American Cake - Cake #1: American Gingerbread

Time Period: 1650-1799

As a wise woman once sang, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. The first cake I tackled for The American Cake Project was American Gingerbread, which is the very first recipe in the book.

I have to confess, though, that I didn't (just) make this first because it's the earliest chronologically. Gingerbread is also very seasonably appropriate in early December, and honestly, the directions, ingredients, and necessary equipment is a lot simpler than it is for a lot of the later, fancier cakes.

And that makes sense. At this point in history, Americans had extremely limited access to ingredients, and home kitchens with bake ovens were just coming into existence. Traditional sweeteners were tough to acquire, and if a colonist wanted to leaven a cake, they'd have to use a yeast culture imported from Europe.

Things changed when potash was discovered. Don't ask me how people figured this out, but it turns out that when trees were cleared and burned, the resulting ash, when combined with sour milk or molasses, produced carbon dioxide bubbles that could raise a cake. Potash became a forerunner of baking soda, and using molasses was a lot cheaper than using honey or sugar, so a cakey version of gingerbread was born.

Used as a stomach settler in the 17th century, gingerbread caught on quickly. People assumed the molasses had health benefits, though it's far more likely that the ginger was the major contributor. The spices also helped cover up the flavor of the potash, which was decidedly not tasty.

In 1796, Amelia Simmons wrote the first American cookbook, called American Cookery. It included recipes for roasts, soups, breads, and desserts, and had no fewer than seven different preparations described for gingerbread. Though most of the gingerbread referred to the hard dough used for cookies, the cake version was mentioned as well. Simmons' recipes don't translate well to the modern era, but Byrn combined, then adapted the colonial recipes into a modern version of this uniquely American cake.

Gingerbread is classic for a reason. I've liked it since I was a kid, and this recipe is possibly one of the best I've ever encountered. Sweet, but not too sweet, with a good punch of spice, this version of American Gingerbread will likely be filed away as my standard. I'm sure a lot of the upcoming complex cakes will have charms of their own, of course, but gingerbread is comforting and reliable, and will always sit atop my list of welcome desserts.

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American Plate - Bite #22: Doughnuts, Waffles, and Cookies

The Bites in this project roughly split into two origins: Native Americans and immigrants. The natives contributed things like maize and venison, while immigrants brought over wonderful things like tostadas and sushi.

For today's entry, we must thank the Dutch that founded the region around New Amsterdam in current day New York. Though they didn't invent these sweets, one could make a strong argument that they perfected them. Cookies wouldn't be what they are today if the Dutch hadn't infused them with the spices they controlled, and the tradition of shaped cookies served at the holidays come directly from their tradition of pressing the dough into molds.

They brought waffle irons to the colonies, putting them on long rods to hold over a fire, and conceiving countless recipes, incorporating the waffles into dishes both savory and sweet. Everything from the caramel goodness of a stroopwafel to the hearty mixture of waffles with chicken and onion can be attributed to Dutch settlers.

The Dutch also elevated the humble doughnut, dropping balls of stiff batter into pork lard to fry. Originally, they were called "oleykoeks" (oil cakes), and were dusted with sugar and cinnamon. Modern doughnuts with holes arose about two hundred years later.

Today, all three of these goodies are in heavy rotation. Cookies are the only one I really make often at home, but there are plenty of businesses anxious to satisfy the American sweet tooth with these concoctions. The doughnut shop near me serves them with all sorts of interesting toppings, like chocolate heated with Mexican spices or blueberry cheesecake. The cookies pictured come from a store that will deliver them late at night to hungry customers who don't want to venture out (read: drunks with the munchies). The waffles are of a now-departed restaurant that served them both sweet and savory. They got topped with everything from cheese to banana/chocolate to salted honey mustard to barbecued brisket.

When people think "dessert", it's natural for our minds to drift to things like cake or ice cream, but this trio forms an iconic backbone of American eating, and many thanks to Holland for that. Proost!

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American Plate - Bite #98: American Cheese

The reputation of a lot of American food is less than sterling. People love to look down their noses at certain foods, and when I say the phrase "American cheese", I can bet that a certain image comes to mind. It can be tough for American cheese to instill the same respect as far as influencing our national cuisine as something traditional like maize, or even ice cream can do. Still, American cheese is woven into the fabric of our nation in myriad ways. Not only is it a symbol of food engineering, but of political policy and the resurgence of a more rustic food movement.

It took hold in this country the same way a lot of other foods did: It was easy to store and resilient. What better way was there for a Plymouth pilgrim to keep milk over the long winter months than by eating it as cheese? It was just the calorie bomb hungry citizens needed. The plethora of grassland for grazing animals ensured that cheese was popular from the very beginning. There actually weren't that many steps between that and cheese so processed that it has to be called "cheese product".

Cheese was mostly made, bought, and sold as a farm product until 1851, when Jesse Williams and his son opened the first cheese factory. Its commercial use took off, and in 1916, James L. Kraft patented what came to be known as the Kraft American Single. The main customer was the military, but it was soon discovered that the public would eat it up, too. It melted well, and was produced more "cleanly" than farm cheese, so Americans were soon lining up to pay more for inferior cheese. This trend continued, culminating in the invention of Cheez Whiz in 1952, a product so full of additives that it doesn't contain an iota of actual cheese.

The reputation of American cheese was not improved in the 1970s, which saw the creation of the Dairy Price Support Program. Giving governmental assistance to dairy farmers led to a glut of cheese that was given out in the 1980s to needy families; hence the phrase "government cheese".

Things started to change with the uptick of interest in the culinary world. People began to remember the good ol' days of eating real cheese, and a new generation of higher class American cheeses started to appear. From Vermont cheddar to the goat cheeses of California, American cheese is now something discussed in the same circles as expensive wines.

I wanted to be sure to taste a range of what American cheese had to offer, so as you'll see in the picture above, I visited both ends of the spectrum: After snacking on a few slices of Kraft singles, I bought a wedge of some pretty expensive Humboldt Fog, which made my taste buds sing with happiness.

Though cheese is eaten all over the world, it has come to symbolize so many different things in American culture, from ethics in food production to a sense of socioeconomic status. It helped colonists survive the winter and helped poor Americans survive unemployment. It gives us a lot to think about as we spear a cube of Colby Jack with a toothpick.

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