As election day draws near there’s an opportunity to celebrate our democracy and enjoy a taste of history by baking an election cake. Never heard of one? This election day, Preservation Maryland has you covered with a cake to celebrate the right to vote.
As far back as 1771, there are references to Americans celebrating local and state elections with an “election cake.” In that period, voters often travelled far distances to their polling place – and the idea of casting a ballot in an age when democratic institutions were far from the norm, was considered reason to celebrate.
According to the Smithsonian Institution, it really was the first written recipe for an “election cake” which set off the national interest. The recipe can be found in the second edition of American Cookery, compiled and written by Amelia Simmons. Published in 1796, Cookery was the first cookbook written by an American published in the new United States and is chock full of dishes that would delight both 18th and 21st century palates – stews, pies, roasts and goose to name a few (also the first official recipe of Pumpkin Pie Spice). In the second edition (1800), Simmons includes her now famous, “Election Cake.” The enormous recipe would have resulted in a cake fit for an army; it included some 3 dozen eggs and 10 pounds of butter and may have weighed as much as 12 pounds when fully baked!
The cake itself could be described as hybrid between bread and cake with a heavy but agreeable dose of spices and dried fruits which were soaked in liquor prior to baking. It is also a yeasted cake, which allowed the sponge to rise in an era when baking powder was not yet available to home bakers.
Over the 19th century, the cake became synonymous with Hartford, the city where it was purportedly first baked. The cake also enjoyed its greatest popularity in New England, although references to its baking (and eating) can be found across the country.
Throughout the nineteenth century the cake also continued to show up in new recipe books, including those published by such notable women as Catharine Beecher, the elder sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) as well as Fannie Farmer, who’s cookbook still holds a spot on many American bookshelves.
Nowadays, the cake and its association with election day has largely faded from memory – but efforts to revive the tradition have begun and there are numerous versions online attempting to recreate the flavors of the 1790s. The staff of Preservation Maryland recently used the recipe published by the Culinary Institute of America, a faithful, if albeit downsized version, of its 18th century ancestor, which they found both delicious and straightforward for an amateur baker.
Find the Culinary Institute of America’s Election Cake Recipe Here
If you make it this far – and make your own election cake – be sure to send us an image of your finished cake and we’ll update this post to include it! Images can be sent to info@presmd.org
After baking and eating – also remember to vote! Find your Maryland polling place here.