PRUSSIAN CAKE

To be honest, I made 'Prussian' cake by sheer luck. It's not the only almond dessert in the blog (remember Elizabeth Acton's 1845 version and Pellegrino Artusi's 'four quarters, Italian style' dating from 1891) but it's likely the most delicate -as far as texture goes. The original plan was to make 'almond cake' from Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well but I didn't have any cornstarch and used flour instead. Then I browsed the online sources for a recipe that would match the finished cake because adapting Pellegrino Artusi is not something I do without guilt. (I shall bake 'dolce di mandorle' and write a post after buying the cornstarch.)

 

Having just watched The Duchess, I focused on eighteenth century best-sellers: The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) by Hannah Glasse and The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769) by Elizabeth Raffald. Unfortunately, there were lots of butter cakes, seed cakes, plum cakes, and ratafia cakes for the history-lover but no almond cakes as such. Almonds were filled into cakes for special occasions, alongside raisins & glazed fruit. Macaroons (almond biscuits) were also crushed to make ratafia cakes, which everyone loved. But recipes using as much as 50% almond flour would be unknown for several more decades with the exception of Prussian cake by Elizabeth Raffald. This is how it was done: "To make PRUSSIAN CAKE. Take a pound of sugar beat and sifted, half a pound of flour dried, seven eggs, beat the yolks and whites separate, the juice of one lemon, the peel of two grated very fine, half a pound of almonds beat fine with rosewater; as soon as the whites are beat to a froth, put in all the things except the flour, and beat them together for half an hour; just before you set it in the oven, shake in the flour. _ N.B. The whites and yolks must be beat separate, or it will be quite heavy."

 

 

Lady Georgiana Cavendish by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785-1787

 

Why Elizabeth Raffald's cake was labelled as 'Prussian' is difficult to say. Even French cuisine was not popular yet though recipes from abroad occasionally found their way in best-selling cookbooks. Prussia was also not yet on the spotlight, as it would be in the Regency era due to its involvement in the Napoleonic wars. More than a hundred years later, Pellegrino Artusi featured a number of 'German' cakes in Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, including torta tedesca whose original version actually reminds a lot of the Elizabeth Raffald's Prussian cake. Of course, desserts of this quality would have been rare among middle class people in the late eighteenth century. Prussian cake was really extravagant.

The historic figure behind The Duchess -Georgiana Cavendish née Spencer- was also extravagant, if not charismatic. She had married the Duke of Devonshire at seventeen years old and had two children but no son at first, which the Duke looked very much forward to. (He also obliged her to and to live under the same roof with his mistress.) But her character and position enabled her to find happiness elsewhere. Not so much due to her looks as to her wit and pleasing manners, she became a general favorite. Around Georgiana Cavendish flocked a host of admirers. She had several lovers and notable friends, like Queen Marie Antoinette, and was especially gifted for politics, science and literature. She also had a weakness for gambling, accumulating huge debts. The 2008 film shows part of the lavish environment in which the Duchess of Devonshire moved, including the family dinners. Though nothing is clearly stated or identified besides a pigeon, I wouldn't be surprised if the historic Georgiana Cavendish had actually enjoyed Prussian cake with her tea.

PRUSSIAN CAKE

The original recipe calls for twice as much sugar as used in the version below. The number of eggs is sufficient to rise the cake, without baking power.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

250g almond flour

250g plain flour

250g caster sugar

250g butter, room  temperature

6 eggs + 3 whites

lemon zest and juice

 

M e t h o d

1. Butter a 26cm springform pan. Preheat the oven to 180C. 2. Combine the almond flour with the plain flour and lemon zest in a bowl. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and butter, finally adding the lemon juice. Prepare a meringue with the nine egg whites. 3. Stir the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture, alternating with the meringue. 4. Pour into the springform pan and bake for an hour or longer, until a toothpick comes out dry.

N o t e

Make your own almond flour by simmering, peeling, oven-drying, and grinding in a mill exactly the quantity of almonds you need.

E D I T:

Since I wrote this post, I have browsed another cookbook -The Compleat housewife, or, Accomplished gentlewoman's companion by Eliza Smith, published in 1773. I must say, there is a recipe named 'almond cakes' in the relevant chapter but it yields a kind of 'cake' that reminds of macaroons. Incidentally, macaroons are not listed under any category in this book though you can find instructions for making ratafia biscuits with finely ground (bitter) almonds. To make the 'almond cakes', knead one pound of finely grated almonds with just as much loaf sugar plus rose/orange blossom water, beat in five yolks and two whites, flavor, and shape into 'cakes' (or cookies) that you will bake on parchment paper at very low temperature. So no flour at all. Eliza Smith's 'plumb cake with almonds' is closer to but not exactly almond cake. It's made of two parts flour, one part almonds, five parts currants, and some eggs -falling under the category of 'rich cakes' that 18th century women baked on special occasions.