In 1837, Eliza Leslie followed up the publication of her highly successful Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats (1828) with the larger work Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches. This new volume contained receipts for a wide variety of dishes and, like its predecessor, went through numerous editions. Although many of the receipts [...]
Archive for January, 2010
I’ll have a New Year’s and…a New-York?
Posted in Uncategorized on January 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Something else that begins to show up in 19th century published cookbooks here in America are receipts for New-York Cup Cake. Yep, New Year’s and now, New York. Before I go any further, we need to look at those two little words “cup cake.” What they do NOT refer to are those small individual fluffy [...]
“where ya been?”
Posted in Uncategorized on January 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Howdy. Yeah, I’m still here. Gee, what has it been? Ten days?!? eeegad. It’s amazing how chunks of time can pass by basically unnoticed. It sure flies when you’re…doing other things! dagnabit. There was some personal business, feeling under the weather, then a bit of…well…oh, blah, blah, blah. Excuses, mckooses! My apologies. Now let’s get [...]
another slice of cake
Posted in Uncategorized on January 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Receipts for New Year’s Cake also found a place in the pages of individual manuscript (handwritten) cookbooks. Below is one from the home of Elizabeth Van Rensselaer (1799-1835), who was a member of the upstate-New York Philip Van Rensselaer family. As is typical of personal receipt books, it merely lists the necessary ingredients. Of course, [...]
more cake, please!
Posted in historic cookbooks, historic receipts (recipes), research & experiments, tagged early 19th Century foodways, Eliza Leslie, historic receipts, New Year's cake on January 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Receipts for New Year’s Cake began to appear frequently in 19th century published cookbooks. Here’s another, from the ninth edition (1836) of Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, by Eliza Leslie. Interestingly, this was NOT included in her first edition (1828) or any other earlier editions. Other items of note in this receipt are: [...]
Twelfth Night
Posted in historic receipts (recipes), historic cookbooks, historic cooking, jolly ol' England, tagged Twelfth Night cakes, cakes, Ivan Day, Twelfth Night, The Epiphany on January 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Speaking of cakes… January 6 is Twelfth Night, also known as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. It marks the arrival of the three wise men (or Magi) who brought gifts to the baby Jesus. It also signals the end of the twelve days of Christmas, which traditionally began on December 25 and ended on [...]


