Monday, December 26, 2011

Still Hungry ? Try This...!


I have a recipe for a cake from none other than Martha Washington herself!

If this doesn't kill your appetite, nothing will! Believe me!

Martha's Great Cake

Although not the first Christmas cake, this is a recipe from our first First Lady, Martha Washington. These are the exact words in which it was written for celebrating what she called "a true Virginia Christmas" at Mount Vernon:

"Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth, start to work four pounds of butter to cream and put the whites of eggs to it a spoon full at a time till it is well worked. Then put four pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same way, then put in the yolks of eggs, and five pounds of flower, and five pounds of fruit. Two hours will bake it. Add to it half an ounce of mace, one nutmeg, half a pint of wine, and some French brandy."

If this doesn't do away with your sweet tooth, don't worry about it! After a couple of slices, the booze will at least make you where you just don't care!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Sorry, but no cake left! I drank it...er, I mean ATE it all!

6 comments:

HossBoss said...

Wow...I occasionally cut a cake recipe in half since it's just the two of us. But even if you cut this one in fourths, you'd need 10 eggs and a pound of butter. I can't even imagine the size of the pan she used!

Sounds yummy though. Wonder if I could make an EIGHTH of a cake ...LOL

Ben in Texas said...

Well, it sounds like that recipe would feed a bunch. SOoooo, I did some digging and found an edited version to make a more usable size.
http://www.shesimmers.com/2010/06/martha-washingtons-virginia-cake-recipe.html

Just a small slice for me please.

JO said...

Man what a cake. Maybe she was feed the Presidents army. Why else would she make such a huge cake.
Now Mr. Hermit are we going to have to pick you up and put you back in your chair? haha.
Coffee is going down good this morning

Dizzy-Dick said...

They sure must have enjoyed their desserts back in that day. . .

TROUBLEnTX said...

And What would it cost to make now???? hahahaha. I priced just a small piece of fruit cake couple of weeks ago, was about 5.00.

HermitJim said...

Hey H.B....
Sure is good to see you again!

It does sound like it would feed an army! Lots of sweet stuff there!

There is a link from Ben further down that shows a refined, less insane recipe for the same cake! Might try that!

Have a great day...and thanks for coming by this morning!


Hey Ben...
I really appreciate the link to a smaller version of this recipe!

The whole thing sounds pretty good, but I'll have to think on trying it!

Sure do thank you for coming by today, buddy!


Hey JoJo...
I have a feeling that she may have entertained a lot. Why else would she fix so much food?

I might be able to make it to the chair by myself, but just be ready!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming over this morning!


Hey Dizzy...
Guess they needed the calories! I have a feeling that they didn't go hungry very often!

Hope you had a quiet day yesterday and I appreciate you coming by today!


Hey Trouble...
Probably would cost a small fortune now days!

Sounds like a lot of booze to me, but I could be wrong!

Thanks so much for dropping by today!