[Sca-cooks] Reasons why period cakes aren't modern cakes

[Stefan li Rous]

In an offshoot of a conversation in the FB "Medieval & Renaissance Cooking and Recipes" group, after I and Cariadoc indicated that chocolate as a solid item was not appropriate for period items, a comment was made about "<begin humor> It's people like you that keep us from having Lane Cake Feasts </end humor>", which got me asking about what a "lane cake" was.

I expected it to be the latest Hollywood fad, but Urtatim pointed me to a wikipedia page which talked about this being a very fancy cake from 1898. Not medieval, but not the modern fad I was thinking it might be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_cake

However, I thought one paragraph in there brought home why a period cake is not a modern cake and vice-versa. 

<<< Although the cake has a reputation as being difficult to make, this is no longer true.[3] When the recipe originated, there were no stand mixers, nor electric hand mixers, and even hand-crank eggbeaters were not universally available, which meant a lot of hard labor beating egg whites to frothy soft peaks. The wood-fired ovens of the time had no thermostats, making it difficult to produce a white cake. Modern refrigeration also makes it easier to produce a stiff filling, allowing one to build an orderly multi-layer cake, rather than a sticky, lopsided dessert. >>>

Although written in reference to 1898 vs. today, I suspect baking, and especially home baking, has changed more since 1898 than it did from 1500 to 1898.

Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
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