We’re making the Election Cake early this year

We baked our Election Cake in a bundt pan. Can be sprinkled with powdered sugar if you like.

It’s two weeks till Election Day as this post appears, and for many of us that will be a very stressful 14 days. Stressful ties call for stress baking, of course, so let’s get started making Election Cake.

We first become aware of this colonial tradition in 2016 when we attended the Maine Kneading Conference. Richard Miscovich, who was teaching at the conference, collaborated with  Susannah Gebhart for OWL Bakery on a project called “Make America Cake Again”. In those giddy days, when a lot of folks were looking forward to the likely prospect of the first female U.S. President, the idea was to return to a time when elections were cause for celebration, not tension.

According to the New England Historical Society, “Election Day started with cannon firing followed by a military exercise. Then came a procession of government officials to a local church, where they sat and listened to a long sermon… The ballot counting at the end of the day featured a banquet and, of course, the cake, followed by a ball.”

Election Cake is something between a true cake and a bread and features fruit, maybe some unusual grains (there was a time when wheat was eschewed because it had ties to the English Crown), and a glug (or maybe much more) of booze. It’s not made with baking powder as you’d expect because baking powder had not yet been invented. Rather, it rises with yeast, which would have been natural sourdough in the Colonial era.

We published our recipe for a sourdough Election Cake in 2016 and were pretty happy with the result. It’s not particularly sweet so a dab of butter or, better, sweetened whipped cream is welcome. For a subsequent election, we adapted the home bakers version of the recipe from OWL Bakery which has a yeast ferment. Why not give this a trial run now, and make it again for November 3 just in case you have something to celebrate?

Tonight:
1 c warm milk
1/2 t instant yeast
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 c dried or 1 c fresh fruits (optional)

Method: dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and stir in flour. If you are using dried fruits, chop fine and soak overnight in liquor or water. The preferment is ready in 8-12 hours when it becomes bubbly.

Tomorrow:
1/2 c unsalted butter
1/3 cup unrefined sugar
1 egg
2 T whole-milk yoghurt
2 T honey or sorghum syrup
Last night’s preferment

1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 t grond cinnamon
1/4 t ground coriander
1/4 t ground cardamon
Pinch ground black pepper
1 t salt
Last night’s rehydrated or fresh fruit (optional)

Method: using paddle attachment in stand mixer, cream butter then add sugar, mixing until very light and fluffy. Mix in the egg on medium speed, then the the sorghum/honey and yogurt.

Exchange the paddle with a dough hook. Add the preferment and mix until just incorporated. Combine all of the dry ingredients before adding them to liquid ingredients and mix until just incorporated, being careful not to over-mix. Gently fold in the rehydrated fruit. Pour into greased and floured bundt pan or cake round.

Proof 2-4 hours, covered, until cake has risen by about 1/3 of its volume. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting and eating.