American Cake - Cake #14: Fraunces Tavern Carrot Tea Cake

Time Period: 1650-1799

Back in the days of colonial America, sugar could be prohibitively expensive. So, taking a note from their English ancestors, early Americans turned to cheaper ways to sweeten their baked goods, such as using cooked carrots. This recipe appeared on the Fraunces Tavern menu as early as 1783, and Byrn notes in the book that other cookbooks have modernized carrot cake with the use of vegetable oil and/or baking soda, but in order to stay closer to its roots (so to speak), this recipe leaves those on the shelf. That means there isn't much leavening agent in the cake, so it turns out a pretty dense, almost bread-like texture.

Modern carrot cakes also rely on cream cheese frostings to add some sweetness, which this recipe also eschews, suggesting instead to serve with whipped cream. Colonial bakers would have mashed the cooked carrots and strained their juices, but I went with the alternate method; cooking the carrots briefly, allowing them to cool, and then grating them to get the necessary amount.

I have a complicated history with carrot cakes, in that I tend not to like them. Still, two factors drove me forward. First, it's a necessary component of the American Cake Project. Secondly, I like to try foods I dislike every five years or so to see if they still repel me or if I've changed my mind. Several foods have actually been able to redeem themselves this way.

I'm happy to report that carrot cake is now among them, because I enjoyed this cake quite a bit. It doesn't rank among my favorites or anything, but I really liked its chewy texture and the fact that it didn't punch me in the taste buds with overwhelming sweetness. Consider my horizons broadened.

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American Cake - Cake #13: Angel Food Cake

Time Period: 1870 - 1899

As with many cakes with origins in eras that didn't keep great records, it's not entirely certain who first devised angel food cake. One story holds that it was invented by Linus Dexter, a businessman who owned bakeries in four major American cities. It's mentioned in his obituary that he was the creator of "angel cake". I prefer the theory that it was invented by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who were using egg yolks to make noodles, and wanted to do something with the leftover egg whites. This recipe was also prized by the temperance movement, since it doesn't include yeast, that nasty little bugger that's used to create - dun dun duuuuuun - alcohol.

For this cake, egg whites have to be beaten mercilessly to get enough air into them so that the cake will rise. This was much more easily accomplished when rotary egg beaters were introduced. Angel Food Cake has gone by other names in its long history, from Silver Cakes to Lady Cakes to White Sponge Cakes. Much like angels themselves, this cake is temperamental. Beating it too much can ruin it. Not beating it enough can ruin it. Greasing the pan can ruin it. Not cooling it upside down can ruin it. Getting it out of an ungreased pan can ruin it. This was my first attempt, so guess what? I kind of ruined it.

Though I followed the recipe faithfully to the letter, it didn't get the rise I had hoped for, it was underbaked in the middle, and getting it out of the pan made it ragged and unappealing. It's not a giant loss, as Angel Food Cake has never ranked among my favorites, but I was hoping I could at least turn out a serviceable one. Nope. This angel is sentenced to Hell.

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American Plate - Bite #64: Peanut Butter

As with a lot of Bites on the list, peanut butter is one of those foods that can be made in individual batches fairly easily, but required a tech boom to be made on a large scale. Its progression throughout history is unsurprisingly steady. In 1884, Marcellus Gilmore Edson got a patent for peanut paste, and in 1895, John Harvey Kellogg got one for the process for preparing nut butters. And of course, there's the most famous peanut booster of all, George Washington Carver, who encouraged peanut crops and peanut butter consumption as both healthy food, and as a way of making small farmers less reliant on cotton. Growing a "self-sufficiency" crop such as peanuts was an immense boon to African American farmers, and peanuts didn't fall prey to the boll weevil, which was destroying cotton crops.

Peanut butter has also been hailed for being very economical in times of poverty, so it flourished again during the Great Depression. Then it got another bump in the post-World War II era, when it became the sandwich lunch staple we all know today. You'd be hard-pressed to claim peanut butter is healthy these days, but that's mostly due to the sweeteners and extra sodium added to the ones you find on the shelves; natural peanut butter is still readily available, and is not difficult to make from scratch.

I don't bother with that, though. I'm a choosy mom, and I choose Jif. Peanut butter is, unsurprisingly, extremely popular in my household, whether it's for sweet or savory snacks. As seen above, I make buckeyes and cookies out of it, and can always heartily enjoy a traditional American PB&J for lunch as well (try it with currant jelly and thank me later). Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the dominant candy at Halloween, and if all else fails, there's nothing wrong with just eating spoonfuls of peanut butter right out of the jar. Just writing this entry is making me want some right now.

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