A Gingerbread Cake From 1832. Gingerbread Lafayette

 

A cake with a story! Gingerbread Lafayette is named after General Lafayette, a French military officer who commanded American troops in the American Revolutionary War. George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington, served Lafayette this cake when he visited her towards the end of her life in Virginia. The cake has been honorarily named after him ever since. Today's version is from the 1832 book The Cook's Own Book.

Marquis de Lafayette, whom the cake is named after

Lafayette first met Washington on the 5th of August, 1777. They would become close friends.

Recipes for Gingerbread Lafayette have fluctuated between requiring the juice of either lemons or oranges to add a festive kick. As lemons became more popular and accessible in  the19th century they popped up into many cookbooks. The version which we will be cooking today calls for lemons. 

Pearl-ash is optional in this recipe. Today we will cook our cake without pearl-ash for the convince of the modern cook. However if you wish to add pearl-ash this will make the cake softer and delightful. Do not add lemons to your batter as this will make your cake bitter. Dissolve your pearl-ash in vinegar then mix in a teaspoon in your batter as the last step before pouring into your cake pan. 

our cook is softening up half a pound of unsalted butter with her hands

to begin cream together half a pound of soft butter with a little over one cup of brown sugar

once your sugar and butter are mixed well add 2 full cups of molasses. Don't mix yet as we will first add our spices. And there sure are a lot of spices! 

To this bowl let us now add our spices. It shall be quite a lot of spices but fear not in the end it all comes together beautifully. Add 4 tablespoons of powdered ginger, a tablespoon of cinnamon, half a tablespoon of allspice and half a tablespoon of powdered cloves. 

Now that you have added your spices you may mix

Mix well. It should start to look like chocolate pudding by this point. 

In a separate bowl whisk together 5 whole eggs

Mix in HALF of your eggs into your batter. We can not add all of the eggs at once or else it will flood the batter. Set your remaining eggs aside to add later.

The batter is beautifully smooth. We will thicken it up by adding flour. 

Let's add flour to thicken this up. Like with the eggs do not add all of the flour at once. We need to work towards adding a total 5.5 cups. Let's add only 2.25 cups at a time until we have made it to our 5.5 total. After adding the first 2.25 cups mix well then add your remaining eggs. Mix again then finally add the remaining 2.25 cups of flour. Doing this ensures that everything is mixed evenly.

Your batter will now be very thick and difficult to mix. This is a dense cake! The final thing which we will add is the juice and rinds of 2 lemons.

Be careful to pick out any seeds that fall into your batter

Give it one final mix. This is quite the workout! The batter is very thick. 

Pour your batter onto a well buttered flat pan. This is a sheet cake. 

It is ready to bake! 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. The cake should remain slightly soft to the touch once you remove it as gingerbread tends to harden post baking. We put ours inside of our wall oven along with gingerbread cookies from another recipe.

50 minutes later and our cake is done! Let's just let it sit for at least 10 minutes before we cut into it. 

Cut into squares and serve with cream. Enjoy!

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Ingredients:

five whole eggs

a little over 1 cup of brown sugar, packed

half a pound of butter, softened

2 cups of molasses

5.5 cups of all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons of ginger

1 tablespoon of cinnamon 

half a tablespoon of allspice

half a tablespoon of clove

juice & peel of two lemons

Directions:

Cream softened butter and sugar. You may do this either by rubbing the two together with your hands or using an electric mixer. Pour the molasses into the creamed sugar. Add your spices and mix your batter. It should look like chocolate pudding. Beat 5 whole eggs in a separate bowl. Put in half of your eggs and stir. Now put in half of your flour (2.25 cups) and stir. Add the other half of your eggs and stir. Finally add the remaining flour and stir. Once your batter is properly mixed add the juice and rinds of 2 lemons and stir. Your batter will now be very thick. Butter a pan and bake for 50 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares. Serve with cream.