SC - Old News - Maid of Honour Cakes

[Susan Fox-Davis]

A peculiar little romantic aside here:

I had met and carpooled to a baronial council meeting with a likely young man,
and we agreed to carpool again for the tournament the following weekend.  He
phoned me up with lunch plans, but regretted that he did not have time to bake
for the sweets contest, and that what he was going to make was Richmond Maids of
Honor.

I started laughing.  "Guess what's in my oven Right Now?"

"Don't tell me it's Richmond Maids of Honor?"

"Yup."  The first sign of True Love.  That was about 20 years ago and we're
still married.

Selene [the softie]
selene at earthlink.net

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> I'm in the Guild of St. George, the nobles' guild, at the big
> Renaissance Faire in NoCal. We're having a pot-luck lunch in our
> Guild yard Saturday. We don't have to have period food. Frankly, life
> has been stressful lately, so i really don't want to work out a
> recipe from an old original in the next day and a half (i drive up to
> fair Friday night and camp there).
>
> The following recipe has some humor value at Fair, since a number of
> Queen Elizabeth's maids of honor are in our guild, and they don't
> have a lily white reputation. I might be able to work up a gig around
> these.
>
> I found the recipe on the web and i do not assume it is historically
> accurate. No doubt it has been dissected and desiccated here already,
> but, well, i'm dragging this dusty corpse back again. Parts of it are
> medievally familiar - making it with bread crumbs, for example,
> instead of flour. And parts are either just wrong, or seriously badly
> written. I've made a few comments in [brackets].
>
> If there is a more accurate recipe - with the modern version worked
> out - i would welcome it. Or if anyone can improve this, i would
> appreciate that, too.
>
> ---------------------
>
> MAIDS OF HONOUR CAKES
> Serving Size  : 4
>
> 1/2 pint Milk [hmmm, that's one cup, right? Or is an English pint
> different from an American pint?]
> 2 tablespoons Bread crumbs [i understand that an English tablespoon
> is one American teaspoon bigger than an American tablespoon]
> 4 oz Butter
> 2 oz Almonds, ground
> 1 oz Sugar
> 3 Eggs
> 1 Lemon Zest (the grated rind of one lemon)
> Puff Paste [ok:  how much? some particular shape? what the heck to i
> do with this?]
>
> Boil [for how long] the milk and bread crumbs [or does it really mean
> "bring to a boil"]...
> ...and let them stand for 10 minutes.
> Add the butter, almonds, and sugar. [mix well, i assume]
> Beat in the eggs, one at a time. [i'll take care here not to curdle them]
> Put a dessert spoonful of the mixture in the center of the puff
> pastry, ... [then what do you do with the rest of the mixture? I
> assume there are some number of puff pastries, not just a single one,
> enough of the little buggers to use up the bread crumb mixture. From
> notes below, i am guessing that maybe this is supposed to be like vol
> au vents or something similar, and so make a number of little
> tartlets]
> ...bake until golden brown. [at what temp? 350° F?]
>
> Notes and Credits
>
> >From "The Good Fare and Cheer of Old England" by Joan Parry Dutton.
> Published by Reynal & Company, Inc., 1960.
>
> "It is said that Maids of Honour cakes date from a day in 1525 when
> Henry VIII saw Maids of Honour for one of his six Queens eating a
> platter of cakes with such joyous relish that he tried one himself,
> and found it very good.  Another tradition says they were named for
> Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honour when she lived at Richmond Palace."
>
> >From "The Cooking of the British Isles, by Adrian Bailey. Published
> by Time-Life Books, 1969.
>
> "Several towns in Britain make small, delectable tarts known as Maids
> of Honour, but none are so rich in flavor and therefore so famous as
> Richmond Maids of Honour, which come from Richmond, a suburb of
> London, and are said to have been invented for the court of Henry
> VIII in the 16th Century."
>
> ---------------------
>
> Thanks for comments and commentary.
>
> Anahita
> aw, heck, mebbee i'll just bring a pumpkin pie :-)
>
> ============================================================================