[Sca-cooks] Another TV-inspired cooking contest

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Sat Nov 20 20:16:20 PST 2010


> << So another question for the contest -- does bread count as a cake?
> Johnna >>
>
> <<Yeah--if you're going for "Historically Accurate.
> Bear >>
>
> Okay, Bear, what are you basing your comment on?
>
> I still plan to create a Florilegium file with *just* the period bread 
> recipes, keeping the discussion and most of the other stuff about period 
> breads in the other bread files.  But one thing that has held me back has 
> been deciding what and what not to include. The sweeter dessert breads 
> sometimes with fruit in them and I guess cakes fall into the grey area I 
> haven't been able to decide on yet.
>
> Although I guess my question turns this one around to, does cake count as 
> a bread?  I haven't even gotten into wafers and cookies. :-(
>
> Stefan

Cake appears in Middle English (12th to 16th Century and derived from the 
Old Norse "kake") as a reference to round(ish), relatively flat bake goods. 
These include breads, griddle cakes, simnels and cookies.  To my knowledge 
most of these are made from enriched dough incorporating eggs, sugar and 
spices and sometimes incoprporating nuts and fruits.  Great cakes in 
particular are leavened breads similar to stollen and the panforte from 
Scappi.  Baked batter cakes, which are the modern replacement for great 
cakes, are beyond SCA period and are not historically accurate for Medieval 
or Rennaisance use.

IIRC, most of the "cake" recipes that I would class as enriched breads are 
from sources after 1600, although they are likely of Elizabethean origin. 
Scappi's panforte is definitely a bread ("pan" and the recipe say so). 
Simnel is in a class of its own.  Griddle cakes, wafers and small cakes, I 
can argue either way, although I don't normally include them as bread.

I was thinking about using the panforte recipe to make a dough to be baked 
in a mold and produce a shaped loaf--shaped like a castle.  BTW, I've taken 
a first cut at the panforte recipe.  It's a little heavy, but tastes okay. 
I got rid of a two pound loaf at last pop meeting.  I want to run it up a 
couple more times before posting a recipe.

Bear 




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