H.F.F. 5.10: Let Them Eat Cake

The Challenge: Let Them Eat Cake. Make a cake, or cakes, or anything involving "cake".

The Recipe: Queen Cake from Eliza Leslie's Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats

The Date/Year and Region: 1832, Philadelphia

How Did You Make It: Half-scale. I used 3 large eggs (for ~5 historic ones), 1/2 lb butter, 1/2 lb granulated sugar, 7 oz flour, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp mace, 1/4 tsp cinnamon.  I  beat the butter and sugar together, then mixed the spices and flour, and beat the eggs separately. I added the flour mixture and eggs to the butter/sugar, then stirred in 2 oz of mixed brandy and white white, and 3/4 tsp rosewater. I baked the cakes in my new queen cake tins. Each tin was buttered and floured before baking.

This half batch made 1 of each shape, large and small, as well as an extra of the large round. Per the period instructions, I only filled each tin halfway, which was felicitous, as each cake basically doubled in height.  I was worried about need to use a utensil to free the cakes, and potentially scraping the tins, but the cakes actually pulled away from the sides like they were supposed to, came free with a few gentle taps to the pan.

I also made the icing at half scale for the icing: beat 1 egg white (rounded down for the size) into stiff peaks, added 6 teaspoons of powdered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon rosewater. It gave a nice meringue texture, but didn't make enough to cover all the sides of the cakes. So, I probably shouldn't have rounded down the egg size (or possibly only the tops are meant to be frosted). I tried setting the iced cakes in the oven at "bread proof" (100F) to approximate the 'warm place to dry, not too close to the fire' instructions, but after 2 hours the icing was still tacky. Instead, I ended up baking them at 200F for another hour to dry the icing.

Time to Complete: Not counting the week to clean my oven after attempt 1  About 20 minutes to prepare the batter and pans, 15-20 minutes per batch in the oven, another 2+ hours to frost and dry.

Total Cost: Unsure.

How Successful Was It?: Second time was the charm. The cakes have a nice crumb, strong spicy flavor (neither too insipid or overwhelming), and stay fresh for a surprisingly long time. On days 3-5, the remaining cakes were slightly tough, but still quite palatable. 

My first attempt, using the Queen Cakes receipt from The Practical Housekeeper (1855) on a quarter scale was a complete disaster. The batter was fairly light after beating it for a long while, but the batter completely melted when baked (leaving behind only currants in melted butter in the pans and a huge mess in my oven). I also tried using pasteurized egg whites in the icing, but found that 'not suitable for meringues' also applies to meringue-like icings, so I used a regular egg white on the second attempt. Which worked much better.

How Accurate Is It?: I'm feeling pretty good about the tins. I used an electric oven and mixer. I already noted scaling down the eggs. I rounded down the rosewater in the recipe based on the proportions given in the icing receipt: it called for 8 drops lemon essence or 1 Tbsp rosewater in the icing, but the 12 drops of lemon or 1/2 glass of rosewater in the cake. I used the icing proportion instead, and concluded that 1 1/2 Tbsp was the appropriate amount of rosewater, and then halved that as I was working at half-scale.

Test cake has come out of the oven, large pans ready to go in.

Queen cake in many shapes

The cakes that lasted long enough to get frosted.