[Sca-cooks] cakes

[Volker Bach]

Am Sonntag, 15. Mai 2005 20:44 schrieb Alexa:
> I have a question in regards to cakes that I thought I
>  would pose to the list.  I know cakes as we know
> them, the texture of birthday cakes you get at the
> bakery, or from a store bought mix  or home made cake
> are not period.  My question is, when abouts did cakes
> w/ the texture of pound cake come into play?  I have
> only found a recipe for 'an excellent cake' and by no
> means was it cake like we know of today, more like a
> cookie type of thing.

I think that for cakes of the modern kind to become copmmobn, you have to wait 
for the advent of sodium bicarbonate and mechanical or electric beaters. 
However, there are some period recipes that get you a fairly spongy, soft 
texture not at all like cookies:

Mach ein Teig an mit Milch / Eyern / und schoenem weissen Mehl / thu
ein wenig Bierhefen darein / un mach einen guten Teig / der nicht gar
steiff ist / unnd versaltz jn nicht / setz jn zu der waerm / daß er fein
auffgehet / ...

Make dough with milk, eggs, and good white flour, and add a little brewing
yeast. Do not make it too stiff and do not oversalt it. Leave it to rise in
a warm place ... 

The recipe goes on to descrivbe making fritters. However, the followiong one 
says:

Nimm ein newen Krug / schmier jn innwendig wol mit zerlassener Butter /
thu einen solchen Teig darein / daß der Krug halb davon voll wirt / und
wenn er auffgelauffen / daß er voll ist / so scheubs in heissen Ofen / und
laß backen / thu jn herauß /  und laß jn kalt werden / zerschlag den Krug /
unnd thu die Schifer davon hinweg / unnd gibs fein ganz auff Tisch / so
sihet es wie ein Krug.

Take a new pot, grease its insides with melted butter, then take of such a
dough (as described in a previous recipe) and fill it half full. When it
has risen to fuill the pot entirely, place it in a hot oven and bake it.
Then take it out, cool it, and break the pot. Remove the shards and serve,
and it will look like a pot.
(Marx Rumpoldt, late 16th century) 


Same pattern here, first the fritter, then using the same dough for a cake: 

Nimm ein frischen Kaeß / der uber Nacht gemacht ist / thu schoen weiß
Mehl unnd Eyerdotter darunter / rueres wol durcheinander / mach Küchel
darauß / nimm Papier / und bestreichs mit Butter / und leg die Küchel
darauff nebeneinander / scheubs in einen warmen Ofen / so wirt es fein
aufflauffen / wirt innwendig fein hol wie ein Schwam / richt es in ein
Schuessel an / begeuß mit frischer Butter / unnd bestraew es mit weissem
Zucker / gibs warm oder kalt auff ein Tisch / beschneidts fein rundt un
duenn / legs auff eine Schuessel / bespreng es mit Rosenwasser / und
bestraew es mit weissem Zucker / so ists gut und wolgeschmack.

Take fresh cheese that was made overnight and add fine white flour and egg 
yolks and stir it well. Make small cakes, place them on buttered paper, and 
place it in a warm oven. Thus they will rise and become as hollow as sponges 
inside. Serve them warm or cold in a bowl drizzled with melted butter and 
sprinkled with sugar or slice them thin and round, place them in a bowl, 
drizzle with rosewater and sprinkle with white sugar. This will be good and 
delicious.

Du kanst auch wol ein Turten machen von einem solchen Teig / un kanst
es kalt lassen werden / die nennet man Kaese turten / und wenn du es wilt
auff ein Tisch geben / so besprengs mit Rosenwasser / unnd gibs kalt /
bestraew es mit weissem Zucker. Du magsts gantz geben oder zerschneiden.

You can also make a tart of this dough that is served cold and called 'Cheese 
Tart'. If you want to serve it, drizzle it with rosewater and sprinkle it 
with white sugar. Cou can serve it whole or cut it up. 


And then there's this from the Anonymous Venetian. I'm not sure I figured the 
intent correctly, but it looks like a seond cousing to Rumpoldt's cheese 
tart, a century or two early. 

XL A white and rich "migliaciti" (cake)
If you want to make white cake in the best way that you can for 12 persons.  
Take enough leaven (fermenting bread dough) that is (for) about a bread and a 
half, take water that is a little hot and mix it with the leaven so that it 
makes strings (breaks up).  Take four fresh, good fat cheeses, ten eggs, two 
pounds of fresh lard that has been well rendered with little smoke and well 
strained.  And when the leaven is well working put it above flour in 
quantities of about a dish (scudella pizola a dish of a specific and constant 
size), and put in a a little water, and put in the chopped cheese (one of the 
three) and add the eggs that you have.  Make this batter/dough soft and 
tender, and put it into a hot but not too hot "testo" (pie dish designed to 
cook pies on the fire) which has been well greased.  And scatter above the 
two cheeses that you have chopped well, and above it add the hot strained 
lard that you have, and put it to cook.  And if you want to make for more 
persons or for less take the ingredients in the same way.

YIS

Giano