numbers.

"Kuchen can usually be translated as cake (large or of biscuit size)...Although Kuchen often refers to something less fancy than a Torte, one of the most famous Kuchen is very fancy indeed. This is the Baumkuchen...Streuselkuchen (crumble cake) can be a plain rubbed-in cake..with cinnamon-flavoured crumble topping. A more elaborate version, called Apfelstreuselkuchen, has a layer of apple...pure between two layers of crumble."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 802-3)

"Kuchen. The German word for cake or pastry. Kuchen is a cake or pastry made with a sweetened yeast-risen dough that is either topped with a mixture of sugar and spices or nuts or filled with fruit or cheese before baking. Kuchen is the classic coffee cake and is served for both breakfast and dessert."
---The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections, Carole Bloom [Hearst:New York] 1995 (p.167)

"Kuchen, any of several varieties of coffee cake, were the pride of every nineteenth-century immigrant German baker, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Each cook or housewife had a yeast-based "kuchen" dough, which she would shape into rectangular crusts and top with either fruit or cheese, or she would twist with cinnamon and nuts into a streusel or coffee cake, or roll up jelly-roll style in to Schenecken...By the end of the century, baking powder came into use and replaced yeast in many kuchen. Quick breads and cakes gradually replaced the slower yeast-raised doughs. In May 1906, the Ladies' Home Journal ran an article on kuchen by Lola D. Wangner. "There seems to be a steadily-growing fondness among us for the German coffee-cakes or kuchen...They are to be found on many of our breakfast-tables on Sunday morning. These cakes are peculiar to Germany, every part of the Fatherland having its own methods of making them, and there are more than one hundred recipes."
---Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1998 (p. 308)

HISTORIC RECIPES

[1884] Dutch Apple Cake
[1889] Apple Cake (Kuchen)
[1919] Apple Cake (Kuchen)

Related food? Coffeecake (scroll down for notes on crumble & streusel), Kolache & Danish

Culinary historians generally agree that torten, a specialty of Austria and neighboring regions were known in the early 19th century. Sacher torte, a rich chocolate confection, is perhaps one of the most well-known. Linzer torte and Dobos torte are also quite popular. French gateau is closely related.

What is torte?

"Torte. The German word for cake. Tortes are usually made with flour, sugar, eggs, and gutter, but often ground nuts or bread crumbs are substituted for some or all of the flour. Tortes have a moist quality that keeps them fresh for several days. A torte may be either a multilayered cake or a dense-textured single-layer cake...Tortes originated in Central Europe."
---International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries and Confections, Carole Bloom [Hearst Books:New York] 1995 (p. 304)

"Torte is a German word which corresponds fairly closely to gateau. Its sister-word, Kuchen, can usually be translated as cake (large or of biscuit size); but in this case the connection see also quiche, by derived term. Torte appears in the title of many celebrated Central European confections, including sachertorte."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 802)

"Nineteenth-century Danubian nations...created the riches and creamiest layer cakes, or torten in Europe. Vienna was the undisputed capital of the confectioner's art."
---Horizon Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking Through the Ages, William Harlan Hale [American Heritage:New York] 1968 (p. 662)

About sponge. Desserts composed of layers of sponge and cream were known in the 16th century. About English trifle.

About Dobos torte

"Dobostorte, named after Dobos, a famous Hungarian chef who created it in 1887, is made by building up five or more thick circles of savoy sponge sandwiched with layers of a creamed filling, often flavoured with chocolate. The top layer of cake is covered with a layer of sugar caramel, marked into portions."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 802)

"Jozsef C. Dobos, born 1847, was pround of the fact that an ancestor on his father's side was the chef of Count Rakoczi. Toward the end of his life he opened a fabulous food specialty shop in Budapest, where he stocked over sixty different cheeses and twenty-two kinds of champagne and managed to import every rare seasonal delicacy imaginable. Famous far and wide was his showmanship, whether it was a machine of his own invention that projected a clock face on the sidewalk, or his stunt of hollowing out a fifty-kilo cheese, pouring in a magnum of the finest burgundy, leaving it in the shop window until the wine had completely soaked into the cheese, then selling pieces to the passionate epicures who flocked to buy from him. It was in this shop that he created and sold his famous Dobos torta in 1887. He had devised a packaging for sending this delicacy to foreign countries. Soon everybody started to imitate this cake, mostly with very bad results. This prompted him to publish the authentic recipe in 1906, donating it to the Budapest Pastry and Honey-bread Makers Guild. The sensation of the Millennium Exposition in 1896 was the Dobos Pavilion, where guess what was baked and served! One of the four major works he published is his Hungarian-French Cookbook. It sands as a classic. The world remembers thte anniversaries of battles and birthdays of great composers--what what city other than Budapest would stage a full-scale festival to commemorate the seventy-fifth birthday of a torte? In 1962, Dobos torta had this unique honor when the Hungarian Chefs' and Pastry Chefs' Association placed a wreath on Dobos' grave to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the creation of the Dobos Tortae. After this, in the Hungaria Cafe-Restaurant, they held a banquet, reproducing one of his great dinners; and for two days the Vorosmarty Pastry Shop sold only cakes and tortes of his creation. His grandson was presented with a heart made of traditional honey bread, and a six-foot-diameter Dobos torta was paraded by pastry chefs through the avenues of Budapest. Dobos died in 1924."
---The Cuisine of Hungary, George Lang [Atheneum:New York] 1982 (p. 61-3) [NOTE: This book contains a modernized recipe for Dobos Torte.]

About Linzertortes
Jindrak, an Austrian company famous for its linzertortes, traces this recipe back to 1696. It attributes this tasty flaky pasty and fruit recipe to a 300 year old cookery book [author/title not cited].

"Nineteenth-century Danubian nations...created the riches and creamiest layer cakes, or torten in Europe. Vienna was the undisputed capital of the confectioner's art...The Linzertorte, whose descent is obscure, could well be the contribution of Linz, the capital of upper Austria which like Vienna and Budapest is located on the banks of the Danube."
---Horizon Cookbook and Ilustrated History of Eating and Drinking through the Ages, William Harlan Hale [American Heritage:New York] 1968 (p. 662)

"Another well-known Austrian pastry, the Linzertorte, takes is name from the medieval city of Linz, which, like Vienna, stands beside the Danube and prospered as a trading center. The Linzertorte itself is a raspberry-filled delight that has become increasingly popular here in the United States. It has inspired miniature Linzer Tarts, and, more recently, Linzer Hearts, filled cookies that allow just a bit of raspberry jam to peek through a heart-shaped opening in the center..."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press:Athens] 1998 (p. 241-242):

American Heritage [magazine] June 1965 attributes the introduction of Linzertortes to America to Franz Holzlhuber:
"In 1856 Holzlhuber, an enterprising young Austrian from the vicinity of Linz, started for America. He had very little money but was equipped with a zither, a sketchbook, some education in the law and in draftsmanship, and the promise of employment in Milwaukee as conductor of an orchestra. Somewhere between New York and Wisconsin, he lost both his luggage and the letter confirming his job, which, it turned out, was no longer available. Nothing daunted, he went to work as a baker-introducing (so he said) the Linzer Torte to America..."

[1931]
"Linzer Tart
Time required, 1 1/2 hours
Tender Batter
3 1/2 oz. flour
7 oz. butter
3 1/2 oz. sugar
2 oz. powdered cloves
7 oz. almonds
2 egg yolks
cinnamon
sugar to strew over tart
flowr for tart form
3 1/2 oz. currant jam
white of one egg for brushing
Rub butter with flour and add the peeled and grated almonds, sugar, the powdered cloves, cinnamon, and egg yolks and knead the whole to a good dough. Roll out to about 1/4 of an inch, save a small piece, and put on a floured tart form. Spread currant jam over the top. From the dough reserved, shape a small rim round the tart and cover it with latticed strips of pastry. Brush with the white of an egg and bake for about one hour. Sprrinkle with sugar."
---Two Hundred Famous Viennese Recipes, selected by Madame Melanie Reichelt [Wm. Filene's Sons Company:Boston] 1931 (p. 26)

About Sachertorte
Classic folklore surrounding the origin of the Sachertorte here:

"Sacher torte. A famous Austrian cake served on festive occasions in German-speaking countries. It is a rich chocolate sponge cake glazed in apricot, and spiced with bittersweet chocolate. It was first produced in 1832 by Franz Sacher, chef to Prince von Metternich, and is reputedly the only cake in the world that was ever the subject of a court case."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 679)

[NOTE: This book contains a brief description of the case. It also refers to another book, Festive Baking in Austria, German and Switzerland by Sarah Kelly.]

"Sachertorte. A famous Viennese gateau, created at the Congress of Vienna (1814-5) by Franz Sacher, Metternich's chief pastrycook. Sachertorte (literally, Sacher's cake')...For years, Vienna was divided into two camps by the sachertorte controversy. The supporters of the sachertorte as it was served at the Sacher Hotel--two layers separated by jam, the top being iced--were led by the descendants of Franz Sacher, who regarded their version as the only authentic one. On the other side were the customers of the famous Demel patissiere, who based their claim on the rights acquired by Eduard Demel from Sacher's grandson, who authorized the so-called "true" recipe (the cake is simply spread with jam, then covered with icing), as published in Die Wiener Konditore by Hans Skrach. The Sacher Hotel finally won the court case that fascinated Vienna for six years. Demel replied by claiming that his was the Ur Sachertorte (the original cake)."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 1010)

"The best known of all tortes is the Sachertorte, named for Franz Sacher, chef to Prince Metternich (1773-1859), for whom he created it in 1832. It was one of the earliest chocolate cakes, made apparently only to please a demanding and somewhat iracible nobleman who was always requesting new desserts. For Metternich by this time was an old man, no longer the dashing, youthful price who had dazzled all of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. But the city has always stood for grandeur and the Sachertorte has become almost a symbol of Vienna and its talent for good living. Eduard Sacher, grandzon of Franz, allowed the recipe to be publsihed and also gave a famous Viennese pastry shop, Demel's, the right to call their version the Genuine Sachertorte. Inevitably, Demel's rivals protested. The Hotel Sacher, run by a distant cousin, sued, and much to the amusement of the Viennese, it took the courts seven years to decide in favor of the hotel. The only difference between the two versions was one extra layer of apricot jam, and not all of Vienna's chefs agreed with the courts."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press:Athens OH] 1998 (p. 239)

"To appreciate [the Sachertorte] thoroughly, you must put it in its context. It was created in 1832 at the request of Prince Mtternich... Compared with the elaborate architectural cakes of the period, it struck people as marvelously new and simple. Later, about 1870, the Hotel Sacher was built in the Philharmonikerstrasse. It soon became Vienna's most distinguished hotel; it still is. Around 1912 the hotel's most celebrated manager, cigar-smoking Anna Sacher, gave the recipe for the delicious chocolate torte to Olga and Adolph Hess for their Viennese cookbook. The later became Austria's equivalent of the Fannie Farmer anthology. Using the Hess recipe, Mrs. Ruth P Cass-Emellos, the New York Times' home economist, developed the adaptation appearing on these pages today...Demel's is a pastry shop in the Kohlmarkt at No. 14, dating form 1813 and generally considered to be the best in Vienna. In 1934, Demel's concluded a contract with Eduard Sacher, Frau Anna's only son, whereby it gained the right to serve the "original Sachertorte." (many other Austrian restaurants and pastry shops now serve the cake also, it should be noted.)"
---"The Legendary Cakes of Vienna," Jane Nickerson, New York Times, September 16, 1956 (p. SM27)

[1931]
"Real Sacher Cake
Ten servings. Time required, 1 1/2 hours.
5 oz. butter
5 oz. sugar
6 egg yolks
5 oz. chocolate
5 oz. flour
6 whites of eggs
Beat butter until very creamy, add egg yolks, nearly melted chocolate, sugar, the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs and lastly the flour. Bake in greased cake mould in moderate oven. When cooled, put a very little apricot jam over the top and glaze with chocolate."
---Two Hundred Famous Viennese Recipes, selected by Madame Melanie Reichelt [Wm. Filene's Sons Company:Boston] 1931 (p. 18)

[1952]
"Sacher Cake (Sachertorte)
This is the original recipe, obtained through the courtesy of Mrs. Anna Sacher.

3/4 cup butter
6 1/2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup sugar
8 egg yolks
1 cup flour
10 egg whites, stiffly beaten
2 tbls. apricot jam
icing:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
7 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

Beat butter until creamy. Melt chocolate. Add sugar and chocolate to butter; stir. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add flour. Fold in egg whites. Grease and butter 8-9" cake tin. Pour mixture in. Bake in 275 degree F. oven about 1 hour. Test with toothpick or straw. Remove to board; cool. Cut top off and turn bottom up. Heat apricot jam slightly and spread over top. Cover with chocolate icing, prepared as follows:

Cook sugar and water to thin thread.
Melt chocolate in top of double boiler.
Add sugar graudlly to chocolate.
Stir constantly until icing coats the spoon.
Pour on top of cake
Note: If desired, split cake into 2 or 3 layers. Fill with apricot jam or whipped cream."
---Viennese Cooking, O. & A. Hess, adapted for American use [Crown Publishing:New York] 1952 (p. 229)

About tortes (torten).

Generally, "red" cake recipes describe the coloring results when baking soda & buttermilk (acid & alkaline) chemically react. Think: Red Devil's Food. These cakes became popular after World War II. About devils food (including red devil's variety).

The earliest recipe we found titled "Red Velvet Cake" was published in 1962. The recipe was based on traditional chemical reaction. used to produce red devil's cake. While some people hypothesize the color of this recipe was inspired by tomato soup cakes, our survey of hsitoric does not bear this out. The color in Red Velvet cake is achieved by the addition of red food dye. Someone, somewhere, apparently decided old-fashioned "red" was not "red" enough.

[1962]
"Red Velvet cake with Ermine Icing sounds like a luxurious suggestion for a Valentine's Day celebration. This must be a favorite cake recipe among Exchange readers, judging by the numbers of copies sent to answer a recent request... Red Velvet Cake.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons cocoa, 2 ounces red food coloring (four 1/4 ounce bottles), 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup buttermilk, 2 1/2 cups cake flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons soda, 1 tablespoon vinegar. Cream together the shortening, sugar and eggs. Make a paste with cocoa and food coloring add to creamed mixture. Mix salt and vanilla with buttermilk and add alternately to creamed mixture, alternating with the flour. Mix soda and vinegar and fold into mixture. Do NOT beat. Bake in two 9-inch layer pans for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. The batter is mixed in the same way as any other cake batter, to the point at which the soda and vinegar mixture is added. This is folded in thoroughly.
Ermine Icing.
Ingredients: 5 tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup milk, 1 cup granulated suagr, 1 cup butter or margarine. Cook flour and milk until thick, stirring constantly. Let cool and be sure this mixture becomes cold. Next, beat in the sugar, butter and vanilla. Beat until icing is of spreading consistency. I should be creamy."
---"And Now It's Red Cake!," Reader Exchange, Washington Post, January 28, 1962 (p. F23)

[1968]
"These chocolate cakes have unusual twists. Food coloring is repsonsible for the rich red color of an often-requested chocolate cake...
Red Velvet Cake
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1-oz. bottle red food color
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 tbsl. cocoa
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vinegar
Cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla nd food coloring. Sift together flour, salt, soda and cocoa. Add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk and vinegar, mixing well after each addition. Turn batter into 2 greased and floured 9-in. layer pans. Bake at 350 deg. 30 min. or until cake springs back when touched lightly. Cool slightly, then remove from pans to cool on cake racks. Split cooled layers, if wanted. Fill and frost with desired icing."
---"Chocolate Cake With Unusual Twists," Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1968 (p. I20)

[1977]
"There is no accounting for the odyssey that some recipe take in traveling from one section of this country to the other. When we printed an old recipe for red velvet cake recently [Red Devils Cake,Q&A, NYT, March 30. 1977 p. 52], we received numerious replies from readers stating that their recipe was the more accurate. Although the cooking instructions varied in some of them, the ingredients in several were the same. Carolyn A. Knutsen of Kings Point, L.I., was one who wrote, and she noted that hers was, she believed, 'an old Southern standard cake,' one she had obtained from her family in Alabama. She embellishes her cake with a fillign that some other recipes did not include.

Red Velvet Cake
The Cake:
1/2 cup white shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 egg
2 to 4 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 cup red food coloring (see note)
1 teaspoon salt
1 buttermilk
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda
The Filling:
8 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
8 egg yolks
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
2 tablespoons bourbon or rum
1 cup raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream together the shortening and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat one minute on medium speed.
3. Blend the cooca and red food coloring (the amount of coloring may be reduced but the cake will not have its traditional vivid red color) and make a paste. Add this and the salt to the creamed mixture. Blend the vanilla and buttermilk. Alternately add this and the flour to the creamed mixture, beating constantly. Blend the vinegar and soda and beat this in.
4. Meanwhile, butter and flour two nine-inch cake pans. Shake out the excess flour. Add the cake, batter to each pan and bake 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Remove the cake layers and let cool on a rack. Turn out.
6. For the filling, combine the butter, sugar and egg yolks in a saucepan. Set the saucepan in a skillet of boiling water and beat with a wire whisk until thickened. Add the remaining ingredients and blend. Let cool. As the filling stands it will thicken more. Spread between the cake layers and on top. Yield: 8 or more servings.
Note: This quantity of food coloring sounds excessive. It was the amount listed in several of the recipes. When the recipe was tested recently, we reduced it to about one ounce. If you use the full amount, according to Carolyn Knutsen, 'it is red.'"
---"De Gustibus: Red Velvet Cake Return...," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, April 25, 1977 (p. 57)

The Waldorf-Astoria connection? The Waldorf=Astoria Cookbook/John Harrison & Ellen Silverman contains this hotel's "famous" Red Velvet Cake recipe. Which makes us wonder: if this cake was truly intimately connected with this famous hotel from the 1920s forward, why no reference to it in prior books or newspaper articles? The Waldorf-Astoria Cookbook/Ted James and Rosalind Cole [c. 1981] does not offer this cake (or anything similar). Coincidentally? Mr. Harrison is also the author of the Neiman Marcus Cookbook. Urban food legends unlimited. Remember the one about the $250 cookie recipe?

"After years of enduring the myth, Neiman Marcus had some up with a chocolate chip cookie recipe of its own...On the store's Web page...Neiman Marcus traces the tale back to at least the 1930s, when a similar story circulated about the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. That recipe was for Red Velvet Cake, and the reported charge was $100. Jan Harold Brunwald, a folklorist who has written books on urban myths...noted that the Waldorf-Astoria, which did not serve Red Velvet Cake when the stories involving it first circulated, eventually came up with a recipe it distributed, much as Neiman Marcus has done."
---"The $250 Cookie Recipe Exposed," Barbara Whitaker, New York Times, July 2, 1997 (p. C1)

[1989]
The most famous of all red velvet cakes is perhaps the groom's Armadillo Cake served in the movie Steel Magnolias (1989).

The practice of creating fantastic beasts from various food began was known to ancient Roman cooks. Only the very wealthy could enjoy such items. As time, place, and taste progressed "illusion food" adapted to suit local needs. Medieval lebkuchen (gingerbread) was often molded/decorated in elaborate shapes. 19th and 20th century cooks regularly used cake as a sculpting medium. Advances in cake molds, ovens, and auxillary props facilitated this task. Wedding cakes were the first to receive such attention. After WWII, directions for fancy cakes baked in molds and assembled from sheet cakes proliferated. Perhaps for express the delight of children growing up in new suburbs?

Culinary evidence confirms the tradition of serving groom's cake originated in the American south. The first grooms cakes were not clever cake sculptures. Only recently has this tradition become popular throughout the country, assuming (sometimes) the role of "illusion food." Our notes on groom's cake here.

Opera cake, Madeleines, Lady fingers & Genoise

Food historians generally agree that sponge cake (as we know it today) was probably a European recipe invented in the early 19th century. Prior to this there were recipes for 'biscuit bread' or 'sponge fingers' which would have produced a similar product. Sponge [spunge] cake and it's many variations were used ingredients a several popular Renaissance-era desserts such as English trifle and fooles. Gervase Markham, Robert May, and Elizabeth Raffald [early 17th century English cookbook writers] included recipes for "Fine bread," "Bisquite du Roy," and "Common biscuits," that are close to sponge cake.

"Sponge cake.
a light cake made by the whisking method in which egg yolks are beaten with sugar, then flour and other ingredients added...The term 'sponge cake' probably came into use during the 18th century, although the Oxford English Dictionary has no reference earlier than a letter Jane Austen wrote in 1808 (she evidently like sponge cakes)...Towards the end of the 19th century something called a 'sponge-cake pudding' began to appear, but then became simply sponge pudding."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 748)

"Savoy, a type of sponge cake...The Savoy biscuit arrived in England early in the 18th century. However it did not arrive alone. Other similar 'biscuits', named according to their supposed origins--Naples, Lisbon, or Spanish biscuit--also became popular in England at that time, and the differences between them, if differences there were, no doubt perplexed people then as they do now. When Mrs. Mary Eales gave a recipe for 'spunge biscuits' in her Receipts (1718), the situation became clearer, since this phrase conveys to British ears the correct impression, whereas terms such as 'Savoy biscuit' suggests something different. Morever, Mrs. Eales specified that the biscuits should be baked 'in little long pans', which corresponds to the shape of modern sponge fingers (or Boudoir biscuits)"
---Oxford (p. 702)

OPERA CAKE
L'Opera cake/gateau is a 20th century recipe with Ancient roots. Not unlike Tiramasu.

The practice of layering cakes with sweet substances (honey), intoxicating liquors (wine) and accented with nut flavorings (almonds) was a particular favorite of ancient middle-eastern cooks. The Romans adopted/adapted this recipe and took it with them when they conquered Europe. It is no accident that 16th century English cooks created "trifle." Chocolate and coffee were introduced to Europe in the 16th-17th centuries but (due to economics) were not incorporated into recipes until the 19th century. According to the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson (p. 748) sponge cake was also created in the 19th century. Also related to L'Opera gateau are Genoise (almond-flavored sponge with various decorations and fillings) and Savoy (sponge made by beating egg yolks and whites beaten separately). About sponge cake.

"Opera gateau is an elaborate almond sponge cake with a coffee and chocolate filling and icing."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated, [Clarkson Potter:2001] (p. 814)

"A classic for the past twenty years, the Opera was created for those who unabashedly choose chocolate and butter cream over fruit desserts. What makes this low, flat cake more modern than any of its predecessors is its shape (usually square or rectangular), and its undecorated sides that show all the layers. L'Opera is traditionally composed of layers of Biscuit Joconde, an almond sponge, that have been thoroughly soaked with coffee syrup...Some pastry shops decorate the top with the word Opera, written in panach with all the swirls that the French love so much..."
---New French Baker, Sheila Linderman [William Morrow:New York] 1998 (p. 66)

"Opera cake. This is a classic chocolate-coffee cake that I believe was first made in the 1930s for an important French-American reception held at the Paris Opera."
---La Nouvelle Patisserie, Jean-Yves Duperret [Viking:New York] 1988 (p. 155)

MADELEINES (sponge recipe)
The food historians haven't quite determined the exact origin of the Madeleine as of yet. Their connection to Marcel Proust is his reference to them in the opening lines of his autobiography Remembrances of Things Past. Proust's original text.

"In culinary lore, Madeleines are always associated with Marcel Proust, whose autobiographical novel, Remembrance of Things Past, begins as his mother serves him tea and "those short, plump little cakes called petits madeleines, which look as though they had been molded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim's shell." The narrator dips a corner of a little cake into the tea and then is overwhelmed by memories; he realizes that the Madeleines bore "in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast tructure of recollection." ...But Madeleines had existed long before Proust's boyhood. Numerous stories, none very convincing, attribute their invention to a host of different pastry cooks, each of whom supposedly named them for some particular young woman. Only three things are known for sure. One is that Madeleine is a French form of Magdalen (Mary Magdalen, a disciple of Jesus, is mentioned in all four gospels). Another is that Madeleines are always associated with the little French town of Commercy, whose bakers were said to have once, long ago, paid a "very large sum" for the recipe and sold the little cakes packed in oval boxes as a specialty in the area. Finally, it is alow known that nuns in eighteenth-century France frequently supported themselves and their schools by making and selling a particular sweet...Commercy once had a convent dedicated to St. Mary Magdelen, and the nuns, probably when all the convents and monastaries of France were abolished during the French Revolution, sold their recipe to the bakers for an amount that grew larger with each telling."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press:Athens] 1998 (p. 178)

"Madeleine, a small French cake associated with the town of Commercy in Lorraine...Legends about the origin of the name are critically discussed by Claudine Brecourt-Villars [Mots de table, mots de bouche, Paris:Stock 1996]. Madeleines have earned themselves an immortal place in literature, as the taste on one dipped in limeflower tisane provided the basis for Marcel Proust's celebrated reference to them, and the phrase a madeleine of Proust...The name madeleine has also been applied, for reasons which are obscure, to an English product: a small individual sponge cake in the shape of a truncated cone, covered in jam and dessicated coconut, and surmounted with a glace cherry."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 468)

"Madeleine...The origin of this seashell cake so strictly pleated outside and so sensual inside" (Marcel Proust) is the subject of much discussion. It has been attributed to Avice, chef to Tallyrand, the French statesman, who had the idea of baking a pound-cake mixture in aspic moulds. Other authorities, however, believe that the recipe is much older and originated in the French town of Commercy, which was then a duchy under the rule of Stansilaw Leszczynski. It is said that during a visit to the castle in 1755 the duke was very taken with a cake made by a peasant girl named Madeleine. This started the fashion for madeleines (as they were named by the duke), which were then launched in Versailles by his daughter Marie, who was married to Louis XV. The attribution of the cake to Madeleine Paumier, cordon-bleu to a rich burgher of Commercy, seems doubtful."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 709)

"Madeleine...A chronicler of the history of pastry-making ways that the great pastry-cook, Avice, when he was working for Prince Talleyrand, invented the madeleine. He had the idea of using tot-fait or quatre-quarts mixture for little cakes baked in an aspic mould. M. Boucher and Careme approved of the idea. He gave the name of madeleines to these cakes.' (Lacam, Memorial de la patisserie.). Other authorities, however, hold that far from having been invented by Avice, these little cakes were known in France long before his time. They believe that they were first made at Commercy, and were brought into fashion about 1730, first at Versailles and then in Paris, by Stanislas Leczinski, father-in-law of Louis XV, who was very partial to them. The recipe for Madeleines remained a secret from a very long time. It is said that it was sold for a very large sum to the pastry-makers of Commercy who made of this great delicacy one of the finest gastronomic specialties of their own."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagne, edited by Charlotte Turgeon and Nina Froud [Crown:New York] 1961 (p. 603-4)

Recipes for madeleines have changed over time:

[1890's]
"1290. Madeleines
These are made with the same kind of batter as Genoese cakes, to which currants, dried cherries, candied peel or angelica may be added. When the batter is ready, let it be poured into a sufficient number of small fluted or plain dariole or madeleine moulds (previously buttered inside); these must be placed on a baking-sheet spread with some charcoal ashes, to the depth of half an inch, and then baked in an oven of a moderate heat. When they are done, turn them out of the moulds, and dish them up in a pyramid form. These cakes may also be partially emptied, then filled up with some kind of preserve, and the small circular piece, removed previously to taking out the crumb, should be replaced."
---Francatelli's Modern Cook, Charles Elme Francatelli [David Mckay:Philadelphia] 1890s (p. 442)

[1941]
"French Madeleine
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups butter, melted
Rum, if desired
Vanilla extract or lemond rind
Work the eggs and sugar in a double boiler until creamy and lukewarm. Remove from the fire and beat until cold. Add the flour gradually, mixing with a wooden spoon, the butter and the rum, if desired, vanilla extract or grated lemon rind. Butter and flour the Madeleine molds, fill them 2/3 full. Bake in a hot oven about 450 degrees F. Yields 24 to 30 small Madeleines."
---Cooking a la Ritz, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott Company:Philadelphia] 1941 (p. 424-5)
[NOTE: Mr. Diat also offers a recipe for "Viennese Madeleine," which includes marzipan, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, melted butter and cornstarch.]

About sponge.

ladyfingers

The recipe for ladyfingers (aka biscuits a la cuilliers, boudoir biscuits) originated in Europe (likely England, France, Italy, or Spain); the name is English. Food historians tell us these small sponge cakes were "invented" in the 18th century. About sponge cake/biscuits.

"Ladyfinger. A light sponge-cake biscuit. The name comes from the usual shape of the confection, which is long and narrow, light and delicate...The word often appears in the possessive, "Lady's finger," and the plural, "ladies' fingers," and was first mentioned by John Keats in his poem The Cap and Bells (1820). Ladyfingers have long been a popular confection in America, where some recipes call for the pastry to be pushed through a pastry tube."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 179)

"Boudoir biscuits are in effect the same as sponge biscuits or sponge fingers, ladyfingers (N. America) and savoy biscuits (an older term). They are long, finger-shaped, crisp sponge biscuits based on whisked egg and sugar mixtures with a crystallized sugar topping. In France they are also called biscuits a la cuiller. Helen J. Saberi (1995) has investigated the history and significance of the unusual name "boudoir biscuits'. Although boudoir entered the English language from French long ago and its application to these biscuits could therefore have arisen in England, it seems clear that the French were the first to use the name. Boudoir comes from the French verb bouder, to pout, and normally refers to a woman's private room where she would receive only her intimate friends--who could pout and nibble sponge fingers as much as they wished in this cloistered environment."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davison [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 90-1)

"Ladyfingers are dry, airy cakes, often with a sugar crust which are made by piping a stiffly whipped egg-and-flour batter into diminutive oblongs. The sponge batter used for lady fingers was developed in Europe by the seventeenth century to produce Naples or Savoy biscuits. Introduced to colonial America under those names, the cakes were often baked in specially designed tins or paper cases of varying sizes and shapes. The term "ladies' fingers" was used in America no later than the 1820s, although recipes for Savoy biscuits, in which one puts the batter "into the biscuit funnel, and lay it out about the length and size of your finger."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 25)

The line from Keats read thusly:
"Fetch me that Ottoman, and prithee keep your voice low," said the Emperor; "and steep some lady's-fingers nice in Candy wine."

Ladyfingers and similar products are used to compose English trifles, Zuppa Inglese, and Tiramisu. Notes here.

A SURVEY OF LADY FINGER RECIPES THROUGH TIME:

[1828]
"Biscuits a la Cuilliere. Take a silver spoon, and use the same paste as above (Savoy Biscuits, cold). To dress savoy biscuits, and biscuits a la Cuilliere, you must glaze them with fine sugar, and bake them in a very temperate oven."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, English facsimile 1828 reprint [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 t(p. 417)

[1869]
Finger Biscuits.
Break 6 eggs; put the whites in the whipping bowl, and the yolks in a basin; To the latter add 1/2 lb of pounded sugar, and stir for five minutes; Whip the whites very firm; then put them in the basin containing the yolks, adding 5 oz. of sifted flour; mix thoroughly. Take a sheet of stiff paper, and shape it into a funnel; secure it with sticking paste; and when dry, fill it with the biscuit paste; close the top, by folding over the paper, and cut off the end of the funnel, making an opening 3/4 inch diameter; Force some of the paste out of the funnel, on a sheet of paper, in the shape of a finger 3 inches long, 1 inch wide; leaving an inch space between each biscuit; dredge come sifted sugar over them; put them on a baking-sheet, and bake in a moderate oven for ten minutes; let the biscuits cool on the paper; then take them off, and dress them on a dish; The biscuits are flavoured by the addition of vanilla, lemon, or orange flower."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, & Marston:London] 1869(p. 204)

[1875]
"Lady Fingers. Whisk four fresh eggs thoroughly, the whites and the yokes separately. Mix smoothly with the yolks three ounces of powdered sugar and three ounces of flour, add the whites, and afterwards a quarter of a pint of rose-water. Beat all together for some minutes. Have ready a well-buttered baking tin, form the paste upon it with a spoon in "fingers," three inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide, sift a little powdered sugar over them, let them stand five or six minutes to melt the sugar, then put them into a moderate oven, and bake until they are lightly browned. When cool, put them in pairs, and keep them in a tin canister closely covered until wanted for use. Time to bake, about twenty mintues. Probable cost, 8d. Sufficient for two dozen fingers."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875 (p. 352)

Genoise
Genoise is one of several types of sponge cake. According to the food historians, this cake was *invented* in the early 19th century. About sponge cake. There are also other confections known by this geographic appelation. Genoa Cake, for one. These are somewhat similar in ingredients.

The Genoa connection
Presumably, these recipes are connected with the Italian city of the same name. This busy trading port served as one of several crossroads for importing/exporting foods from Arab countries throughout Europe. These included ingredients generally found in geneoise: almonds, currants, raisins, citrus and spices.

"Genoa's position in the Mediterranean in summed up in the medieval proverb genuensis ergo mercator, a Genoese therefore a trader. In the eleventh century, the Arabs beban losing their position to the Normans in Sicily. The decline of Arab supremacy meant the rise of the other powers like Genoa. But by the late fourteenth cetnury, Genoa was in danger of falling to foreign domination and decadence. The enterprising Genoese avoided this fate by exploring new ways to assure a prosperous future. Commerica interests from northern Europe, with their expertise in building mountain roads, found Genoa suitable for their entry into the profitable shipping trade, and by the fifteenth century Genoa was the leading financial city of the world. Genoa played an early role as an intermediary between Seville and the New World and forged an alliance with Spain in 1528...The Ariadne's thread throguhout Genoses history is the concern for a reliable food supply...The Genoises were their own principal customers of food, and the luxuries of the East--which made them rich--were reexported at high profit. Genoa traded with whomever could provide food."
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p. 348)

What makes Genoise special and how is used?
"Genoise. A type of sponge cake...but is not to be confused with Genoa cake, which is really a type of light fruit cake. Whole eggs are beaten with sugar until thick, and the flour then folded in. This type of sponge may be simply dusted with icing sugar and eaten plain; or split and filled with jam and cream, or butter icing. The top may also be iced. Sheets of genoise are used to make Swiss rolls. Genoise-type mixtures are also made into sponge fingers...and French Madeleines."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 334)

"Genoese Sponge, genoise. A light sponge cake that takes its name from the city of Genoa. Genoise sponge is made of eggs and sugar whisked over heat until thick, then cooled and combined with flour and melted butter. It can be enriched with ground almonds or crystallized (candied) fruits and flavoured with liqueur, the rind (zest) of citrus fruits or vanilla. Genoese sponge...differs from ordinary sponge cake in that the eggs are beaten whole, whereas in the latter the yolks and whites are usually beaten separately. Genoise sponge is the basis of many filled cakes. Cut into two or more layers, thich may be covered with jam, cream, or fruit puree. It is coated, iced (frosted) and decorated as required."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkston Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 55)

Sample historic recipes:

[1869]
"Genoise Cake.
Put in a basin:
1/2 lb. of pounded sugar
1/2 lb. of sifted sugar
1 small pinch of salt,
the grated peel of a lemon,
4 eggs;
Mix the whole, with a wooden spoon;
Melt 1/2 lb. Of butter in a stewpan; pour it in the paste; and mix thoroughly; Slightly butter a plain-pudding mould; put the paste in it, and bake for three quarters of an hour; ascertain if the cake is done, by inserting the blade of a small knife;--if it somes out damp, the cake is not quite done, and should be left in the oven a few minutes longer; Turn the cake out of the mould; let it cool; and serve."
--Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated from the French and adapted for English use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marson:London] 1869 (p. 203)

[1875]
Genoese Cake.
Melt half a pound of butter by letting it stand near the fire. Mix thoroughly half a bound of flour, half a pound of sugar, a pinch of salt, and the finely-minced rind of a lemon. make them into a paste with a wine-glassful of brandy, four eggs, well beaten, and the clarified butter. Beat for te minutes with a wooden spoon. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pie-dish, and bake in a moderate oven. When the cake is sufficently cooked (this may be ascertained by pushing a skewer into it, and if it comes out dry and clean it is done enough), take it out, and cover it with sugar and blanched almonds (see Genoa Cake). Time, three quarters of an hour to bake, a quarter of an hour extra to brown the almonds. Sufficient for a pudding-dish two inches deep and five inches square. Probable cost, 1 s. 6 d., exclusive of the brandy."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1975 (p. 247-248)

[1875]
Genoa Cake.
Mix a quarter of a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of raisins, a quarter of a pound of candied lemon, orange and citron together--all being finely minced--as much powdered cinnamon as will stand on a threepenny piece, six table-spoonfuls of moist sugar, half a pound of flour, and the finely-chopped rind of a fresh lemon. Beat these ingredients for several minutes, with half a pound of clarified butter, four well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of brandy. put the mixture in a well-buttered shallow tin, and bake about three-quarters of an hour. Mix the white of an egg with a table-spoonful of sherry. Brush the top of the cake with this, and strew them finely--chopped blanched almonds on the surface. Put it in the oven a few minutes longer, to brown the almonds slightly. Probable cost, 1s. 10d., exclusive of the brandy. Sufficient for a tin two and a half inches deep, and four inches square."
---ibid (p. 247)

• About devils' food
• About brownies

This is what the food historians/writers have to say on the subject:

"Texas sheet cake. One of my all-time favorite cookbooks is a little spiral-bound paperback called Food Editors' Hometown Favorites published in 1984 by the Newspaper Food Editors and Writers Association. It is appears this heavenly chocolate cake spread with fudge-pecan icing. it was contributed to the book by Dotty Griffith, food editor of the Dallas Morning News. But the accompanying headnote says the recipe was also submitted by food editors all over the country. Some attribute the cake to Lady Bird Johnson. Others say it got its name because it's as big as Texas--well, not quite. The cake couldn't be easier to make, it's suprisingly light, but my, it is sweet."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the Twentieth Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 459)
[NOTE: This book includes a recipe.]

"WHAT'S COOKIN'?
Question: Where does Texas Sheet Cake get its name?
A) From the super-chocolatey taste, as big as Texas.
B) From the fact that the taste is so intense, people can eat only a small piece - meaning one cake will serve a Texas-size crowd.
C) From its overall richness - a big taste in a big cake from a state that was supersizing things long before fast-food places were.
D) All of the above.
The answer, if you've ever tasted the famous cake, has got to be D. Texas Sheet Cake is chocolate through and through, rich and decadent. As for whether it originally came from Texas, I couldn't find a definite answer. But Lone Star cooks were smart to get their state's name on something that tastes so good."
--- "A chocolate cake from the land of the supersized," Ann Burger, The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), January 28, 2001, G, Pg. 6

Texas Sheet Cake: Hospitality in A Cake/ Pat Mitchell

Sheet vs. Sheath cake?
Food historians ponder this linguistic puzzle. Without definate conclusion. It appears somewhere in middle of the 20th century the terms sheet and sheath were interposed. A survey of historic culinary sources confirm recipes for Shealth/Sheet Cake in the American South are quite similar. They are generally rich, chocolate-based cakes with equally rich icing.

"When it comes to desserts, Texans have plenty to brag about. From such delights as Texas Sheet Cake and Buttermilk Pie to sweet favorites like Peach Cobbler and German Chocolate Cake, the Lone Star State's signature desserts are as remarkable as the state itself. Everyone has a favorite, of course, but one of the most universally loved desserts is the Texas Sheet Cake or Texas Sheath Cake, depending on whose recipe box you're looking in. Cooking instructor and cookbook author Lenny Angel says she got her recipe for Texas Sheath Cake in 1963 two years before she moved to Texas from Nebraska. "My mother, who lived in Illinois, mailed it to me. Texas Sheath Cake has become the birthday cake for my family. My son John adores it so much we had it at his wedding as the groom's cake," she says. "I have run into zillions of people in my classes that love that cake. I think it's a family favorite of so many you hardly ever meet anyone who doesn't know that cake." Angel theorizes that the real name of the cake is Texas Sheet Cake, noting that bakeries often sell "sheet" cakes of various flavors. "I think someone had bad ears and didn't hear right, and that 'sheath' was an offspring of sheet," she says. Angel, whose family now refers to the cake simply as Texas Cake, says she tried to broaden their culinary horizons by baking "the new white Texas cake not too long ago. My family nixed it. I loved it, but they didn't," she says."
---"Sweets from the Heart of Texas," Karen Haram, San Antonio Express-News (Texas), May 21, 1997, FOOD; Pg. 1, Part F

Compare the above description with this southern recipe, circa 1967:

"Mrs. Elkins' Sheath Cake
2 cups sugar
2 cups sifted flour
1 stick margarine
1/2 cup shortening
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sift sugar and flour into large bowl. In saucepan, bring next 4 ingredients to rapid boil; stir into sugar and flour. Mix in other ingredients. Pour into greased 11X16 inch pan. Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. 5 minutes before done, make icing.

Icing:
1 stick margarine
4 teablspoons cocoa
6 tablespoons milk
1 box confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans,br> Bring cocoa, margarine and milk to boil. Remove from heat, adding sugar and vanilla. Beat well. Add pecans and spread over hot cake while still in pan.--Mrs. William P. Dilworth, III"
---Hunstville Heritage Cookbook [Junior League of Hunstville Inc.:Hunstville AL] 1967 (p. 260)

Culinary evidence confirms sandwich cakes originated in the 19th century. Essentially composed of sponge cake filled with jams or soft creams, these were popular Victorian tea treats. Like so many popular English desserts, they descended from Renaissance-era trifles. Tipsy cake is a version with alcohol.

"A sandwich cake is a sponge cake consisting of a layer of filling, such as cream or jam, sandwiched between two layers of sponge....Victoria cake."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 300)

"The Victoria sandwich, or Victoria sponge as it is also known, was named after Queen Victoria of Great Britain, and seems first to have come on the scene after about a quarter of a century of her reign: the first known recipe for it is given in Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861) (although from its placement in the book she seems to regard it more as a dessert dish than a tea-time cake). Essentially it consists of two layers of light sponge cake with between them a filling of jam, or sometimes cream."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink (p. 358-9)

"Victoria sandwich cake named after Queen Victoria, is a plain cake made by the creaming method...closely related to pound cake. Although sometimes referred to as Victoria sponge cake', it is not a true sponge cake in the sense that Savoy or Genoise are. Usually it is cut in half and spread with jam and/or cream to give a sandwich. The top is usually dusted with sugar."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 826)

About sponge cake

Mrs. Beeton's orginial recipe:

"1560. Victoria Sandwiches.
Ingredients.--4 eggs; their weight in pounded sugar, butter and flour; 1/4 saltspoonful of salt, a layer of any kind of jam or marmalade.
Mode.--Beat the butter to a cream; dredge in the flour and pounded sugar; stir these ingredients well together, and add the eggs, which should be previously thoroughly whisked. When the mixture has been well beaten for about 10 minutes, butter a Yorkshire-pudding tin, pour in the batter, and bake it in a moderate oven for 20 minutes. Let it cool, spread one half of the cake with a layer of nice preserve, place over it the other half of the cake, press the pieces slighly together, and then cut it into long finger-pieces; pile them in cross bars on a glass dish, and serve.
Time.--20 minutes. Average cost, 1s 3d
Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable at any time."
---Mrs. Beeton's Cookery and Household Management, Isabella Beeton [1874] London (p. 775-6)

"Lemon Sandwiches.--Required: a cake mixture, and a lemon filling as below. Cost, according to quantity. Take a mixture as given for Swiss Roll, Sponge Cake, Geneva Cake, or any other similar sort. Bake on two shallow tins, so that when done it shall be only a quarter of an inch thick. Turn the two pieces out upside down, on sugared papers, and spread the mixture, then put together, and cut in any shapes to taste. To prepare the filling, allow a small lemon, two ounces of castor sugar, and a beaten egg; the proportions must be doubled or trebled according to the size of the tins used for the cakes. The lemon juice is first to be heated in a saucepan, and the sugar stirred in, then the grated lemon rind, and the beaten egg of the fire; set by to cool before using. For richer sandwiches, use the curd given for lemon cheesecakes, but this will be more generally preferred."
---Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book, Lizzie Heritage [Cassell and Company:London] 1894(p. 1032)
[NOTE: This book also contains recipes for orange sandwiches]

Related recipe? lady fingers

Tipsy Parson (aka Tipsy Cake, Tipsy Pudding) descends from Renaissance-era English Trifle. This particular multi-layered sponge cake and cream dessert is soaked in alcohol (brandy, sherry, etc.). The "tipsy" refers to what might happen to the diner who eats too much of it! None of our sources offer explanation regarding the "parson" portion of the name. About English trifle.

"Tipsy cake is a traditional English dessert, first cousin to the trifle. As its name suggests, its key ingredeint is alcoholic: it consists essentially of sponge cakes soaked in sweet sherry or some other dessert wine, decorated with almonds, and with custard poured round it. The first reference to it was reportedly by the writer Mary Russell Mitford in 1806: 'We had tipsy cake on one side, and grape tart on the other.'"
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 344)

"Tipsy cake, a sponge cake or Victoria Sandwich Cake soaked with cherry syrup and decorated with cream. Popular since the late 18th century, it belongs to the British tradition of cake, cream, and alcohol puddings such as trifle. Eliza Acton (1845) gave Tipsy Cake the alternative name of Brandy Trifle. Florence White (1932) whent one step further and combined what was known as hedgehog cake with tipsy cake into a hedgehog tipsy cake. Versions exist in other countries such as the Spanish bizcocho borrecho a la crema, a type of sponge cake soaked in syrup flavoured with rum and orange liqueur, and filled with a lemon-flavoured custard."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 799)

"Tipsy. Also, "tipsy parson" in the South. A sponge cake spread with almonds, soaked in sherry , and served with custard (1570). It was a dish of the late nineteenth century. The name apparently refers to the alcohol content, which if taken in large doses would make the imbiber "tipsy" or slightly drunk."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 327)

"Tipsy Parson or Tipsy Squire comes from colonial Virginia. A dessert obviously very like the English trifle, its name is a double play on words. Since it contains sherry it could, conceivably, bake one who overindulged a bit "tipsy," but it is equally true that a pudding made of cake and custard may wobble drunkenly if turned out of its mold."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio Univeristy Press:Athens OH] 1998 (p. 203)

ELIZA ACTON'S RECIPE [1845]

"Tipsy Cake, or Brandy Trifle.
The old-fashioned mode of prepariang this dish was to soak a light sponge or Savoy cake in as much good French brandy as it could absorb; then to stick it full of blanched almonds cut into whole-length spikes, and to pour a rich cold boiled custard round it. It is more usual now to pour white wine over the cake, or a mixture of wine and brandy; with this the juice of half a lemon is sometimes mixed."
---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, facsimile 1845 reprint with an introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 396)

Compare with this American recipe, circa 1877.

It is interesting to note that two popular 20th century American food history books (Jean Anderson's American Century Cookbook and Sylvia Lovegren's Fashionable Food) place this recipe in the 1970s. Culinary evidence confirms this recipe existed in the 1940s. Wacky cake is but one example of the tradition of "make do" cakes that were popular during times of short supply. Contrary to popular opinion, eggless, butterless cakes were not invented at that time, they were revived from WWI days (which were revived from pioneer days). Dump Cake is another descendant of Wacky Cake in method.

"Dump cake. A cake made by "dumping" the ingredients directly into the baking pan, mixing them, and baking the batter."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 117)

The earliest reference we find to Dump cake is from a Duncan Hines company cooking brochure published in 1980 (sorry, we don't own a copy).

"Wacky Cake or Crazy Cake. In a way, this is a variation on Chocolate Pudding Cake...But it takes the "quick-and-easy" one step further: The cake is mixed in the baking pan. That's part of the wackiness. Another is that the batter contains vinegar and water, but no eggs. Like Chocolate Pudding Cake, this one is shortened with oil instead of butter or margarine."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 467)

RECIPES

[1912]
"Dump Cake
Dump into a dish all together the following articles: One cup butter, two cups sugar,three eggs, four cups flour, one pound chopped raisins, one teaspoon soda in a cup of cold water, two teaspoons cream tartar. Any spice you choose. Mix well. Bake in two deep pans."
---"Tried Recipes," Christian Science Monitor, January 31, 1912 (p. 6)

[1936]
"Crazy Cake
1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup lard, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup boiling water. Put ingredients in a mixing bowl in the order given. Do not stir until the boiling water is added. Beat for three minutes. Pour into a 9-inch greased pan with waxed paper in bottom. Bake in a slow oven (320 degrees F.) for 30 minutes or until done. Frost with Chocolate Mocha Frosting. Serves 8."
---Hammond Times [IN], November 6, 1936 (p. 94)

[1937]
"Crazy Cake
So many of our readers have asked us to repeat this recipe that we realize its demand. It may be made up in a crazy manner but, when finished, you will wonder how it happened that you hae passed so many years of your life without learning to use this simple recipe.

Place upon the work table, your largest mixing bowl. Measure one cup of sugar and put it into that bowl. Add one whole egg, then one-half cup sweet milk. Next add one-half cup of cocoa. Measure one-half cup of butter and add it to the mixing bowl. One-half teaspoon soda, one teaspoon baking pwoder and one teaspoon vanilla extract are added next. Sift all purpose flour and meaure one and one-half cups of it and add to thebowl. Now add one-half cupt of boiling water and beat the mixture for three minutes or until all the ingredients are well blended and creamy. Bake in an oven temperature of 325 degrees until done. The pan would better be the square type and greased at the bottom. We were crazy enough to try to make crazy cake and are delighted with its texture and taste."
---Freeport Journal-Standard [IL], November 24, 1937 (p. 10)
[NOTE: our research confirms this recipe was published in several USA newspapers in the late 1930s.]

[1943]
"Hole-In-The-Middle Cake
1 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
2 T cocoa
1 t soda
1/2 c melted butter
1 c sour milk or cream
1 egg
1 t vanilla
Sift dry ingredients and make a deep hole in the middle. Add sour milk, egg, butter, and vanilla, and mix well. Bake in 350 dgtree oven 40 min.

Icing
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
lump of butter
milk to moisten
Boil until it reaches the soft ball stage. Remove from fire and beat throroughly. Helen Olheim."
---The Connecticut Cookbook, Woman's Club of Westport [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1944 (p. 210)

[1949]
"Wacky cake. A favorite recipe of Mrs. Donald Adam, Detroit, Michigan.
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons shortening
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water.
Sift flour, Measure. Add sugar, cocoa, soda and salt. Sift into greased and waxed paper lined 9X9X2 inch pan. Make 3 grooves in dry ingredients. Put shortening in 1 groove, vinegar in the second, and vanilla in the third. Pour over cold water. Beat until almost smooth. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 30 minutes. Makes 12 servings."
---New York Times, November 17, 1949 (p. 23)
[NOTE: This recipe was included in a display ad for The Time Reader's Book of Recipes, Time magazine, (E.P. Dutton:New York)]

[1960]
Cockeyed Cake
(This is a famous recipe, I believe, but I haven't the faintest idea who invented it. I saw it in a newspaper years ago, meant to clip it, didn't, and finally bumped into the cake itself in the apartment of a friend of mine. It was dark, rich, moist, and chocolatey, and she said it took no more than five minutes to mix it up. So I tried it, and, oddly enough, mine, too, was dark, rich, moist, and chocolatey. My own timing was five and a half minutes, but that includes hunting for vinegar.)
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water
Put your sifted flour back in the sifter, add to it the cocoa, s