Baking Through Yesteryear

Today is Tuesday November 7th, the first Tuesday of the month so it’s Election Day! Seemed like the perfect day to make election cake.

This is the first time I made a cake that used yeast as the leavening agent.

So, why is this called election cake? Well, in doing a little reading it turns out this was a popular cake that women would make for the military men during “muster” Later women would bake these cakes to encourage the men to go vote. And hence, election cake is born.

It was certainly a strange cake to put together. And I’m not use to the smell of Brady permeating the kitchen at 930 in the morning!

The author notes not to let the cake overflow when rising. I wasn’t paying super close attention, my eldest child was home from school for Election Day and we were in the middle of a Christmas cartoon marathon.

And it overflowed and made a MESS!

At this point I had no idea what was going to happen when once I baked it. I was concerned it would fall flat and be dense.

But it worked! And look how beautiful this one turned out. It actually looks like the book!

Now I’m off to flip through pages and decide on what I’ll make next. Hopefully for the next recipe I’ll be able to coordinate and bake again with my Seattle friend.

Until next time, Happy Baking!