Traditional election cake, requiring sourdough fermentation.
Not to jinx it, but we first published our Election Cake recipe on November 1, 2016. It’s a celebration of the right to vote which is more important than ever today, and hopefully easier to do than c 1800 when people had to travel long distances to get to the polls. Back then, you might toast the occasion with a flacon of rum and spend the night at an inn before the journey home. Now, you can make election cake in your kitchen and share with friends and neighbors as you wait for the returns to come in on Tuesday, November 3.
Modern version made with California prunes.
There are plenty of election cake recipes online, of which this from the Culinary Institute of America looks most promising, with a patriotic bonus of red white and white dried fruits. California Prunes has a recipe featuring, guess what. Both describe Election Cake as somewhere between bread and a cake. Both recipes are relatively straightforward but they feature instant dried yeast…. which was not available at the time
To be truly authentic, you will want to make the recipe we published back in 2016, which relies on a sourdough ferment as its yeast component. We picked it up from Richard Miscovich at the 2016 Kneading Conference in Skowhegan, ME. It requires a lively starter and an extra day of fermentation, so if you want to make the original version you better get cracking.
