Almond Cake-Historical Anglo-indian cooking recipe

I tell my procrastinating son all the time, "Getting started is the hardest part". It's true for me too. I wanted to start this project during the pandemic, but got distracted with my kids home all the time and everything else. Now, I have the time and I end up going down rabbit holes of research for Anglo-Indian cooking historical terms, ingredients and methods, instead of following a cake recipe. So, we are just going to start with Almond Cake, the very first recipe in The Economical Cookery Book, or I will never get going.

Cakes and "dainties" were quite important to the Anglo-Indian household to serve visitors and provide an excuse for socializing.

Excerpt from "The Economical Cookery Book" on entertaining friends

This paragraph just tickled me at first, but I think the need for the "art of friendliness" has, if anything, increased these days. I can't quite imagine having a keen rivalry over dainty cakes, but I know I spent many years as an army wife feeling isolated. If I could have lured over new friends by baking a cake, I certainly would have tried. If only I had this book then! Now, I'm lucky enough to have a good group of fellow food nerds willing to try my experiments, so here we go...

Recipe #1 from "The Economical Cookery Book"

This is one of the more straightforward recipes in the book, but there are a few things that might need explaining. Pulverised sugar is powdered sugar, and glairs are egg whites. Soojee (or sooji) is semolina, but there are different kinds. There is the yellow-tinged semolina made from durum wheat that is usually used to make pasta and couscous. Then there is farina, made from refined whole wheat, known as sooji or rava in India and used to make things like halwa or upma. It's also what Cream of Wheat is made from here in the US, and would probably work as a decent substitute if you can't find sooji online or from an Indian market. I also used the almond flour from Trader Joe's, rather than grinding my own.

Almond Cake ingredients

The weights and measurements get a little exciting in old recipes, because standardized measuring cups and spoons are a relatively recent invention. The recipe calls for a "flat buttered dish, which isn't very helpful. I thought it might be too much batter with 8 eggs to fit in a normal cake tin, so I used a 9" springform pan. That was a good decision. It's a substantial cake. There's a helpful weights and measures guide in the back of this book that describes a breakfast-cupful as half a pint and a small tea-cupful as a gill or 4 oz. (For American readers, a half a pint in British measurement is 10 oz). So...coffee-cupful? Probably larger than a tea-cup, smaller than a breakfast-cup. Some websites and books suggest 6 oz for a coffee-cup, but a majority lean towards 8 oz., so that's what I'm going with. Luckily, the ounce measurements are still the same. But 8oz of rosewater? I have never seen more than a teaspoon used in any recipe, so I would assume their rosewater was far less concentrated than ours. I am going to use 8oz of water with a teaspoon of rosewater. Even at that amount, I'm afraid this cake will taste of rose, and not almond at all.

But, wait, moderate oven? While the "Tips on Cake Making" chapter extols the virtues of the New Perfection Oven, and describes a glass door and easily adjustable burners, it makes no mention of temperature control. It's interesting as one of the first examples of what I can guess is paid product placement, but not very helpful. So, how did they figure out how hot the oven was?

Excerpt from "The Economical Cookery Book" on checking oven temperatures

Excerpt from "The Economical Cookery Book" on checking oven temperatures

Video of checking oven temperature with the historical method

Most cakes are baked at 180-190C or 350-375F, so that's what I started with, but I was curious to see if the paper trick is accurate. I got no color on the paper at 350, but after a few minutes at 375, I ended up with a yellowy-orange. I decided to try 375 in the spirit of following the recipe, in spite of my instinct to bake cakes at 350. There was no time listed either. Feeling like a contestant in the Technical section of the Great British Bake-Off, I started with 30 minutes. I did have to put foil over the top to keep it from browning, and it took about 40 minutes to cook through.

A modern version of this recipe would probably use vanilla or almond extract, but rosewater used to be the predominant flavor in baking. Lots of vintage recipes add at least a dash. But we seem to have lost our love for floral flavors, at least in the west.

Almond Cake

The cake was nice and moist, dense from the almond flour but well-risen. But...it tasted entirely of rose, with no discernible hint of almond. Which, as someone who loves all things almond, I found disappointing. It was simultaneously bland and too flowery. My family absolutely hated it, although they will happily eat far too many gulab jamun. I was determined not to waste it, so I borrowed a lemon syrup from a lemon drizzle cake, and poured that over the top. Then they liked it. If you decide to make it, you may want to substitute a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, or just 1/4 teaspoon of rosewater.

I am very curious what rosewater then was like a hundred years ago, to use an entire cup full of it! I may have to try making some when my roses bloom next year.