I tried something new this year. (Edited: Now with photos! What an exciting life I lead, photographing bread as it rises. Tune in next week for my photo essay on drying paint...)

This is a recipe I've been dying to make since I first read about it, and this year it seemed apropos. I love these kind of historical recipes, I love having a chance to taste something that my ancestors might have eaten. (And I do have New England-y ancestors, on my mother's side, so they probably ate this cake).

It's Election Day Cake. The tradition was, apparently, that this cake was given out on Election Day (and also on Town Meeting Day) in New England. In some places, it was (apparently) used as a bribe/reward (along with whisky) for voting straight ticket.

The recipe I used was James Beard's. I'm going from memory here so I may have to correct it later. (there are other recipes out there that are a little different. And here's another one. I do think the lemon zest would have been a good addition, though perhaps not 18th-century-authentic.)

2 cups milk
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 packet yeast

You heat the milk to lukewarm (the old recipe says "scald" but you only need to do that if you're using raw milk). Then dissolve the sugar, salt, and yeast in it.

Next, beat in 4 1/2 cups of white flour (or a mix of white and some wheat, if you want to be more authentic). Beat until the dough is "smooth and beginning to be elastic.")

Then, you put that aside to rise. It took just over an hour in my house but it was fairly warm. The dough (really a batter) should be doubled in bulk.

Once that has risen, you mix (in a separate bowl):

3/4 cup butter
1 cup (I think...this might be wrong) white sugar

Cream those together.

Then beat in 2 eggs

Next, take 1 cup raisins - or a mix of raisins and currants - or best of all, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups mixed raisins, currants, and citron (I could not find citron OR currants in the stores here so I just used raisins). Sprinkle 1/2 cup flour over them plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon mace.

Add the floury, spicy raisins to the butter/egg batter.

Next, combine this with the yeast batter. They need to be combined WELL. (I used my hands for this step. Put the batter in well-greased loaf pans (the recipe I used warned sternly not to fill the pans any more than half-full; this will make two medium sized and one small loaf, or two large loaves). Put the pans somewhere warm to rise until doubled in size again (this will take much longer than the first rising as the dough is heavier).

Here it is, rising in the pan:



(Shaky effect courtesy of photographing using Extreme! Night! View! to avoid flash and flash-related artefacts. And yes, I have salmon-pink Formica for kitchen (and bathroom) counters. I kind of hated it and apologized for it to anyone who came over, but now I've grown to kind of like it. And if nothing else, it doesn't give off radioactive jimmie-jams like the fancy granite countertops that all the Cool Homeowners have)

When they have risen, bake in a 375 degree (preheated) oven. It will take anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour depending on how large the loaves are - you can test them the way you do a cake for doneness.

Let the cakes cool for a little while on a rack before trying to tip them out. I broke one by tipping it out too early. You may need to run a knife around the edge of the pan.

The finished bread: