HFF 5.17: Heartfelt

[I actually did this challenge during its mid-February timespan, then just left abandoned the draft for 6 weeks without adding the pictures. It's been a time...]

The Challenge: Heartfelt. Make a historic version of something you love, or anything with "heart". 

The Recipe: "A Light Cake to Bake in Cups" from The Skillful Housewife's Book

A LIGHT CAKE TO BAKE IN CUPS. Half a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, rub in two pounds of flour, one glass of wine or rose water, two of yeast, one of nutmeg, and fruit if you please.

The Date/Year and Region: 1852, New York

How Did You Make It: Half-scale, and started with some math. I took "one glass" in the wine/rose water and yeast measures as "one wine glass", which can be somewhere from 2 to 4 fl oz depending on the reference. Considering how strong rosewater can be, my instinct was to go for the smaller end of that scale. I decided to check some modern cake recipes which use yeast to confirm this, and concluded that 1.5 fl oz = 1 "wine-glass" would give the same proportion of flour to yeast in this recipe as in the modern recipes.  I then had to convert into active dry yeast (since I still can't find fresh for sale), which gave: 1/4 lb sugar, 1/4 lb butter, 1 lb flour, 0.75 fl oz rose water or wine, and 1.5 oz fresh year, or ~3 tsp active dry yeast in about 1.5 oz water (to make up the liquid).*

I started by letting the ~3 tsp of yeast wake-up in ~2oz water, and then began creaming the sugar and butter, to which I mixed in the flour. The dry ingredients were measured by weight. Then I added the rosewater and yeast+water, and a generous sprinkle of nutmeg (~1/4 tsp).

At which point I realized that 4.5 fl oz is not nearly enough liquid to make this into a dough, and added an additional 0.5 oz rosewater and 1-2 oz water, which barely squeaked this into usable (if lumpy) territory).

I then proceeded to bake the first set, filling 3 large and two small queencake tins each half-way, and putting them in the oven at 350F. Five minutes later, I realized another mistake: I hadn't actually let the dough rise for an appreciably time. Those cakes baked in 15-20 minutes, and produced a short, dense cake. I let the remaining dough rise for an hour before baking the next two rounds, and allowed the dough a few minutes to rest between putting it in the tins and baking them. These later cakes rose most of the way to the top of the tins, and produced a lighter cake.

Total Time: About 20 minutes preparing dough and pans, 1 hour rise time, 1 hour to bake three sets (~20 minutes if using sufficient pans to cook them all simultaneously).

Total Cost: About $1 worth of butter at the current rate, everything else was on hand.

How Successful Was It?: For the comedy of errors that this experiment was, it returned a palatable set of cakes. The first round, with the limited rising time, were definitely dense. The latter were lighter, but all of them still had a lumpy finish up top, which I am blaming on the weird way the liquids were added. The cakes kept nicely for several days, went well with tea, and had a lovely rose-nutmeg flavor. I think there's some potential to use these in future, but I will need to workshop them a lot first (and probably get Quinn's input, as yeast is involved).

How Accurate Is It? Not particularly light, and in retrospect 'bake in cups' probably meant rounds rather than heart/diamond/club queencake tins. So, not one of my most accurate attempts. That being said, I think with some more practice and experimentation (and cross-referencing other sources), I can make a it more accurate version. I had meant to add currants before baking, but the 'fruit' is 'optional', so omitting is within the period variations. Considering how weird the liquids were here, I would like to try it again using fresh yeast, and see how it compares.

 

*I had extensive notes to myself about how I calculated this, based on the idea that use you about 40% as much active dry yeast as fresh yeast, and needing to make up the liquid difference, but I honestly can't interpret what I wrote. And I think the take-away in either case is that this recipe needs more liquid and either more yeast or more rising time than I gave it. It also can probably use professional supervision...