Historical recipe for cake before refined sugar
What ingredients were used in cake before the invention of any factory produced or processed foods such as refined sugars? Does anyone know where I could find historical recipes for such things?
Best Answer
See Food Timeline, which explains that historically, the closet thing to cake was more an enriched, sweetened bread, enhanced with honey, perhaps with fruits or nuts added. They would have been closer to what we think of as fruitcake.
According to them, the precursors to modern cakes came about due to more reliable ovens, and the availability of refined sugar. They were baked in a ring or hoop, and covered with a boiled sugar icing.
Truly modern cakes did not emerge until baking powder became available:
It was not until the middle of the 19th century that cake as we know it today (made with extra refined white flour and baking powder instead of yeast) arrived on the scene. A brief history of baking powder. The Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book [London, 1894] contains a recipe for layer cake, American (p. 1031). Butter-cream frostings (using butter, cream, confectioners [powdered] sugar and flavorings) began replacing traditional boiled icings in first few decades 20th century. In France, Antonin Careme [1784-1833] is considered THE premier historic chef of the modern pastry/cake world. You will find references to him in French culinary history books.
I was not able to easily find historical recipe for very old precursors to cakes.
Still, the archive of The Old Foodie includes a recipe it indicates is circa 1769, which is in the refined sugar era, representing one of the early transitional recipes:
Gateaux d’Amandes. Almond Cake.
Take half a Pound of Flour, half a Pound of pounded sweet Almonds, and five or six bitter with it, half a Pound of Sugar, six Eggs, and work it well all together; form it into a Cake; bake it on a sheet of Paper, well buttered; when cold, glaze it with a white Sugar-glaze: another Method for the same Sorts of Cakes; bake it in a Mould, or Baking-hoop; pound a Pound of sweet Almonds very fine, and one Dozen of bitter ditto, putting Whites of Eggs, to hinder them from turning to Oil; then put to it half a Pound of fine Sugar-powder by Degrees, two whole Eggs, Lemon-peel, finely chopped or rasped; when this is properly mixed, add eight Eggs, the Yolks and Whites first beat up separately; stir it, and mix it all properly; and pour it in the Mould, to bake about an Hour: serve in its natural Colour.
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How did they bake before sugar?
According to them, the precursors to modern cakes came about due to more reliable ovens, and the availability of refined sugar. They were baked in a ring or hoop, and covered with a boiled sugar icing.What did people use before sugar was invented?
Before sugar became known, our ancestors ate honey, dates and other sweet foods, which they also used as sweeteners. We know this from writings and reliefs from ancient Mediterranean cultures. Honey is our oldest known sweetener.What is the history of cake making?
According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the English word cake back to the 13th century. It is a derivation of 'kaka', an Old Norse word. Medieval European bakers often made fruitcakes and gingerbread.How was the first ever cake made?
The first cakes are believed to have been prepared by the Ancient Greeks who baked round or moon shaped cakes or bread sweetened with honey to symbolize the moon. They topped the cakes with candles to please Artemis, the Moon Goddess.Baking A Medieval Cheesecake - The History of the Sambocade
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