LEMON CAKE 1864

 1864 "In making cakes it is indispensably necessary that all ingredients should be heated...about an hour before they are mixed..set before the fire...." -Civil War Recipes (Godey's receipts)

 Lemon Cake. Usually made into a pound cake or simple sponge. But we decided it should be slathered with lemon buttercream instead. Easy switch up.

 Back in 1864, not so easy. All ingredients  had to be heated by the fire , butter and eggs beaten in ceramic bowls kept over warm water.

 Eggs. Not the common food. Egg sandwiches were available to those that had more means. Eggs, boiled then sliced and laid with pickle in  homemade bread were considered picnic food by some of the well to do.

 Eggs for cakes had to be beaten for about 15 minutes to get the sponge to be very light.

 By the time of the Civil war, the States were getting half  their sugar from Cuba and the rest from Louisiana. By 1886 Cuba was freed from slavery, and the states ended up owning 2/3 of sugar interests.

 When making a cake at this time, sugar had to be pounded and sifted till fine.Sometimes mixed into a smooshy paste to be divided up with the other ingredients.Sugar became scarce after the Union Army took over southern Louisiana. Then alternatives came about:  honey, maple sugar, boiled tree sap like walnut trees, sugar beets , for example.

 Cookbooks from the North at this time rarely mention the hardships of the war. the soldiers relied on care  packages from home, when they could get thru. Privileged  people , like Mary Lincoln Todd, still made cakes and dishes where there was never a johnny cake in sight.....

 To make this Civil War Lemon Cake: Beat six eggs, whites and yolks in separate bowls. Beat till a solid froth is achieved.

 Add to the yolks the grated rind of one lemon, and six ounces of prepared and pounded sugar, being sure to sift it fine through a sieve or comb. Beat all of this for about 20 minutes. By hand.

 Shake in with the left hand, six ounces dried warm flour, then add the egg whites and lemon juice.When these are well beaten in, put into greased and flour warmed tins, and bake about an hour in moderate oven, over well flamed wood.

 Most food in civil war times would have been bland . This cake, made by those who had access to ingredients,  would have been a treat, something that most of the population would not have had access to.

 Breakfast for a farmer would have been something like cornmeal mush with syrup or molasses as sweetener, tea, doughnuts possibly. Lunch , the largest meal of the day, would consist of meats like pork, or corned beef, and fruit pies such as apple in winter, rhubarb in early spring and berry pie in the latter half. Sunday dinner: baked beans, bread and a steamed pudding, followed by johnnycake and maybe custard as a treat. Cake was never on the menu for the regular family, or soldier...

 "We must have something to eat, and the papers to read," said Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes."Everything else we can do without. Only bread and Newspapers we must have."-Quote from Recipes from the Civil War.

 PHOTOGRAPHS 2018 and 2019 from NYMPH FALLS, B.C.