CUPCAKES

Several decades ago, cupcakes with fancy toppings became an obsession: cookbooks, utensils, tools and decoration flooded the market -urging gourmets to bake a version at home. But when I looked for 'cupcakes' in historic texts, I came across the word in singular form. Miss Leslie's Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes and sweetmeats (1828) featured one recipe for 'cup cake' that wasn't even baked in individual tins: it was a one-piece cake, for which the ingredients were simply measured in cups. A similar, and much more common recipe, is the pound cake, made with 1lb each of flour, sugar and butter. Some time in the nineteenth century, British housewives were introduced to the Victorian pound cake, allegedly the Queen's favorite, which is still popular today -unlike Miss Leslie's 'cup cake' that survives only in name because ingredients for US recipes are typically measured in cups. Queen Victoria's cake was loved on both sides of the Atlantic: Miss Leslie's new cookery book (1857) featured a pound cake but neither this nor any of her other recipes mentioned cups.

Apparently, individual cakes were made in Europe long before Columbus discovered the New World. Both Greek and Roman cuisines featured honey cakes in Antiquity that were sometimes offered to gods; when flattened, the dough was baked into cookies; baked hard or twice, cookies were named biscuits; medieval versions of individual bakes, like Hildegard of Bingen's spiced cakes, evolved into the plum cakes and seed cakes featured in eighteenth century best-sellers by Hannah Glasse and Elizabeth Raffald and referenced in classic literature, including Jane Eyre. Bakes with different textures occasionally merged into a single recipe: ratafia cakes from crushed almond biscuits enjoyed great popularity until Eliza Leslie's time. At the turn of the long (19th) century, mini-cakes served at breakfast fell into a category of their own. But no-one called them cupcakes, even though housewives baked them in individual earthen pots and metal tins. These cakes varied in size and were often topped with icing, just like the models in Raphaelle Peale's still lifes:

Still Life with Cake, 1822 (Brooklyn Museum)

 

Still Life with Cake, 1818 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Maria Rundell's Modern Domestic Cookery (1805) featured a recipe for cupcakes topped with almonds & candied orange peel that you could also bake in one piece.

page 560:

"BUTTER CAKES - E.R.

To 1/2lb. of butter add the same quantity of brown sugar, 3 eggs, the rind of 2 lemons, 1/4oz. of pounded cinnamon, and half the quantity of powdered ginger; work into it as much flour as it will make a paste. Cut it into shapes or leave it whole, and strew over the top some pounded almonds and candied orange peel. Bake in a slow oven."

Miss Lelsie's 'cup cake' was also rich enough, using loads of cream & sugar as well as (blackstrap) molasses. It was baked in individual tins but the recipe was named after the measuring cups so it's 'cup cake' instead of 'cupcakes'. Both this and Rundell's mini-cakes also fall into the category of gingerbread.

page 61:

"CUP CAKE.

Five eggs.

Two large tea-cups full of molasses.

The same of brown sugar, rolled fine.

The same of fresh butter.

One cup of rich milk.

Five cups of flour, sifted.

Half a cup of powdered allspice and cloves.

Half a cup of ginger.

    Cut up the butter in the milk, and warm  them slightly. Warm also the molasses, and stir it into the milk and the butter: then stir in, gradually, the sugar and set it away to get cool.

    Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour. Add the ginger and other spice, and stir the whole very hard.

    Butter small tins, nearly fill them with the mixture, and bake the cakes in a moderate oven."

 

 

 

MY OWN VERSIONS

CUPCAKES - recipe 1

This is a recipe for light gingerbread, adapted from Maria Rundell's 'butter cakes'.

Combine 150g butter with 150g light brown sugar, 1tbsp grated lemon peel, 1tsp cinnamon, and 1/2tsp ginger in a saucepan. Heat very gently and stir. Leave to cool, then whisk in a large egg. Add 2 1/2 cups plain flour or just enough to make a thick batter. Fill into a 12-cup baking pan that is lined with cupcake papers and bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Decorate with ground almonds & candied orange peel, if liked.

 

CUPCAKES - recipe 2

And this is a version of dark (molasses) gingerbread, based on Eliza Leslie's 'cup cake'.

Place a cup of molasses in a saucepan and heat very gently. Repeat with 1 cup of fresh butter and half a cup of whole milk, in another saucepan. Combine the two mixtures, gradually adding one cup of dark (molasses) sugar. Add 1/2tsp each of ground allspice and cloves and 1tbsp of powdered ginger. Leave to cool. Whisk 2 eggs + 1 yolk in a bowl and stir into the other ingredients, alternately with 2 1/2 cups of plain flour or just enough to make a thick batter. Fill into a 12-cup baking pan that is lined with cupcake papers and bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.