New Year's Cake

The year is 1832, the place, Providence, RI. It is New Year's morning, very early -- let's say 7 o'clock. You hear a knock at the door, but you're not in the least surprised. It's a child from your neighborhood, come to collect his New Year's Cake. Lucky for him, you have a basket at the ready, full of small biscuits, some imprinted with the stamp of an animal, others with a flower.

For a presentation on holidays foods in Rhode Island, I prepared what is called New Year's Cake, though, what came out of the oven was really more of a biscuit, dense and barely sweet. I was intrigued by the tradition of going door-to-door to receive a cake, and found a the recipe (from the published cookbook of one "Miss Leslie, of Philadelphia") in the RIHS collections.

Miss Leslie instructs as follows:

Three pounds of flour, sifted.
A pound and a half of powdered white sugar.
A pound of fresh butter.
A pint of milk with a small teaspoonful of pearl-ash melted in it.

Having sifted the flour, spread the sugar on the paste-board, a little at a time, and crush it to powder by rolling it with the rolling-pin. Then mix it with the flour. Cut up in the flour the butter and mix it well by rubbing it in with your bands. Add by degrees the milk. Then knead the dough very hard, till it no longer sticks to your hands. Cover it, set it away for an hour or two, and then knead it again in the same manner. You may repeat the kneading several times. Then cut it into pieces, roll out each piece into a sheet half an inch thick. Cut it into large flat cakes with a tin cutter. You may stamp each cake with a wooden print, by way of ornamenting the surface.

Sprinkle with flour some large flat tin or iron pans, lay the cakes in them and bake them of a pale brown, in an oven of equal heat throughout. These cakes require more and harder kneading than any others, therefore it is best to have them kneaded by a man, or a very strong woman. They are greatly improved by the addition of some carraway seeds worked into the dough.

from Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats by Miss Leslie of Philadelphia. Boston. 1832.


After my first read-through, I had two questions for Miss Leslie. First: What in the world is "pearl-ash"? (And are you sure it's edible?) And second (okay, third): could the dough really be that hard to knead?

Question 1: So, what's pearl-ash?

Answer: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "pearl ash" is potassium carbonate.  In 1701, the lexicographer Abel Boyer defined it as "an Act for levying further Duties upon Sweets."  In other words, pearl ash is the rising agent.  Since I didn't happen to have any pearl ash in the pantry, I opted for baking soda.  For a fascinating discussion of the history of baking soda, baking powder, pearl ash and saleratus, check out The Food Timeline.

Question 2: How hard is it exactly to knead dough that should only be attempted by "a man, or a very strong woman"?

Answer: Very hard. I am clearly neither a man nor a very strong woman. Exhibit A:

This dough is thick.

After two minutes of kneading:

After four minutes of kneading.

This recipe nearly got the best of me.  After several minutes of kneading, I managed to wrangle it into a pan, and stamped the dough with a snowflake pattern.

The Results:

Much like the jumbles that I made in June, these New Year's Cake had a very subtle taste.  The recipe recommends using caraway seeds, but I was concerned that some people would prefer them without.  Next time, I'll read between the lines; when a recipe says that a recipe will be "greatly improved" by the inclusion of a certain ingredient, I had better use that ingredient.  Who knew how important flavor could be in one's appreciation of a dessert?  Ahem.