According to Stavely and Fitzgerald, "Election Cake was a version of the English 'Great Cake,' traditionally made with flour, yeast, sugar, spices, butter, cream, wine, and raisins and/or currants."
Stavely and Fitzgerald shared an account from the late nineteenth century in Connecticut:
..."the country people poured into" Hartford the day before Election Day, "bringing their dinners with them or relying on the corner stands, where root and ginger beer, molasses candy, and gingerbread were sold. The houses were already full of visitors; and in the parlor . . . or the living room, pine boughs or branches of lilacs filled the fireplaces and a table was set with cake and wine."It seems to have been quite customary for people to take time to socialize and eat cake made for the Election Day holiday. I find the historical reference to "a table was set with cake and wine" somewhat amusing. (It is Wiccan humor; you either get it or you don't.)
That the home was decoated with flowers as befits a festive event is also interesting. (In case you are wondering about "branches of lilacs" decorating the homes, these Election Days of Lydia Maria Child's American Frugal Housewife (1829) were a festive occasion held in May, when lilacs were in bloom.)
The fact that lilacs were a common seasonal decoration for a springtime Election Day adds an interesting dimension to the famous elegy about the death of Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" written by the American poet Walt Whitman in 1865.
On April 20, 1865, Lincoln's body lay in state at the Capitol in Washington DC. The next day it began a 1,600-mile journey by train across the landscape and through major cities on its way to Springfield, Illinois, for interment on May 4, 1865--when the lilacs were blooming:
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,During the springtime just a few days after the end of the bloody Civil War, the president of the United States was shot, and was then buried in May...
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
. . . .
In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break.
Election CakeIngredients (makes 1 cake)
2 cups whole milk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 5/16 oz. packages active dry yeast
7 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
12 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups raisinsHow We Made It
We scalded the milk, poured it into a mixing bowl, and added to it the salt and ¼ cup of the sugar. After this mixture had cooled to lukewarm, we stirred in the yeast.
As soon as the yeast activated, we mixed in 6 cups of the flour, then kneaded this preliminary dough for 2 minutes in our stand mixer.
We creamed the remaining sugar with the butter, then added the eggs.
After mixing the raisins with the remaining flour, we resorted once again to our nifty stand mixer to merge the three components we now had—dough, sugar/butter/egg, and flour/raisins—into one.
We returned our fully-assembled Election Cake dough to the original mixing bowl and left it to rise for 2 – 2 1/4 hours, or until doubled in bulk.
We now preheated the oven to 375 degrees F. We put the dough into a baking pan and let it rise for another 20 minutes.
It was ready for the oven, where it baked for 10 minutes at 375 degrees F, then for 80 minutes at 350 degrees F. When it was done to a lovely golden brown, we cooled it on a rack for 10 minutes, then removed it from the pan and cooled it completely, about 30 minutes longer.
I urge people to read more on their page which has preparation photos and MUCH more information at: http://www.stavelyandfitzgerald.com/blog.htm?post=956855#sthash.h8RcxGjD.dpuf Stavely and Fitzgerald do not wax maudlin over blooming lilacs as I did above. My sentiment is because Walt Whitman's 1865 poem is seen as signifcant commentary on the emotional investment of grief and death tied up in political struggles for change. The whole poem is steeped in lilacs and politics...rather like the idea of cake and voting.
2015 Myth Woodling
Source:
Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald "Election Cake," from Lydia Maria Child's American Frugal Housewife (1829), May 7, 2014, accessed February 6, 2015.
Practical Celebration Recipies and Preps
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