{"id":2565,"date":"2021-08-20T12:01:44","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T12:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=2565"},"modified":"2021-08-20T12:01:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T12:01:44","slug":"cooking-the-books-dorset-apple-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/08\/20\/cooking-the-books-dorset-apple-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking the Books \u2013 Dorset Apple Cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you asked someone for a food associated with Dorset, you might get the following responses Dorset Knobs, Dorset Blue Vinney, Portland Pudding, Dorset Horn, the Dorset Naga\u2026<\/p>\n

Chances are though that the most popular response would be Dorset Apple Cake.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Dorset poet William Barnes mentions an apple cake of sorts in his poem \u2018Father Come Hwome\u2019:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I got a little ce\u00e4ke too, here, a-be\u00e4ken o\u2019n<\/em><\/p>\n

Upon the vier. \u2019Tis done by this time though.<\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019s nice an\u2019 moist; vor when I wer a-me\u00e4ken o\u2019n<\/em><\/p>\n

I stuck some bits ov apple in the dough.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With Dorset Apple Cake being such a well-known delicacy, I thought it was time to make it for this blog, and as with previous bakes, by using an old recipe from one of the recipe books we hold in the archives.<\/p>\n

So I searched, and searched, and searched. I found nothing. Not one recipe for apple cake. I found multiple recipes for Apple Jelly, Apple Fritters, Apple Pudding, Plum Cake, Orange Cake, Lemon Cake but none for Dorset\u2019s \u2018National Dish\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It did lead me to question why none of these recipe books had a recipe for Apple Cake. Did everyone know how to bake Apple Cake so nobody needed to write it down? Was it passed on by word of mouth only? Was it a dish for the average person in society, not the wealthy classes who were more literate, and able to purchase the variety of ingredients that necessitated a cookbook rather than rely on home grown staple foods? A lot of the archives we hold reflect the power dynamics of the time they were produced, most pre-19th<\/sup> century archives we hold are from the church, government, and wealthy landowners\/families, people\/organisations who were literate and could write, had the money for books and paper and the conditions to look after them, so naturally any recipe books of that time will also be those from wealthy families.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I eventually found someone asking for a recipe for Apple Cake in the Dorset County Chronicle, and eagerly sought out the reply in the next edition. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a strange recipe which was just apple, sugar, and lemon. All but ready to give up, the Bridport News from 27th<\/sup> November 1896 eventually provided what I was looking for! The recipe here was as follows:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Apple Cake \u2013 Two cups dried apples soaked overnight, then chopped and boiled in one and a half cup syrup a short time; beat one cup butter and two of sugar together, add three well-beaten eggs, three cups of flour, on teaspoon saleratus, cinnamon, cloves, and one small nutmeg, one teaspoon mace, one cup raisins stoned and chopped. Bake moderately.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I used fresh apples rather than drying and soaking some and used ground nutmeg and cloves. Saleratus is Bicarbonate of Soda. The bake moderately was a little too non-specific for my liking, the cake seemed to bake very quickly on the outside so had to be covered up to stop it burning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The result was not bad at all, a little too much spice perhaps, and not really too much apple flavour coming through but a very nice cake nonetheless. Why not give it a try?! I\u2019ll have to go and try other Dorset Apple cakes to compare it!<\/p>\n

Do you have an old family recipe for Dorset Apple Cake you\u2019d like to share? Or even an old family recipe book that\u2019s been passed down through the generations? Does it contain a recipe for Apple Cake?! Why not share your creations with us on Twitter<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you asked someone for a food associated with Dorset, you might get the following responses Dorset Knobs, Dorset Blue Vinney, Portland Pudding, Dorset Horn, the Dorset Naga\u2026 Chances are though that the most popular response would be Dorset Apple Cake. The Dorset poet William Barnes mentions an apple cake of sorts in his poem… Read more Cooking the Books \u2013 Dorset Apple Cake<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[356,82,355,203,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2572,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2565\/revisions\/2572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}