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Martha Washington's Great Cake was a large celebratory cake consisting of fruit and spices. In 1797, George Washington refused to serve a third term as President. Washington bade the public farewell and returned to Mount Vernon in time for Christmas festivities. As part of the Yuletide celebrations, Martha Washington arranged for a type of fruited cake known as a "Great Cake" to be baked and served as a dessert on the last of the twelve days of Christmas, known as Epiphany or Twelfth Night.
Great Cakes were a common dessert in the Colonial Era and tended to be very large, as reflected by the list of ingredients that varied according to the version of the recipe used. One transcription of Martha Washington's Great Cake recipe utilized the following ingredients: a peck of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, three pounds of melted butter, and seven pounds of currants. Added to these ingredients were four grated nutmegs, cloves, cinnamon, mace, caraway seeds, water, and salt. Other ingredients included yeast derived from barm (the foam that rises to the top of fermented liquor), and liquid derived from posset, a warm mixture of ale and cream.
Martha Parke Custis's Great Cake recipe.
The cake would most likely have been baked in a medium oven in a large mould so that it would have risen, with the oven's heat reduced once the cake started to rise and firm. The end result was a risen cake similar to panettone, the Italian delicacy that lies somewhere between a cake and bread in texture and is also commonly eaten at Christmas. However Martha Washington's Great Cake would have had a denser texture than panettone and contained greater quantities of fruit and spice than the Italian sweet.
Among Martha Washington's surviving papers was a recipe written out by her granddaughter Martha Parke Custis that utilized different ingredients and quantities from more common Great Cake recipes. Custis' recipe included forty eggs worked into four pounds of butter, four pounds of sugar, five pounds of flour, and an equal quantity of fruit. The recipe also called for mace and nutmeg, and to these dry ingredients wine and brandy were added. When all the ingredients were combined the cake was baked for five and a half hours. Though Martha Washington was adept at entertaining, she did not did not cook everything herself. Instead Mount Vernon slaves were enlisted in the kitchens and would have prepared the Great Cake.
Preheat oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C)
Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.
Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.
Melt the butter at low heat and add to the dry ingredients. Also add milk and eggs.
Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed.
Transfer to bake tin and bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.
After the cake has cooled, slice the cake through the middle to make two layers (easier if the cake has been in the fridge).
Frosting
Cream the softened butter with powdered sugar in a bowl. Add cocoa, vanilla and 4 tablespoons lukewarm milk, and mix until smooth. Do not over-mix. If necessary, add some more milk.
Use one 1/3 of the frosting between the two layers, 1/3 on top, and the rest around the cake.
This cake should have room temperature when served.
Variations
You may cut the top of the cake to make a flat surface before adding the frosting.
You may divide the batter in two and transfer to two bake tins. The baking time would then be about 15-20 minutes
To make a tall cake, you may bake two cakes instead of slicing one into two layers
You may use tasteless vegetable oil for the cake instead of melted butter. If so, also add 1/4 ts salt
Instead of vanilla extract, you may use an equivalent amount of freeze dried coffee
You may use ½ cup of freshly brewed coffee instead of milk or water to get mocca flavor
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Great Cake Recipe For Carrot Banana Vanilla Sponge Carrot Fruit Cake Photos
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