Today’s recipe offers us another clue as we continue the search for our cookbook’s Unknown Ladies.
A small community of 18th century cooks is starting to emerge from the Cookbook. We’ve already had cream cheese recipes from a Mrs Lewis and Mrs Ryves. Mrs Hayne popped up to show us how to dress a hare’s skin, and we’ve also met Mrs Gibbs through her recipe for tort de moy. And then there’s the elusive ‘woman at the Blue Peel‘, which we now think may be a bakehouse.
Today’s entry adds another name to our growing list: Mrs Edward. Here we learn her method for making an almond cake:
18th century recipe for almond cake by a Mrs Edward, from The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies
Mrs Edwards Way to Make an Almond Cake
Take 16 new laid eggs. Put away half the whites. Beat them with a whisk adding by degrees a pound & half of sugar dryed, pounded & sifted. Whisk them an hour at least while it looks like cream & then put in half a pd of blanched almonds. Beat with rose or orange flower water & put a pound of very fine dri light flower. Mix with the ryne of a greated lemon. You may, if you please, put in canded orange, lemon or citron peel sliced. Put it in a pan. Sift some fine sugar on the top just as it goes into the oven. Beat it light just as you put it in the pan. Bake it in an oven a little hotter than for a small tart. A little more than an hour bakes it. Butter your pan. This may be baked in small pans if you please.
The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies 