Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie
Listen to "065 Cream & Pudding & Cake that is Not a Lie" on Spreaker. Link to the Episode: Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie 18th Century, pre-revolutionary cake was generally a heavy dense thing compared to our modern, airy baking powder assisted cakes. The only leavening was yeast and eggs. And sugar? Expensive. Cakes were definitely less sweet. If you were not wealthy, or it wasn't a wedding, birth or a death, molasses and maple syrup (more generally known as "maple molasses" in the 18th century) would stand in. And these too would tend to make your cake more dense as well. It was also common for cakes to be only slightly sweetened and then studded with dried or sugared fruit - think fruit cake. Either the dense bricky stuff of English descent - or the new Italian star of the modern American winter holiday scene, panettone 18th century cake American cakes were largely thick, moist things that were lightly sweetened.