• Welcome to the Receipts of the Blue & Gray. - The receipts you will find here are original Antebellum, and Civil War period receipts, as originally published between the years 1796 and 1880. One exception, is: Newspaper Clippings & Periodical Receipts are limited to a publishing period from 1858 to 1866.

    Some receipts from this era attempted to give medicinal advice. Many dangerous, and in some cases, deadly, "cures" were given, reflecting the primitive knowledge of that time period. Don't assume everything you read here is safe to try! Recipes and Receipts posted here are for Historic Research Purposes, enjoy them, learn from them, discuss them!

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Sweets/Treats Cup Cake

cup cake
(from Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats by Eliza Leslie, 1828)

Ingredients:

Five eggs.​
Two large tea-cups full of molasses.​
The same of brown sugar, rolled fine.​
The same of fresh butter.​
One cup of rich milk.​
Five cups of flour, sifted.​
Half a cup of powdered allspice and cloves.​
Half a cup of ginger.​

Instructions:

Cut up the butter in the milk, and warm them slightly. Warm also the molasses, and stir it into the milk and butter: then stir in, gradually, the sugar, and set it away to get cool.​
Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour. Add the ginger and other spice, and stir the whole very hard.​
Butter small tins, nearly fill them with the mixture, and bake the cakes in a moderate oven.​


While watching a period TV show (circa 1915) where the school children held a bake sale with cupcakes, my history radar went up. I questioned whether or not it was period correct as I just didn't picture people in the early 20th century cranking out cupcakes to raise money. Turns out the first known recipe to call it a "cup cake" is found in the 1828 Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, & sweets by Eliza Leslie, A Lady of Philadelphia.

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You'll notice you have to bake the individual cup cakes in 'small tins' as no muffin tins were available in the era. Actually, that's how cupcakes received their name as they were baked in small round pottery cups or ramekins. However, the very first mention of the cupcake can be traced all the way back to 1796, when a recipe in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons made mention of a of "a light cake to bake in small cups".

The light cake in small cups recipe -

Half a pound sugar, half a pound butter, rubbed into two pounds flour,
one glass wine, one do rose water, two do. emptins, a nutmeg, cinnamon
and currants.

That's the entire recipe, I assume Ms. Simmons figured bakers in the era would know what to do with the ingredients.

Of course in the 21st century cupcakes really took off in popularity with bakeries cropping up serving mainly various flavors and styles of just cupcakes. A famous local bakery in NYC, The Magnolia Bakeshop was made famous in Sex in the City. The Food Network has a series called Cupcake Wars, where bakers compete to showcase their most outlandish cupcake creations.

My favorite cupcake recipe is the Martha Stewart's Red Velvet Cupcakes. Please share your favorite recipes and memories of cupcakes.
 
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Since it is chocolate cupcake day, thought bump this thread, "History of the Cupcake". It shows first use of term cupcake was 1828.

This is history that goes back before Civil War. This is part of authentic or period.
 
Anna Elizabeth. I just love cupcakes and this recipe you shared is a very unusual one in that allspice, cloves, ginger and molasses is used as ingredients. I have never seen another cupcake recipe with those ingredients. Nevertheless, Thanks for sharing this recipe and the very informative and interesting information. David.
 
Because my oven is small, I've quite often adopted cake recipes into cupcakes. Also, our historical society holds an annual Barn-and-Bake Sale (which is our big fundraiser). In recent times, whole cakes just aren't selling--but cupcakes are a real winner.
 
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