The Tradition of Birthday Cakes & Celebrations©

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Birthday cake, birthday customs

A special birthday cake for a special person

Today is my Special Someone’s birthday and as I make preparations to celebrate it, I took a quick look at birthday cakes from a historical standpoint. From the earliest days of birthday tradition, having friends and family join in the festivities and share the meal was as important as it is to us in the present.

Birthday customs originated with the Germans who brought the custom with them when they settled in Pennsylvania. This piece is especially pertinent in that Martin’s heritage through his mom is Pennsylvania Dutch.

The following was written about a child celebrating a birthday in Germany as seen through the eyes of an American.

“One morning we entered the Speise-saal (dining room), and there stood a table covered with a glistening white cloth, looped with vines, ferns laid about the edge, brightened here and there with roses. In the centre was the great feature—a Birthday Cake. And such a Birthday Cake!—an American child never even dreamed of such a Birthday Cake! It is an immense round, snowy cake, and about it, burning, thirteen little colored candles,–in the middle of it a larger taper, called the Lebens Licht—the light of life, the life-candle. Such a cake is generally present on birthdays, and each year another candle is added. The cake, as all the fine cake, is somewhat like our jelly cake, with a soft icing, decorated in various ways on top, usually with conserved fruit. The icing of this Torte, is of marzipan,–rubbed almonds and powdered sugar…Then the presents, and the beginning of a happy day for the child, and the whole house is steeped in smiles and happiness. It is so throughout Germany on the Birthday.”

The full account is well worth reading and guaranteed to bring a smile to your lips as, “relatives and friends send good-wishes. It is astonishing how everybody remembers everybody’s birthday, and how no one is forgotten or forgets. In fact, each individual has a birthday-book in which to keep account of these days, and the little book warns as a friend’s birthday draws near. Expensive presents are seldom given,–a card, a letter, a bunch of flowers, a plant, merely as a token of remembrance…” – Parry, Emma Louise. Life Among the Germans. 1887. Boston.

The first mention I found of birthday cake in cookery books was published in 1870 in Jennie June’s American Cookery Book. The recipe produces cakes or cookies and not a decorated birthday cake at all.

“Into a pound of dried flour, put four ounces of butter, four ounces of sugar, one egg, a tea-spoonful of baking powder, and sufficient milk to wet to a paste. Put in currants, and cut in cakes. Sprinkle colored caraway seeds on top, and bake them a light brown”.

In 1902 Lida Seely gave a recipe for Birthday cake with glaze which is worth sharing as I close this post.

“One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, five eggs, three cups of flour, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, one cup of milk, one teaspoonful of rose water. Sift the sugar, then measure it. Wash the butter once in ice water until it is white and creamy, dry it in a towel and add it to the sugar. Rub both to a creamy substance and stir in the yolks of the eggs, one by one. Beat all until light and foamy. Stir in one cup of sifted flour, then add the milk, then another cup of sifted flour. Mix well and stir in the last cup of flour which has the baking powder sifted with it. When well mixed, add the well-beaten whites and the rose water. Butter a large round cake tin and line the bottom with paper. Pour in your mixture and bake in moderate oven for one hour. When you remove it from the oven, be sure it is thoroughly cooked. Test it by putting a fine broom whisk through the centre of the cake. If the whisk comes out dry, the cake is done. Stand the pan on a wire sieve until the cake is partially cool. Make a glaze for the top of the cake as follows:

How to Make a Glaze for Birthday Cake. In a saucepan put one cup of granulated sugar with four tablespoonfuls of water. Boil ten minutes slowly, or until it reaches a large ball. Have the white of one egg whipped very stiff, and slowly pour the hot sugar into it, stirring constantly. While hot, pour it slowly and thinly over the cake. Do not use a knife, as it will make the surface rough. Let it dry, which will be almost immediately. Make the following icing for decorating:

To make Icing for Birthday Cake. Half a pound of powdered sugar, whites of two eggs, juice of one lemon. Beat the eggs for two minutes until stiff and by degrees add the sifted sugar, stirring all the time with a wire egg-beater. When all the sugar is used, beat well for five minutes with a Dover egg beater, so the icing will be thoroughly smooth. Put a fancy tube in a pastry bag and fill the bag with the icing. Make a paper funnel with a very small opening and fill also with icing. With the paper funnel trace any design you desire on the cake, commencing at the extreme edge. Leave space in the centre for the initials or date. Follow up the paper funnel with the pastry bag and with this fill out the design. You must work rapidly, so the tracing of icing will not harden before the decoration is filled in. Color the remainder of the icing pink and put on the initials or date. Have some pink and white candied rose leaves [probably refers to petals], dip them in sugar syrup to make them stick, and put them round the lower edge of your cake. Before you begin to decorate the cake, place it on a round board, a little larger than the cake and covered with a fancy edged paper.

How to Write the Initials on Birthday Cake. Reserve about one-quarter of your icing, stir in a drop of cochineal to color it pink. Make a three-cornered paper funnel, put in the icing, fasten tightly. Take it in your hand as you would a pen, and press with your thumb as you make the letters. The size of the mark depends upon the size of the opening in the paper funnel.”©

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PERIOD SPECTACLES: The Better to See Those Cookery Books©

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antique spectacles, period eyewear

Martin and I have been researching period spectacles, partly to debunk a myth we’ve both heard countless times, that colored lenses were used only as a treatment for venereal disease. We started with an old article in Early American Life and then I started looking for additional period sources which outline the correct style of frames for the period.

Here are a few bits we’ve come up with so far.

Eyeglasses are a prime example of not taking everything we see at face value when putting together a kit for living history. What may be the earliest work of art in which eyeglasses are depicted is a fresco painted by Tommaso da Modena (1325-1379) which shows Cardinal Hugh of Provence (1200-1263) wearing a pair of rivet spectacles. The Cardinal died before eyeglasses were even invented.

During the 17th century an Italian artist painted the Holy Family with Baby Jesus in Mary’s arms holding a pair of nose spectacles, an obvious anachronism, as any visual aids didn’t enter the scene until hundreds of years later.

The earliest frames were made of wood, leather, bone, brass, tortoiseshell, baleen, and later steel, silver and gold. Silver ones were available from silversmiths, and gold ones could be purchased from a jeweler.

TINTED LENSES were in use by the seventeenth century. It was believed that the color green was relaxing to the eye. My old “friend”, diarist Samuel Pepys, with whom I’ve consulted hundreds of times in researching one thing and another, wrote, in 1660 that he was bothered by irritated eyes and thought that wearing some green lenses would resolve the problem. He did purchase the tinted lenses in 1666 from John Turlington who was Master of the Spectacle Makers Co., but eventually had to stop writing in his diary due to failed vision. More’s the pity, too, because not only did Pepys live an exceedingly interesting life, but he was friends with several other men who were just as intriguing. One can only guess at the valuable information that was lost due to his inability to continue recording his experiences. Sometime prior to 1860 lenses were sold that were blue or smoke-colored.

Eyeglasses date from about 1286, made in Pisa, Italy. They were made using two convex crystal stones. Their use was documented in a sermon delivered by Giordano da Rivalto when he stated it was not twenty years since the founding of the art of making eyeglasses.

The first were known as rivet spectacles because the lenses were held together with one rivet in the center, they had no ear pieces. “Scissor” frames [ca. 1780] were two lenses attached to a handle of sorts by which the wearer could hold them up to the eyes.

The first illustration of spectacles in a printed work is thought to date from 1475.

Concave lenses used to correct nearsighted vision were created in the 15th century.

At varying times during the Medieval era, makers guilds formed in different parts of Europe to impose regulations and protect the glassmaker trade.

Side arms were developed, probably between 1714 and 1727 – at least London optician Edward Scarlett, Sr. is believed to be the first to advertise them during that period.

Round lenses were almost universally worn until the end of the 18th century when first oval and then octagonal lenses became fashionable in the early 19th century. Square lenses were also made in the 19th century.

Lenses were not custom made for the wearer’s vision difficulties, instead one simply tried on one pair after another from a peddler and the purchaser took the pair that best suited their needs. Susannah Wright, owner of the Wright Mansion in Pennsylvania, wrote that she owned three pairs of spectacles. We were intrigued with that statement as it seemed extravagant even given her above average social and financial status. We plan to do more research, but we feel she probably had a pair for up-close vision (reading, fine needle work), a pair for regular distances, and possibly a pair more for outdoor wear with colored lenses.

In 1756, Benjamin Martin created something called Visual Glasses which had a horn annulus on the inside of the frame to reduce the amount of light entering the eye. They were often referred to as Martin’s Margins.

Ben Franklin devised bifocals in 1760. John Issac Hawkins patented the trifocal in London in 1827.

Sir George Airy (1801-1892) was the first to design concave astigmatic lenses for his own use in 1825.

In 1828, the McAllisters started importing lenses for astigmatism. John McAllister, Sr. (1753-1830) came to the U.S. from Glasgow, Scotland in 1775 and after somewhat unsuccessfully trying to sell walking sticks and riding whips opened the first optical shop in America in Philadelphia. He imported his lenses from Europe, and started making his own gold and silver frames in 1815.

At first glasses came into the U.S. with immigrants already wearing them, having purchased them in Europe, McAllister opened trade for opticians to begin selling them in the U.S., but they still used lenses shipped from Europe. It wasn’t until 1883 that American Optical produced the first ophthalmic lenses in the U.S.

In 1833, William Beecher made coin silver spectacles in Southbridge, MA as a sideline of his jewelry business. His business passed through several owners, eventually evolving into the American Optical Co. in 1869. The finer quality frames were often stamped with a maker’s mark and when these come up for sale they fetch a handsome price, fortunately, those of us who seek historical knowledge without spending a fortune to view originals can benefit from images posted on collectors’ websites.

For more info:
http://www.antiquespectacles.com is amazing in the amount of information contained within that website. It includes a timeline, photos of spectacles from various time periods, photos of spectacles in collections that belonged to well-known individuals, and much more. I’ve spent hours reading this website. The author’s research was relied upon heavily for the article published in Early American Life, August 2005 issue.

Ocular Heritage Society – this website has numerous photos, advertisements, and information for collectors. Don’t miss their gallery page.

Pinterest and Larsdatter websites, search term “antique eyeglasses” or “antique spectacles”.©

LOST RECIPES: Hickory Nut Custard Cake©

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chocolate custard cake, custard cake, hickory-nut custard cake

I enjoy making dishes from what I call Lost Recipes – dishes that were perfectly good and tasty but fell out of favor when newer, trendier foods came along. This one looks to be a treat although I will have to substitute walnuts or something else for the hickory nut meats. The squirrels and I race to see which of us can collect the hickory nuts first, and I usually lose.

I first found this receipt pasted in the front of a cookbook from just after the turn of the century, but when I searched a little I found several books in which it was published beginning in 1883.

“Cream one pound sugar and half pound butter; add five eggs, beaten separately, one cup sweet milk, one pound flour, three teaspoons baking powder, flavor with lemon, and bake in jelly-pans. For custard, place one pint milk in a tin pail and set in boiling water; add a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in a little milk, two eggs, one-half cup sugar, two cups chopped hickory-nut meats, well mixed together to the boiling milk; stir, and put between the layers of cake, while both cake and custard are warm. This is excellent.”

There were many more receipts for Custard Cake, I really like this one from the Royal Baking Powder Co., 1898. I may have to make it for the nostalgia, my grandmother was born in January, 1898.

“Custard Cake. 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 6 eggs, 1 ½ teaspoons Royal Baking Powder, 2 tablespoons hot water; beat the eggs well together; then add the sugar, and beat very light before adding flour, in which Royal Baking Powder is mixed; lastly, add hot water; bake in jelly-cake tins; when done, turn out, and when cool put following cream between. CREAM: 1 cup sugar, ½ cup flour, 1 pint boiled milk, 2 eggs; flavor to taste; when the milk boils, add eggs, sugar, and flour; after having well beaten them together, boil thoroughly; stir all the time, until it is quite thick.”

We wouldn’t want to wrap this up without a chocolate version, and this one came from 365 Cakes and Cookies: A Cake or Cookie for Every Day in the Year. I may have to make this one by the recipe for the Mister on Valentine’s Day and then slather the cake in chocolate frosting.

“Mix 8 tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, 5 tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, ½ cupful of milk; boil until it thickens and let cool. Then take 1 ½ cupfuls of light brown sugar, ½ cupful of butter, 3 eggs, ½ cupful of flour, and 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder; pour into the custard and add 1 ½ cupfuls of flour and ½ cupful of milk; flavor with vanilla. Bake in layers.
Filling: 2 cupfuls of sugar, 2/3 cupful of milk, and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Boil until thick and put between layers.”

Blissful Meals Yall.©