Short Cakes | Sleepy Hollow
What are short cakes?
Older cookbooks suggest that short cakes were a scone-like cake, limited in sweetness, that allowed for a slathering of cream, as was served at the Van Tassel feast.
Quote it.
“Such heaped up platters of cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to experienced Dutch housewives! There was the doughty doughnut, the tender oly koek, and the crisp and crumbling cruller; sweet cakes and short cakes, ginger cakes and honey cakes, and the whole family of cakes.”
-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving
Cake or cookie?
As an old recipe, the term short cakes now has numerous meanings. A more modern recipe suggested that shortcake were like the shortbread cookies we look forward to at Christmas time. The difference was that they were baked in a pan first, then sliced. Other searches suggest shortcakes are like boterkoek, more cakey, heavy and rich. However, I came across a recipe in The Frugal American Housewives cookbook from 1829 that I ultimately decided to follow.
Based on the original recipe, the shortcake should be baked in a ‘spider’ over the fire or hot coals.
cooking utensils
What is a ‘spider’?
A ‘spider’ was a cast iron or sheet metal pan with long legs to stand over the flames, with potentially a long handle.
Remember that in the 1700s to early 1800s when The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was both based and written, the kitchen included an open hearth for cooking. As our kitchens have evolved since the 1800s, an oiled cast iron pan is a good alternative. It was unclear from the original recipe how big the cast iron pan would’ve been, so it’s possible the shortcakes were thinner in size than what has been created here.
Short Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp buttermilk
- 2 tbsp cream
- 1 tbsp butter room temperature
Instructions
- Sift together the flour and baking soda, then stir and rub the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients.
- Spoon into an oiled cast iron pan and bake in a preheated oven of 160C for 20 minutes.
Video
References
Affiliate Disclosure: The following list contains affiliate links to Amazon. This means that if you use these links to buy something, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I hope you find these books or products as useful as I have. Thank you for your support!
- Acton, Eliza. Modern Cookery, for Private Families. United Kingdom: Longman, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1868.
- Davidson, Alan., et al. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Mason, Laura, and Catherine (Catherine Grace) Brown. Traditional Foods of Britain : An Inventory. 1999.
- Mescher, Virginia. HOW SWEET IT IS!” A HISTORY OF SUGAR and SUGAR REFINING IN THE UNITED STATES INCLUDING A GLOSSARY OF SWEETENERS. 2005.