[Sca-cooks] sponge cake and such

[Philip & Susan Troy]

KazOShea at aol.com wrote:

> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> I had mentioned that I had found a mention for a cream filled sponge in
> period writing. I did find a sponge cake recipe in Fettiplace's Receipt book.
> However I have been unable to locate about the cream filled part.


These things happen. I was just caught a bit off guard by the
possibility that such a thing would exist when I hadn't seen anything
even close in the research I'd done. I've got a copy of the Spurling
edition of Fettiplace, and what she actually says is that Fettiplace's
recipe for sponge _biscuit_, which is similar to langue du chat and to
madeleines, could be used to make a good spongecake. But that's a little
different from saying Fettiplace has a good recipe for spongecake, since
she instructs us to make biscuits, probably fairly crunchy cookies, with
the batter.


> Although I thought I read somewhere the man that invented twinkies got the
> idea from a dig in England and he found a sponge cake with cream filling in
> the ruins of an old Elizabethan house. And after all those year it was still
> moist on the outside with a creamy filling...


_I_ thought twinkies had been discovered at the heart of an Egyptian
tomb, the eternal power supply for mystical engines of preservation...

Actually, some relative of mine used to make faux twinkies (or maybe she just spoke of having seen the recipe in some magazine -- Southern Living?) involving some kind of sponge cake cut into rectangular sandwich shapes, and filled with a firm pseudo-buttercream of confectioners' sugar and vegetable shortening.


Or was it lard? ;-)

Adamantius

--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98