Christmas Cakes for Good Children.

Are not all children good at Christmas? I think so. They deserve their own cake, don’t they? I did give you a recipe for a Christmas cake for children from The Times of 1921, but in the interests of variety, I give you another, from Jennie June's American Cookery Book, (New York, 1870), by Jane Cunningham Croly. These are actually small individual cakes quite different from the traditional dark fruit cake, and would be lovely for afternoon tea at any season.

Christmas Cakes for Good Children

Three heaping table-spoonsful of sugar, two heaping table-spoonsful of butter, one egg, two table-spooonsful of corn-starch or maizena, put into three cups of flour, a small cup of sweet miilk, a heaping tea-spoonful of cream of tartar, and half of soda, a pinch of salt, a few Zante currants. Roll out in powdered sugar, cut in strips, and twist them round like champagne cakes. Sprinkle over them colored caraway comfits. Bake quick, a light brown.

The answer to one good cookery question often leads to another question or three, I have found. What are the champagne cakes referenced in this recipe? Do they actually contain champagne? If so, how likely is it that you will ever have leftover champagne to use in cakes?

Champagne Cakes.

One cup of butter, two of sugar, four eggs, one wine-glass of champagne, half a teaspoon of saleratus, and flour enough to pat out with the hand. Make into two small flat cakes, and bake in a quick oven.

The Appledore Cook Book (1880) by Maria Parloa.

Quotation for the Day.

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.
Harlan Miller