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Ginger Cakes (Dozen eggs pounds of flour)
1 dozen eggs. 2 pounds of flour. 1 pound butter. 1 pound sugar. 1 pint molasses. 1 small teacup of ginger. 1 teaspoonful of soda.--Mrs. Col. S.
Like many entries in this book, this is a bill of ingredients rather than a set of instructions: the contributor assumed a cook who already knew how ginger cakes were mixed, rolled and baked. The proportions are sound, but the batch is enormous and the ginger is measured with a heavy hand.
- No method is givenCream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, then the molasses, then the flour sifted with the soda and ginger. Note that a dozen eggs and a pint of molasses to only two pounds of flour gives a slack mixture; more flour would be needed if the cakes are to be rolled and cut, otherwise they would be dropped. "Cakes" here probably means small flat spiced cakes rather than a layer cake.
- Weights to cupsTwo pounds of flour is about 7 cups, scooped and levelled; a pound of butter is 4 sticks; a pound of sugar is roughly 2 1/4 cups. A pint of molasses is 2 cups. Weighing is far more reliable than converting.
- The teacup of gingerA "small teacup" is not a fixed measure; somewhere between 1/3 and 3/4 cup of ground ginger is the likely range, and at any point in that range it will read as fiercely hot to a modern palate. Ground spice may also have lost strength in storage and transit, though this recipe says nothing about it; with fresh supermarket ginger, 2 to 3 tablespoons in this quantity of dough is a safer starting point.
- Soda, not baking powderOne teaspoon of soda is the only leavening, and it works by reacting with the acid in the molasses. Do not substitute baking powder measure for measure, and do not let the mixed dough stand overnight expecting the same rise.
- OvenThe recipe gives no oven direction or baking time at all. As a modern equivalent, 350F to 375F suits this sort of molasses dough; rolled about 1/4 inch thick the cakes would take roughly 8 to 12 minutes and should still look slightly soft in the centre when pulled, firming as they cool.
- Scale it downA dozen eggs and two pounds of flour will give something on the order of eight to ten dozen cakes. Quartering the recipe — 3 eggs, 8 oz flour, 4 oz butter, 4 oz sugar, 1/2 cup molasses, 1/4 teaspoon soda — produces a manageable batch.
- KeepingMolasses doughs stay moist and keep well for a day or two in a tin. The recipe itself says nothing about how the batch was stored or eaten.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by some 250 Virginia housekeepers, is full of entries signed only with an initial — here "Mrs. Col. S." — and full of recipes written as ingredient lists, on the assumption that any reader who needed the book already knew the motions. Ginger cakes of this type, sweetened with molasses and sugar together and rolled thin, were a standing item in Southern households because the ingredients kept: molasses and ground ginger are both said to have been among the more dependably available stores. They are often associated with court days, musters and election gatherings, where they were sold or handed out by the basket, though that connection is traditional rather than something this book records.