Cider Cake

Yes, another Cider Cake.  For some reason I have been hung up on cakes, and since I still had some cider in the house I thought I would go ahead and try the Cider Cake a different way. This go round I tried The Kentucky Housewife's, 1839 version.  The recipe is a bit different, as it call for eggs.

Using a nice large bowl add a stick and a half of butter to 1 cup of sugar, cream together. Add the six eggs well beaten to the creamed mixture, then 2 cups of apple cider (the recipe denotes "sweet" cider as apposed to the popular alcoholic cider of the 19th Century). The recipe calls for 2 grated nutmegs, I added a teaspoon of ground nutmeg, I did not want the flavor to be too overpowering. Then add the flour gradually as you go to make a thick batter. I added the flour one cup at a time, mixing well as I went, I ended up using about 4 1/2 cups of flour to make what I thought was a thick batter, about the consistency of modern cake batter. I did not add raisins to this cake, I was out.

I added the mix to a 10" buttered bunt cake pan and placed it in a moderate (350) oven. This recipe does not specify how long the cake will take to bake, I started checking at 20 minutes. I took the cake out of the oven after about 40 minutes of baking it seemed to be done.

This cake is the opposite of the last Cider Cake. The last cake was crumbly, this one is the opposite. This cake was thick and very dense. The flavor was sweeter than the last one, at least to me.

Macaroni

Macaroni and Cheese?!?! Really?!? Who knew it was that easy in the 19th century? Well, sorta. This Macaroni recipe is taken from The Virginia Housewife, 1838.  And if you are looking for something easy and yummy for a crowd, this is the perfect recipe!

There are no exact measurements for this one, which does make it easy and a good "go-to".  Boil your noodles (you really want to use a straight noodles like "macaroni" or "penne" not elbow macaroni, this is a later invention).  This macaroni is built in layers. After draining the noodles, place enough in the bottom of the pan to cover, then add cheese and butter,  and repeat. I chose a 9 x 13 baking pan at home, since it was easiest in the oven.

I used a whole box of noodles and a block of sharp cheddar, sliced thin. You want to keep the slice fairly thin so they melt well. The amount of butter is up to the individual, you want enough to give a flavor, but not too much, I almost used too much.

Place the dish in a nice hot oven (350 to 400) for about 15 to 20 minutes. I left mine in for about 15 minutes, I was hungry :)

There is really nothing  bad to say about a nice hot bowl of mac & cheese! This would be great as a side dish with a nice meat at an evening meal or as a bring-a-long dish for a potluck!

Cider Cake

The holiday season brings with it a slew of sweet cakes, cookies, and other goodies. In that festive way I decided to try a new cake. This recipe comes from The Frugal Housewife, 1833.  I have seen many other recipes for Cider Cake, but this was the book I had in my kitchen and didn't have to look up another recipe!

Modern measurements for this recipe are 6 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of apple cider and 1 tsp of baking soda.

Mixing all the ingredients in a bowl the batter seemed very stiff, almost like a bread, and less like a cake. I did add more cider as I went to moisten the batter and make it more manageable.  "Spice to your taste," well that can mean anything right? Well, almost. Looking at other recipes from the period, most of the Cider Cakes call for raisins, and of coarse some nutmeg. I added about a handful of raisins, and maybe less than a teaspoon of nutmeg ( I did not want to over-power the Cider).
Since I do not have any small loaf pans I decided to bake this cake in a small bunt cake pan that i have that has space for 6 cakes.  I did have enough batter to fill a small 8" round pan as well.  The batter was very thick, think cookie dough almost. In the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes, depending on your cake pan and oven. Start checking your cake about 20 minutes in to see if it is done.   Mine took about 30 minutes to cook, so Mrs. Child was right on with my oven!

The cake had a very good taste, but again, very dense and heavy.  I think next time I will try the Kentucky Housewife version which call for eggs, that may change the consistency a bit and make more of a "cake" that we are used to.

150th Goldsboro Bridge& Chicken Noodle Soup

This past weekend, I went to my first weekend event since April. Whew, had it been a while! I was cooking for one of the military groups, which ended up being about 6 people, plus my buddies the Old South Blacksmiths. Since the rain moved in Saturday night, I didn't cook on Sunday because most of the event was called off.  Saturday's breakfast was eggs, fried potatoes and biscuits. I had cooked the biscuits ahead of time, and then warmed them in a dutch oven.  Sadly my camera batteries died, but I was able to snap only 2 pictures.

Me taking a break from cooking & talking to my good friend Matt! 

 Lunch on Saturday was a Chicken Noodle Soup. While the recipe I used does not come first hand from any books I have found, it is supposed to be a period family recipe from Elizabeth Stewart Clark . I started with a whole hen, and boiled it until it was falling off of the bone. While the chicken boils, make your noodles with flour, egg, salt & pepper. Roll the dough very thing, and make long slender noodles- the noodles "plump" a lot. Set these aside to dry for a while.

Noodles  & Carrots Ready for Soup.

While the chicken was cooking I also sliced some carrots and potatoes to add to the soup, just to make it a little more hearty and filling.  The chicken got pulled out to be de-boned, then went in the noodles & veggies. I also added a bit more salt & pepper (This was about 3 gallons of soup after all). By the time the chicken was cooled enough to handle, and the meat pulled off the bones, the noodles were almost done. I added the chicken back in and stirred the whole pot to mix it well.  The soup was served with fresh bread & butter. With pumpkin bread for a little sweet after the soup.

Bowl of warm soup and fresh bread

This really was an excellent soup! It was very tasty and was great for feeding a crowd!! I will defiantly make this again!

An Early Gift

So my DH surprised me last night with an early Christmas Gift! He had bought me a reproduction spice tin!  It is so cute!! It is a round brown tin with six small labeled tins inside and a nutmeg grater! It has containers for Mustard, Ginger, Cinnamon, Allspice, Cloves, Mace, and the nutmeg grater! I was so excited to get it that I filled it up right then, well everything except the Mace, which I will have to buy.

All the spices in their containers

Weekend Plans

So this weekend I am finally getting to camp! I have not been to a weekend event since April, and well, I'm so excited for this one!  On top of that I'm cooking for everyone! And while that is exciting, I am a little nervous since I will be doing it all by myself. No worries. I have done all of my baking, and I have a nice, easy menu for the weekend. It includes chicken noodle soup, eggs, cabbage, and beans, along with other things, but I am not going to give it all away yet!  Check in Monday or Tuesday for the weekend wrap-up and see all the yummies from the weekend! 

Bread Dough ready to rise before baking

Vegetables all in their basket for the weekend! 

Common Jumbles

So I had my first recipe request, and it came from none other than my DH. He requested I make Jumbles. Jumbles are cookies, seemed pretty basic.
The recipe I chose for this cookies comes from Domestic Cookery and Useful Hints to Young Housekeepers, 1859.

Small hands helping Aunt Amanda

Using modern conversions  the recipe calls for 4 cups of flour, 2 sticks of butter, and 3 cups of sugar with 3 eggs. So following the recipe mix the butter and sugar together. Then add the flour & eggs. It does not instruct you on when to add the flavorings or how much to add.  Well, I didn't have any Rose Brandy, so I opted for a little regular Brandy! I added about a teaspoon or so of nutmeg, and about 2 tablespoons of Brandy. The added liquid helped to soften the dough. Then you "mould them in rings." This means that they are going to look similar to doughnuts. For this I rolled them into a ball then gently worked a hole in the center rolling as I went. They looked pretty good, very much like doughnuts ( I did not get a picture of these). Then, into a slow oven of 300 for about 15 minutes.  Well, that was easy! Right? No, no it wasn't. The cookies turned into a sheet of cookie, they didn't stay together at all, just ran all over the pan. I really have no idea what caused this. The mess still tasted good. Luckily, I did have dough left. This time I just rolled the dough into 1" balls, like you would most standard cookies, and baked them at 300 for about 20 minutes. The results were much better! The taste was about the same. Very sweet. They could have baked for 15 minutes, that probably would have eliminated the brown edges. But, other than the runny dough mess from the first batch, the cookies were pretty good! 

Jumbles on the pan.