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It is a clear crisp Sunday here at the little cloth sister’s very tall house. They have had such a busy day, playing and running outside in the gardens, that they are all quite ready to gather in the kitchen, make toast in front of their hearth, warm pans of milk for cocoa, then settle down for tonight’s bedtime story.

As they were working in the kitchen I heard Charlcie say “I know the perfect story for tonight! We should read The Birthday Cookery Book!!!” There was an immediate protest from Izzybell, who exclaimed “That is not a story!” Ismay concurred “I’m not quite sure that a Cookery Book can be a bedtime story…”, but sweet faithful Isabeau staunchly defended Charlcie by saying “I don’t see why not, reading it will certainly give me sweet dreams!” Hannah and Eliza Jane agreed, and so it was decided that tonight story would be:

The Birthday Cookery Book 

by a 

Lady Dollmaker

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Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This is the little cloth sisters favorite birthday cake! Some years it is flavored with vanilla, but they are also very fond of using coconut, eggnog, lavender, rose, or violet flavoring instead.

I like this best with ground vanilla beans. 

1 1/2 cups butter

1 pkg. (8oz.) cream cheese

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

3 cups flour

pinch of salt

3 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Cream butter & cream cheese.   Add sugar and cream well.   Add eggs one at a time and beat well.   Stir in flour and salt.   Add vanilla.   Bake in a 10 inch tube or bundt pan.   Start with a cold oven and bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours.

Rose Geranium Pound Cake (a slightly different version of Cream Cheese Pound Cake)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter

1 pkg. (8oz.) cream cheese

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

3 cups flour

pinch of salt

3 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. rose water

organic rose geranium leaves

Butter and flour, or spray a 10 inch tube pan with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange washed and dried rose geranium leaves, top side down, in the bottom of the pan. Cream butter & cream cheese.   Add sugar and cream well.   Add eggs one at a time and beat well.   Stir in flour and salt.   Add vanilla.

Carefully spoon batter into a 10 inch tube or bundt pan.   Start with a cold oven and bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours.

Stir powdered sugar, vanilla and a bit of milk together, to make a glaze, and pour over warm cake.

Pound Cake

Beat one Cup of Butter to a Cream, slowly beat in one and one third Cups of Sugar.  Add one Teaspoonful of Mace and beat in five whole Eggs, adding them one at a time.  Sift in two Cups of Flour, turn at once into a greased and floured Pan or Mould and bake slowly for one Hour.*

*I baked my cakes in a 300 degree oven, 30 minutes for the doll size cakes and two hours for the larger version.

Apple Cake

from Shirley Shaker Village

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1-1/3 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3 apples, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup currants or raisins

powdered sugar

ground cinnamon

Cream butter and gradually add 1/2 of the sugar, beating well.  Beat egg with remaining sugar, add to first mixture.  Sift in flour, salt and baking powder alternately with the m ilk.  Flavor with vanilla.  Add apples and currants or raisins.  Beat well to mix and turn into a well-buttered 9 inch cake tin, square or round.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon, and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes.  Makes 1 cake.

Washington Cake

Beat together 1-1/2 pounds of sugar, and three quarters of a pound of butter; add 4 eggs well beaten, half pint of sour milk, and 1 teaspoon of saleratus*, dissolved in a little hot water.  Stir in gradually 1- 3/4 pounds of flour, 1 wine glassful of wine or brandy, and 1 nutmeg, grated.  Beat all well together.  This will make two round cakes.  It should be baked in a quick oven, and will take from 15 to 30 minutes, according to the thickness of the cakes.

*use baking soda

Rum Gingerbread

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

2- 1/2 cups flour

1- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup molasses

3/4 cup hot water

1/4 cup rum

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

Combine butter, sugar and egg.  Stir in dry ingredients alternately with the molasses, water and rum.  Pour into a buttered 9 x 12- inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  You may substitute buttermilk for the water and rum.

Sorghum Gingerbread

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

12 teaspoon cloves

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup lard

1 cup hot water

Stir the dry ingredients together.  Mix the lard, butter and hot water together and when melted,pour into the flour mixture.  Stir well, then add the eggs and molasses and stir again.  Spoon the batter into a buttered and floured baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Quince Marmalade

This marmalade is a delicious treat spread on freshly made toast, and eaten as a bedtime treat like the cloth sisters like to do!

Boil the quinces in water until soft, let them cool, and rub all the pulp through a sieve: put two pounds of it to one of sugar, pound a little cochineal, sift it through fine muslin, and mix with the quince to give a colour; pick out the seeds, tie them in a muslin bag, and boil them with the marmalade; when it is a thick jelly, take out the seeds , and put in pots.

I usually pick the fruits from my quince bushes and make them into juice, by slowly simmering them with just enough water to cover, mashing them, then straining the juice.  Then I use the juice, along with thinly sliced quince from my trees to make the marmalade.  This year I read a recipe that called for grating the quince, instead of slicing it.  It worked very well and went much faster, as you do not need to peel the quince before grating.

Slowly cooked quince usually turns a lovely pinkish, red color on it’s own.  If it doesn’t you can add a drop of food coloring, rather than the cochineal.

Quinces are very high in pectin, so you usually do not need to add any, other than your quince seeds in a muslin bag :), but if you are worried about your marmalade setting up, the new Ball brand powdered pectin is very easy, flexible and forgiving to use.  It also lets you easily adjust for varying size batches of marmalade, jam and jelly.

Chocolate Yeast Bread

This dark dense chocolate bread makes a wonderfully indulgent breakfast.  Loaves keep well at room temperature for several weeks during the winter, or may be frozen.  If by some miracle you have any left long enough for it to get a bit dried out, it makes an amazing bread pudding!

6 cups flour

2 cups warm brewed coffee

1 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa

1 cup Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips

3 Tbsp. active dry yeast

1/2 cup melted butter

Measure all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Add warm (110-115 degrees) coffee and cooled melted butter.  Mix by hand with a large wooden spoon or use an electric mixer with a dough hook.  When your dough is completely mixed, shiny and smooth, stir in chocolate chips.  Turn out into an oiled bowl, lightly oil top of dough.  Cover with a clean cloth and set in a warm spot to rise until doubled. 

Punch down, and shape into heart shaped loaves on parchment or silpat covered baking sheets. 

Alternately shape into smooth loaves and put in heart shaped terra cotta bread pans.  Cover loaves and keep warm to rise.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, or build a brisk fire and ready reflector oven or dutch oven.

Slash tops of loaves in an X using a sharp knife.  Bake for 20- 40 minutes depending on the size of your loaves, being careful not to burn.

Yeast Gingerbread

6 cups flour

2 Tbsp. yeast

1 Tbsp. baking powder

3 Tbsp. ground ginger

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups warm Earl Grey tea (I used Earl Grey Extra from Simpson and Vail)

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. orange oil

2 Tbsp. rum

Measure all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Add warm (110-115 degrees) tea and cooled melted butter, molasses, orange oil and rum.  Mix by hand with a large wooden spoon or use an electric mixer with a dough hook.  The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.

Turn out into an oiled bowl, lightly oil top of dough.  Cover with a clean cloth and set in a warm spot to rise until doubled.

Punch down, and shape into heart shaped loaves on parchment or silpat covered baking sheets.  Or shape into rounded balls and put in a heart shaped cast iron muffin pan. Cover loaves and keep warm to rise.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, or build a brisk fire and ready reflector oven or dutch oven.

Slash tops of loaves in an X using a sharp knife.  Bake rolls for 15 – 20 minutes. Bake bread for 20- 40 minutes depending on the size of your loaves, being careful not to burn.

Shrewsbury Cakes

This is a somewhat different receipt for Shrewsbury Cakes, as it has the addition of sweet dried Zante currants, which are not normally found in other receipts. You may also make these cookies as drop cookies, or form them into a log, chill and slice them, rather than making them as cutout cookies as other receipts direct.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or ground mace

1 large egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ to ½ cup of Zante currants soaked in hot water to plump them, then thoroughly drained

In a small bowl, beat the butter until light. Gradually add in the sugar and nutmeg or mace and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then add the flour and beat just until blended.

On a sheet of wax paper, roll the dough into a long, 2-inch diameter log. Wrap in the wax paper and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. (It is important to use wax paper as this dough is very sticky.)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter four baking sheets (or two sheets twice).

Cut the dough log into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place the slices about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are light golden around the edges, about 8 minutes. The dough will spread — be careful not to crowd the cookies

Mace Shortbread

3 cups flour

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1-1/2 cups butter

1/2 tsp. yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 tsp. mace

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

*Proof yeast in warm water for 5 minutes.  Measure flour, powdered sugar, mace and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl.  Add slightly softened butter and mix until all of the butter is worked into the dry ingredients.  Pour proofed yeast/water into bowl and beat until thoroughly incorporated.  Cover bowl with a clean dry cloth and set in a warm place for 1 hour, then chill for 30 minutes.

Roll dough out on a well floured surface to a scant 1/4 inch thickness and cut out with heart shaped cookie cutters.  Emboss the cookies by stamping them with new, washed rubber stamps that have been dusted with flour.   If desired, lightly brush ground nutmeg into the stamped designs before baking.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes, until just starting to very lightly brown at the edges.  Cool completely before removing from cookie sheets.

* 18th century shortbread receipts call for the addition of barm (yeast).  I followed this tradition when I developed this recipe.  I love mace and decided to add it, along with nutmeg to the cookies (both spices are part of the seeds of the nutmeg tree).

Scottish Shortbread

1 pound butter

1 cup sugar

4 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar.  Add flour a little at a time until it makes a stiff dough.  Pat into a large cookie sheet or 9 x 13 pan, or roll and cut out with tin cookie cutters.  Bake in a slow oven (300 degrees) for 30 minutes or till golden.  If you baked one large sheet, cut it into squares as soon as you remove it from the oven and cool in the pan.

Cobblestones

(Fanny Pierson Crane, Her Receipts, 1796, adaptation)

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1- 1/2 cups sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup cracked chocolate (pieces)

Cream together butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla and stir well.  Mix dry ingredients together and stir into creamed mixture. Fold in chocolate.  Drop from a heaping tablespoon onto a greased cookie sheet 3 inches apart.  Bake in a medium hot oven for 12-15 minutes.

Eli Whitney’s Grandmother’s Chewy Ginger Cookies

Eli Whitney (1765-1825) dearly loved these cookies that his grandmother made.

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon each of cinnamon & ginger

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup molasses

1/4 cup sour milk

4 cups flour

Blend butter, soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.  Add sugar and beat until smooth.  Add the egg, molasses and sour milk.  Gradually stir in the flour.  Drop from the tip of a teaspoon on to greased baking sheets.  Let stand for 10 minutes, then flatten cookies with a glass covered with a damp cloth.  Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for 12 to 15 minutes.

Birth-day Pudding

Butter a deep dish, and lay in slices of bread and butter, wet with milk, and upon these sliced tart apples, sweetened and spiced.   Then lay on another layer of bread and butter and apples, and continue thus till the dish is filled.  Let the top layer be bread and butter, and dip it in milk, turning the buttered side down.  Any other kind of fruit will answer as well.  Put a plate on the top, and bake two hours, then take it off and bake another hour.

This receipt (aka recipe) is from Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt-Book by Catherine E. Beecher.  Catherine Esther Beecher was born in 1800 in East Hampton, Long Island.  She founded the Hartford Female Seminary in 1823 as well as other schools for young women in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.  She wrote A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841) and Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt-Book (1846).

Snow Ice Cream

fresh clean snow

milk

sugar

vanilla or other flavoring

Put in as much milk as you would like to achieve the consistency that you prefer.  The sugar and vanilla are added to suit your taste.  Stir well and eat immediately.

On the next snowy day take a few  moments to try this recipe and make a lasting memory of your own.

Mrs. Wolter’s No-fail Pie Crust

1 cup Crisco

3 cups flour

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vinegar

4 -5 tablespoons cold water

1 teaspoon salt

In a large mixing bowl, cut Crisco into four with a pastry blender until small size peas form.  Add eggs, vinegar, water and slat & mix with a fork until blended and dough forms a large ball, or use floured hands to mix dough.  Makes three crusts.

Maids of Honor

This receipt for these sweet, chewy little tarts, adapted by several centuries of American cooks, probably came from England originally.

Pastry

1 c. flour

1TB. Sugar

¼ tsp. Salt

¼ c. butter

1/4c. milk

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter. Sprinkle the milk into the mixture, tossing with a fork and form into a ball.

Filling

2 eggs lightly beaten

2TB. Dry sherry

¼ c. sugar

4 tsp. Flour

¼ tsp. nutmeg

¾ c. almonds, finely chopped

Fruit Jam

Mix the eggs and sherry. Combine the flour, sugar, & nutmeg, stir in egg mixture. Add the almonds. Roll the pastry about ⅛ inch thick and cut into circles that will fit a 1-¾ inch muffin pan, or into the size needed for your tart pans. Spoon a dot of jam into each shell and pour the egg mixture on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Makes about 24 small tarts. 

Van Cortlandt Manor

George and Martha’s Favorite Mince Meat Pie

5 pounds beef, ground

1 pound beef suet, ground

2 pounds raisins

2 pounds currants

1 tablespoon cloves

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon ginger

1 tablespoon nutmeg

1/2 tablespoon salt

1/2 tablespoon pepper

4 cups sugar

1 lemon, juice and rind

1/2 poud citron peel

8 cups apples, chopped fine

Cook the ground beef and after it cools, add all of the other ingredients.  Blend thoroughly and  set aside.

Boil in a large saucepan:

1 quart apple cider

1 quart brandy

2 tablespoons butter

Pour over the other ingredients.  When cool, pack in jars, or cover the bowl well and store in a cool dry place.  Allow to stand for at least 24 hours before using to make pies.  Will keep up to 6 months if  canned in sealed canning jars.

Makes 8 – 12 pies.

George Washington had a definite weakness for mince meat pies.  Martha found it well worthwhile to make up a large batch, for if planned wisely, it only had to be undertaken once each winter.  She recommended not eating these pies at night before going to bed, if the eater valued his slumber.

Receipt from The Early American Cookbook Authentic Favorites for the Modern Kitchen by Dr. Kristie Lynn & Robert W. Pelton.

As you may suspect, all of the little Izannahs and I are excessively fond of bedtime stories! They positively insist on at least one story every night before they will quiet down and go to sleep. You are invited to come join us for a selection of nightly bedtime stories in celebration of Izannah Walker’s 204th birthday! Our celebration began on Saturday evening, September 25th, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, and it will continue at 8:00 p.m. every evening through the end of the month, culminating in the unveiling and sale of my latest reproduction Izannah Walker dolls on Thursday, September 30th. We do so hope you will be able to join us each evening for a story that is sure to bring you sweet dreams!