An 1829 Tea Cake

Look at that proud smile!

Recently my great-niece came to stay with me for a couple weeks. I wanted to give her something to remember about her crazy aunt who likes to dress up in old-time clothes and pretend she lives in the early 19th century. So, I took her to work with me and dressed her up too. One of the first activities we decide to do was cook in the 1820 kitchen. She was all for it, even if it was going to be hot. Of course, she turned out to be a natural historical interpreter: greeting visitors and telling them about our undertaking.

Our modern reprint.

The recipe we decided to make was a tea cake from The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Child. This cookbook was originally published in 1829. If you're interested in reading the entire book you can do so online here. It is also available to purchase from the Stephenson House's museum shop (at the historic site or online). Stephenson House has copies of several historic cookbooks in our site research library so we simply used a hard copy on hand.

The original receipt (aka recipe) is very short and very vague. I had experimented with this particular receipt once before but it didn't turn out as expected due to the leavening agent failing to activate.  After some additional research, I felt confident that this would not be the case this time.

Sometimes working with old cookbooks can be a challenge for various reasons. Two such reasons include:

1. the author assumes the reader has a basic knowledge of cooking practices of their day, therefore, leaving out the finer details of the receipt

2. some ingredients are no longer readily available

The recipe reads as follows:

Tea Cake.

There is a kind of tea cake still cheaper. Three cups of sugar, three eggs, one cup of butter, one cup of milk, a spoonful of dissolved pearlash, and four cups of flour, well beat up. If it is so stiff it will not stir easily, add a little more milk.


That's it. No information about temperature, cook time, what size cake pan, or if there is a certain method for combining the ingredients. Modern recipes are definitely more detailed. The receipt also called for "pearlash" (the 1820 version of baking soda that I purchased online here). As mentioned above, when I attempted to make this cake previously, the pearlash failed to activate. What I didn't know, at the time, was that pearlash needed something acidic like buttermilk to activate it. In my first attempt, I'd used regular whole milk which allowed me to create a very sweet, yet, unleavened brick.

The first thing we needed to do was start a fire in the hearth, as well as, the wall oven. Preheating the wall oven would require its fire to burn for several hours to heat the interior bricks to the required temperature for baking. While it was heating we'd amass all our ingredients.

I gave my niece the option of using store-bought butter and buttermilk or making our own. Of course, she wanted to "make it from scratch' (I was so proud...😍. Kid's gonna be as crazy as me someday).  That would take some time, which was good since it would be a while before the oven would be ready for baking. Fresh always tastes best anyway.

Churning butter in a small ceramic churn.

Once the butter and buttermilk were complete we could start putting everything together. We did not have a standard measuring cup in the 1820 kitchen so we used a tin cup from the cupboard. It was actually a little bit larger than a modern 8 oz measuring cup. As long as we used this cup throughout the receipt, it would work fine. The first ingredient to go into the bowl was three cups of sugar.

Measuring out three cups of sugar.

The eggs were the next thing to add. Now, I've done this two ways: one is simply putting the eggs directly into the bowl with the sugar or they can be beaten in a separate bowl then added. My niece is pictured adding them directly to the bowl but I prefer beating them first then adding them.

Egg option #1: Adding them directly to the bowl.

Egg option #2: Beat all three eggs in a separate bowl before adding them to the sugar.

Our freshly churned butter would go in next. The receipt does not say how to add the butter to the sugar.  Modern recipes sometimes tell you to 'cream' them together. Since we had chosen Egg Option #1, our sugar was still dry.  The butter was rather firm after churning and was not going to mix as easily as if it was soft.  We'd need to 'cut ' the butter into the mixture (to start) similar to how it's done to make a pie crust. Unlike pie crust, it would need to be thoroughly combined. The batter would become smoother as we added additional ingredients.

If we had used Egg Option #2 the mixture would have been wet and creaming it all together fairly easy.

Measuring a cup of our firm butter. The large bowl pictured was used to wash the butter after churning it.

One cup of butter going in.

Cutting the butter into the sugar. 

The batter looks like pie crust dough in this photo. It would not stay this way once the remaining items were added.

The recipe called for one cup of milk. As mentioned above, we needed to add a liquid that would activate the pearlash. Milk is not typically acidic unless it's sour or buttermilk. The recipe also mentioned that additional liquid may be necessary. We'd start with one cup of our fresh buttermilk and worked from there.

One cup of buttermilk added. 

Before combining the batter, the pearlash needed to be added. A spoonful of pearlash was put into the measuring cup then dissolved with some buttermilk. It's important to do this before adding it to the batter. Have you ever bitten into a piece of cake and gotten a mouthful of baking powder? YUK! 😝 Dissolving the pearlash would evenly distribute it throughout the cake batter as well as help prevent a mouthful of 'yuk'.

 Pearlash added to our measuring cup.

Adding buttermilk to the pearlash then stirring until dissolved.

Sugar, butter, pearlash, and buttermilk.

Now it was time to add the flour. Once that was done and mixed, it became obvious more buttermilk would be needed. The batter was to dry. We added more buttermilk a little at a time until we achieved a cake batter consistency. (See photos below)

Adding the flour to the bowl.

The flour had been stirred in but now it's too dry. More buttermilk would need to be added slowly.

The batter looked perfect after we added more buttermilk (almost an additional cup). This is how the batter should look once everything is combined.

This receipt makes a lot of cake batter. We prepared two different baking pans to accommodate the batter.  One of the pans was a bottomless cake ring. This type of cake pan was common in the early 19th century and it's easy to use. To enclose the bottom, we used some wax paper (parchment will work too) to cover one end and tie it in place with some cooking twine. Once the bottom was enclosed we thoroughly greased and floured the inside including the paper bottom.  The cake pan was then set on a tin baking sheet to give it some added stability (See photos below). Once pan prep was finished we poured half the batter into the ring and the other half into another pan (not pictured).

Cake ring before the paper bottom was tied on and the tin baking sheet.

Paper bottom tied in place. 

Half the cake batter was poured into the pan. 

It was time to put the cakes into the oven. I have a love/hate relationship with the beehive oven at Stephenson House.  The oven does not maintain its heat unless there is a small fire at the back of it (and I've tried every trick in the book). Baking without this small fire at the back is impossible. Traditionally, all the embers would be removed from a wall oven before food was put in then the door closed so everything would bake evenly. Unfortunately, that is not how our oven works...sigh. In the photo below you can see both cake pans and the small fire. To keep the cake baking evenly and the small fire burning, we partially close the door and rotate the pans every so often.

Two tea cakes baking in the oven (sounds like a verse from a nursery rhyme).

Today, the wall oven was being very contrary. Even though it had been thoroughly preheated and a small fire built in the back it would not stay hot. Two hours after putting the cakes into the oven, we took them out to find they weren't even close to done. Ultimately, we finished them off in the bake kettle. It took only about 30 minutes more bake-time after that before they were done. And I must say they turned out beautiful!

The cake ring in the bake kettle. We ended up finishing both cakes in the bake kettle since the wall oven would not maintain its heat. In this photo, we had just removed the lid (which is now sitting on the floor of the hearth).

The bake kettle is a small oven on short legs. Hot coals are placed under the kettle and on top of the lid. This allows heat to circulate around the food (placed inside the kettle) to bake. 

The first cake baked in the ring pan.

Cake number two baked in a mold pan.

The cakes turned out perfect! Needless to say, they didn't last long. The staff and volunteers at Stephenson House gobbled them up right away. My niece was so proud and rightly so. She worked hard all day to create them. Hopefully, she has this memory for a very long time... I know I will.

Enjoying the reward of her hard work.

Making Butter in the 1820 Kitchen

Stephenson House's wooden butter churn

One of the most popular activities in the kitchen at Stephenson House is butter churning. There is something about making butter in an old-fashion wooden churn that pulls everyone into the kitchen (or maybe it's the lure of good smelling treats wafting through the air). Most of our volunteers have helped with this activity and enjoyed the products of their labor. I guarantee fresh churned butter and buttermilk taste 100% better than any store bought brand. It will not have all the preservatives either.

Butter making is defiantly a hands-on activity where everyone can help. We often let visitors get their bicep workout in for the day by lending a hand in the churning process.

Stephenson House purchased its wooden churn from Beaver Buckets several years ago (www.beaverbuckets.com) and it's been in regular use ever since. There are other types of churns available on the market if you want to buy one or you can simply use an old canning jar.



What we use at Stephenson House......

• Wooden churn 
• Heaving Whipping cream (1-2 quarts, depending on how much we  want to make)
• several pitchers of water for washing the butter (or someone to run back and forth to the well)
• butter paddle
• cheese cloth (precut squares that will fit over the top of the bowl used to pour the contents of the churn in. Do this before starting to churn.)
• two large bowls
• bucket 

We purchase heavy whipping cream from a local grocery store to make our butter. It is practically impossible to get anything other than heavy whipping cream to make butter unless you live on a farm with milk cows. Leave the cream sitting on the counter at room temperature overnight so it clabbers. We usually sit it out about 4 p.m. if we plan to use it by late morning the next day.

Once it's clabbered pour it into the churn. Now the workout begins. Take the plunger (the one attached to the churn, not the one in the restroom!) and start churning the cream in a steady up and down motion. Try to keep a rhythm as you churn. The process of churning the cream take anywhere from 10 minutes to three hours. We have found that the weather plays a big part in the success of our butter.

A docent churns butter in the 1820 kitchen. Notice the chunks of cream (soon to be butter) around the plunger opening.

When the cream begins to turn to butter there is a distinct change in how the plunger feels and sounds. The cream begins to separate from the fat, making the plunger harder to push/pull up and down. The opening where the plunger is inserted into the lid will begin to have chunks of butter form around it (see above photo). Remove the plunger and lid to check the contents of the churn at this point. There should be buttermilk and butter in the churn if it's ready. The texture of the butter should feel firm like butter at room temperature. If is to runny then continue churning until it changes. Be Warned....if you over churn the mixture, the butter and buttermilk will turn back to cream.

Our redware bowls, butter paddle and large pitcher.

Now the contents of the churn need to be poured into a large bowl covered with three to four squares of cheese cloth (layered on top of each other and large enough to hang over the sides). We prepare the bowl with the cheese cloth before we start churning so it's ready when the butter is done.

Bowl with four layers of cheese cloth.

Pouring the contents of the churn into our cheesecloth covered bowl. It's always good to have extra hands...here we have several willing helpers. The chunks of butter are very noticeable in this photo.

Scrap out any leftover bits of butter from the churn. Again, extra hands are wonderful...and a really LONG handled spoon.

Everything is in the bowl and ready to be separated.

Now grab all of the side of the cheese cloth and squeeze out the buttermilk.

You can see the buttermilk pouring out of the cheesecloth into the bowl. The butter is wrapped up in the cheese cloth in this photo. It will be put into the large redware bowl next and washed.

Now the butter needs to be washed to remove all the remaining buttermilk or it will spoil. You'll need lots of water for this step. The green bowl contains the buttermilk that we will use for biscuits or whatever cooking need arises.

Use a butter paddle or large spoon to turn the butter over and over in the water.

The water will turn cloudy quickly. Keep pouring it off into a waste container then add fresh water until the water no longer clouds. This will take a while but you'll want to be sure it's clean or it will sour.

Once the butter is clean, you may choose to add salt to help preserve it. We don't add salt at Stephenson House...it never lasts long enough to go bad.

The butter is now ready to use, as well as, the buttermilk. We usually have a large amount of butter at the end of the day. It is a great addition to the table and tastes so much better than anything you can buy in the store. Enjoy!

Now comes the real work....cleaning the churn. Ugh!