[Sca-cooks] A More Polite Response to TV-Inspired Contest

[Karen Lyons-McGann]

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 5:49 AM, Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> You can't sculpt a cake as He asks to be "historically accurate".  Leaving
> out that category, what we have is a fun competition of a SCAdian type.
>
> While many SCAdians strive for historical accuracy, there are many
> occasions where just plain fun and silliness is enjoyed by participants.
>  Could He be persuaded to leave out the last category?  It's impossible to
> do - unless one submitted a bare plate on a 2+ foot high stand. (Sorry, Your
> Highness... Not invented yet!)
>
> Alys K.

Impossible?  Really?    In period, nobody make decorative objects out of
food?

When did the word 'cake' come into being?  What did it mean? off the top of
my head, a fruit packed baked good, yes?  The antecedent of modern fruit
cakes.   There were ale yeasted types though we've recently discussed  that
 panetonne is not period.  Wasn't there a fruity brick type 'cake' that
people were referencing and which name I don't recall?  Surely there are
similiar recipes outside the Italian?  What about steamed puddings?   And
some 'bisket' breads are quite cakey, in my experience. Then there
is gingerbread.  And is fancy sugar work completely out of period or just
really late?    There are a number of products I think which could be
employed to make what could be referred to as a sculpture.

Most of the products are either too heavy or too delicate for the TV method
of stacking sponge with frosting and carving it.  But the point is the final
sculpture, not the method, I would think.  Something as blocky as a castle
with fruitcake/steamed pudding base and gingerbread / bisket  / sugarwork
towers could be done?    Couldn't it?  Documentable in it's parts if not
it's whole.   But if people eat it and think it yummy and know it's 'period'
then score one for our side.   He's given the fans of historical accuracy an
opening,  I think it would be a shame if no one makes use of it.

Another idea would be to use a dough with which you might make a 'coffin'
for pies and making a large coffin with a seperate decorative lid (internal
support might be needed) and after it is baked, fill it with some sort of
accurate confectionary.

Lady Bonne