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Cakes and pastries were common for social gatherings at upper class 18th century homes like Mount Vernon. Often closer to modern fruitcake than the more flour-and-sugar-based confections of today, these “great cakes” were rich, dense, and sweet.
They are little cakes, and they started popping up in English cookery books in the 18th century. When reading the several recipes from the 18th to the 20th century I have in original cookery books, they remind me of a little cake I grew up with in Belgium.
The earliest recipe appears to be that of Robert Smith (no not that fellar of The Cure) in 1724 in his ‘Court Cookery: or the Compleat English Cook’. He instructs to make his Queen’s Cakes with currants, washed, picked and rubbed clean, and flavourings which are a little Mace and orange flower water.
The recipes in the 1830s manuscript, however, are far from humble fare. The book contains recipes—or “receipts,” in the archaic spelling—for salted meats, soups, cheeses, pickles, catsups, puddings, pastries, and sweets, as well as for medicines and household concoctions.
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