I have a curious recipe for you today. At least, it seems
curious today, when the ‘traditional’ wedding cake is a great slab, dense with
fruit - identical to Christmas cake apart from the style of decoration. Perhaps
the following recipe was ‘traditional’ in the United States in the 1870’s? The
recipe is from What to eat, and how to
cook it: with rules for preserving, canning and drying fruits and vegetables,
by John Cowan (New York, 1870)
Wedding Cake.
Mix one pint
of boiled cracked wheat; one cocoanut, grated; half pint cocoanut milk; half
pint dried currants; one quart stewed sweet apples, or figs softened with hot
water; and wheat meal sufficient to make a moderately stiff dough. Bake, in
loaves, from one and a half to two hours.
Quotation for the
Day.
In all of the wedding cake, hope is the sweetest of plums.
Douglas Jerrold.
4 comments:
I have never, ever heard of something like this for a wedding here in the US (historically or otherwise). Interesting.
Are you sure that isn't supposed to be the Groom's cake? Or the cake the guests are supposed to take home?
Hi EB and Kate - the recipe is interesting, isnt it? there was no explanaton in the book, just the title. I think the groom's cake idea is relatively new - now, there's another idea for a blog post!
I think the cake would certainly have had good keeping qualities, so maybe you are right Kate, and it was to take home?
Interesting post..The recipe is really a different one..
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