(thought you might have a little fun with this. Dr Mark)
Election Cake, like a bite
from American history, makes its rounds every November. I make it every
year, but only once a year – just before the election. Preparing
Election Cake is a celebration of love, of patriotism, of politics and of history. And for those of you who’ve read
Nourished Kitchen
for some time, you know that I keep my politics to myself (and think
you should too), but share my love of vintage and historic recipes like
staititai,
buttermilk biscuits or
cream of chicken soup.
We’ve even hosted whole dinner parties based on historic cuisine. Among
all the historic cookery I’ve sampled in my kitchen, this Election Cake
recipe is one of our favorites.
Election Cake: A History
In early America, the electoral process brought communities together
in festivity and revelry. Families traveled from the far reaches of
their region to town centers where they enjoyed a holiday – visiting
neighbors homes, dancing at balls, drinking, carousing and mustering for
the local militia. Indeed, for a time before America revolted and
became a nation in her own right, these celebratory spiced cakes that we
know (or used to know) as election cakes were called muster cakes.
After the revolution, mustering for the occupying forces no longer
proved a necessity, but festivities still surrounded the electoral
process and these spiced and fruit-studded cakes were renamed for the
annual elections. Election cakes commissioned by local government could
often command several hundred dollars by today’s standards, as they were
massive – intended to feed an entire community of voters. By the middle
of the 19th century, states and municipalities no longer commissioned
the cakes and what was first a symbol of conviviality and festivity
began to take on an ulterior motive: slices of election cake were
provided as an incentive to vote a straight ticket or for a particular
candidate.
Election Cake: A Traditional Sourdough Cake
A charming old-world recipe, preparing an election cake is a
slow process – a process that fell from favor once by the late 19th
century when cakes leavened by baking powder became all the rage. Now,
it’s all but forgotten.
Cakes of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were typically produced through soaking or sour leavening – like
sourdough breads,
while those cakes that weren’t prepared in this manner, such as
Portugal cake, excluded wheat flour in favor of blanched almond meal.
Interestingly, it’s these traditional methods – soaking flour in sour
milk, leavening dough with sourdough starter or blanching nutmeats and
removing their papery skins – that optimized nourishment received from
these foods.
The simple, traditional acts of soaking and souring grains and flours
degrades antinutrients such as food phytate which would otherwise bind
up minerals, particularly iron and zinc, preventing your body from best
absorbing these vital micronutrients2. Despite what ill-informed
detractors have stated, the processes of soaking and souring cereal
grains is so effective that researchers in human nutrition suggest that a
return to traditional methods of grain preparation such as soaking,
fermenting or sprouting result in improved nutrient status, increased
lean-body mass and increase in resistance to infection – particularly
among those populations who adhere to a largely plant-based diet either
from necessity or from choice. (Learn more about the value of
soaking grains). Traditional foods nourish.
Not only were election cakes prepared through a long soak in fresh or
sour milk coupled with sour leavening, but they were filled with
wholesome fats – raw butter, farm eggs, and served with a heavy
seasoning of wine and brandy or molasses, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and
coriander. Cooks studded the spiced cakes with dried fruit – mostly
prunes, raisins and currants.
Traditional Election Cakes could feed an entire community.
A special occasion food, cakes were prepared in magnificent
quantities – enough to make a modern cook blush. In one of the first
recorded recipes for election cake, Amelia Simmons calls for more than
three dozen eggs, a quart of brandy and fourteen pounds of sugar.
Incidentally, both sugar and flour available in early America would have
remained whole and unrefined – refined foods were a luxury few
colonialists could afford.
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 colander seed, 3 ounces ground
alspice; wet flour with milk to the consistence 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. - Simmons, American Cookery, 1796.
Now that elections are upon us again, go vote and while you’re add
it, soak some flour in milk, stir it with spice and brandy and take a
bite of American culinary history.
Where to Find Sourdough Starter for Your Cake
Modern versions of
Election Cake typically veer away
from the traditional method of sour leavening – after all, sourdough
baking is a bit of a lost art and most modern cooks who have even the
faintest interest in sourdough usually relegate it to the realm of
breads alone.
To prepare a traditional election cake, you will need sourdough starter. The election cake recipe below uses my method for
making a sourdough starter which involves water, bread flour or high extraction einkorn flour (
find it here) and a bit of an established starter to kickstart the fermentation process (you can find
sourdough starters online here).
Election Cake
- Yield: 1 cake (8 Servings)
- Prep: 10 mins
- Cook: 45 mins
- Ready In: 8 hrs 55 mins
Election
Cake is a traditional cake historically served at the time of mustering
or elections in early America. It is a sour-leavened caked sweetened
with unrefined cane sugar, molasses, dried fruit, brandy, white wine and
spices. This recipe calls for sourdough starter which you can
find online or
make yourself.
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups sifted spelt or soft white wheat flour
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk or sour milk
- 1/4 cup proofed and bubbly sourdough starter
- 1/2 pound butter
- 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
- 1 tablespoon white wine
- 2 tablespoons brandy
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 cup chopped prunes
- 1 cup dried currants
Instructions
- Combine
four and one-half cups spelt or soft white wheat flour together with
one and one-quarter cups sour milk and one-quarter cup bubbly sourdough
starter until a thick dough resembling the texture and consistency of
bread dough is formed. Form the dough into a round ball, place it in a
bowl and allow it to rest, covered, at room temperature for eight to
twelve hours.
- After the dough has rested for eight to twelve
hours, beat one-half pound butter, one and one-quarters cup unrefined
cane sugar, one-quarter cup blackstrap molasses together with one
tablespoons white wine and two tablespoons brandy. Once the mixture of
butter, sugar, molasses and liquor is thoroughly combined and fluffy,
stir in two beaten eggs.
- Beat butter, sugar and egg mixture
with dough, adding one tablespoon ground cinnamon, one tablespoon ground
coriander, one-half teaspoon ground allspice, one-half teaspoon ground
nutmeg and one-half teaspoon unrefined sea salt to the mixture, until
the batter resembles a that of a thick cake then fold in dried fruit.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing the dough to rise until doubled in bulk while the oven preheats.
- Bake
the cake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about
forty-five minutes to one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the
cake’s center comes out clean. Serve with plenty of butter and a pint of
hard cider.
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