Tag: cakes

Delicate Cake

Delicate Cake

What makes a Delicate Cake – delicate? Not sure, but here are four versions from my 1890 copy of The Model Cook Book: A selection of nearly 3000 Thoroughly Tested and Choice Recipes by Mrs. Frances Willey. Delicate Cake – No. 1 One cup of 

Maple Syrup Cake

Maple Syrup Cake

This recipe comes from Igleheart Bros. Cake Secrets, a small cookbook that featured Swans Down cake flour. I would imagine this would only be successful with pure maple syrup.

Foodie Friday: Gateau of Fish from 1921

Foodie Friday: Gateau of Fish from 1921

Perfect for Old School Pastry on a Foodie Friday: make a gateau of fish! This recipe comes from A Modern Manual of Cooking by Marion Harris Neil, published in 1921. The original recipe for the oyster sauce called for chopped eggs but none were included in the ingredients, so I omitted them.

Gateau of Fish

For Fish:

  • 1 1/2 lbs. cooked white fish
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 3 tablespoons shortening
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
  • 1 teaspoon anchovy paste
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Lemon slices [for garnish]
  • Oyster Sauce (recipe below)

Oyster Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons shortening
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup oyster liquor
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • Salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste
  • 1 dozen small oysters

For the Fish: Cook the fish; remove skin and bone, chop it, then put it in a basin, add breadcrumbs, parsley, seasonings, milk, eggs well beaten, and melted shortening. Mix well, turn into a buttered mold, cover with a greased paper and steam one hour. Serve with sauce poured over, and dish garnished with lemon slices.

For the Sauce: Blend shortening and flour in a saucepan; cook one minute. Stir in milk, oyster liquor, stir till it boils for eight minutes, then add seasonings. Boil one minute, add oysters. Mix, until the oysters cook, and serve.

War Cakes & Depression Cakes, and Wartime Cookery

War Cakes & Depression Cakes, and Wartime Cookery

Many old cookbooks have one or more different versions of a ‘war cake’ or depression cake’. These cakes were specially created to bake without eggs, butter, milk, and sometimes even sugar, as all these ingredients were saved for the soldiers during the war. It may 

The Real History of Angel Food Cake with Recipes

The Real History of Angel Food Cake with Recipes

Think angel food cake is a recent invention? Angel food cake has been around a very long time, and the author of The American Pastry Cook, Jessup Whitehead, goes into detail about its origins way back in 1894, and makes you appreciate this gem of