Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #16

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #16: 

"Celebratory Foods"

The Challenge: Celebratory Foods
It’s the end of the year, a time for celebration! Pick a celebratory food (either inspired by the season or not, it’s your call). Make it up and share it with loved ones!

The Recipe: 
I turned again to my family history for inspiration. I decided to make
Moravian Sugar Cake

About the Moravians
The Moravian Church started in present-day Czech Republic in the 14th century. By that time most of what is now eastern Europe had converted t0 coptic Christianity, however Bohemia and Moravia fell under the jurisdiction of Rome. Some of the inhabitants of the area protested. John Hus (1369-1415),a  professor of philosophy and rector of the University in Prague, became the leader of the religious protest and was burned at the stake for his criticism of the hierarchy and practices of the Church of Rome. By 1457, supporters of Hus gathered in the village of Kunvald, about 100 miles east of Prague, in eastern Bohemia, and organized the Moravian Church, 

Over the next 100 years, the Moravians emphasized reading the Bible in the vernacular and spread word of the Scriptures to the people of Bohemia, Moravia and later Poland, where they forced to relocate after persecution. 

The 18th century saw a revival of the Moravian Church through the patronage of Count Nicholas  Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a pietist nobleman in Saxony. He encouraged the Moravians to take the word of the Gospel to other countries. 

The first Moravians to set up a permanent settlement in America settled in Pennsylvania in 1741. The newly arrived Moravians settled on the estate of George Whitefield at first and then purchased 500 acres to establish the settlement of Bethlehem in 1741. Bethlehem became the center of Moravian activity in North America. 

A Brief History of the Moravian Church, Moravian Church of North America, http://www.moravian.org/the-moravian-church/history/ 

The modern Unitas Fratrum (or Moravian Church) continues to draw on traditions established during the 18th-century renewal. In many places it observes the convention of the lovefeast, originally started in 1727. It uses older and traditional music in worship. Brass music, congregational singing and choral music continue to be very important in Moravian congregations. 

Moravian Church, wikipedia

My grandmother lives in Bethlehem and my mother grew up in the Moravian Church. My mom remembers the lovefeasts, services dedicated to Christian love. Traditionally during Lovefeasts, a sweetened bun and coffee is served to the congregation in the pews. The foods and drinks consumed from congregation may vary tremendously at the Lovefeast and are usually adapted from what the congregations have available. Services in some Colonial-era Lovefeasts, for example, used plain bread and water. A Lovefeast may be held on any special occasion, typically on certain established dates including Good Friday, the Festival of August 13th (the 1727 date on which the Moravian Church was renewed or reborn), and Christmas Eve, where each member of the congregation receives a lighted candle at the end of the service in addition to the bun and coffee.

Lovefeasts, Wikipedia

My mom remembers eating Moravian Sugar Cake on Christmas Eve and I remember my grandparents bringing it for Christmas morning breakfast, though they no longer attended the Moravian Church. I found an account of Moravian Sugar Cake being eaten on New Year's Eve:

"On New Year's Eve it was customary to hold three services in the church with an intermission namely preaching at 8 o clock reading of the memorabilia and statistics an elaborate review of the year's work at I0 o clock and the closing services at 11.30 o clock Some of the members served sugar cake a raised cake often called Moravian cake made according to a special recipe and coffee at their homes during the first intermission."

Weitzel, Louisa, "How the  New Year is Celebrated by the Moravians," The Penn Germania, vol. 10, 1909 

According to foodtimeline.org, the first recipe for Moravian Sugar Cake was included in In Eliza Leslie's cookbook, Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches by Miss Leslie, in the 1837 edition, though references go back to the early settlers. The original Leslie recipe is as follows:

Moravian Sugar Cake
Cut a quarter of a pound of butter into a pint of rich milk, and warm it till the butter becomes soft; then stir it about in the milk so as to mix them well. Sift three quarters of a pound of flour (or a pint and a half) into a deep pan, and making a ole in the middle of it, stir in a large table-spoonful of the best brewer's yeast in which a salt-spoonful of salt has been dissolved; and then thin it with the milk and butter. Cover it, and set it near the fire to rise. If the yeast is sufficiently strong, it will most probably be in two hours. When it is quite light, mix with the dough a well-beaten egg and three quarters of a pound more of sifted flour; adding a tea-spoonful of oil of cinnamon, and stirring it very hard. Butter a deep square baking pan, and put the mixture into it. Set it to rise again, as before. Mix together five ounces or a large coffee-cup of fine brown sugar; two ounces of butter; and two table-spoonfuls of powdered cinnamon. When the dough is thoroughly light, make deep incisions all over it, at equal distances, and fill them with the mixture of butter, sugar and cinnamon; pressing it hard down into the bottom of the holes, and closing the dough a little at the top to prevent the seasoning from running out.. Strew some sugar over the top of the cake; set it immediately into the oven, and bake it from twenty minutes to half an hour, or more, in a brisk oven in proportion to its thickness. When cool, cut it into squares. This is a very good plain cake; but do not attempt it unless you have excellent yeast."

 Several other recipes and a more detailed description can be found on foodtime.org

How Did You Make It:

I found several more modern recipes for Moravian Sugar Cake and of course, the definitive modern recipe which comes from the Waconia Moravian Church. The recipe I used as a guideline comes from
The Book of Priceless Recipes, George F. Lasher, printer, 1907, p. 118 (no. 2)

MORAVIAN SUGAR CAKE 

One pint yeast one pint sweet milk lukewarm one cup butter and lard mixed; one cup sugar one half teaspoonful salt. In the evening mix these well together adding flour until in kneading the sponge no longer adheres to the hand. The next morning knead and spread dough one half inch thick on cake tins. Let it rise until light. Spread with butter make holes here and there and fill with lumps of butte.r Strew the whole richly with brown sugar and bake. After removing from the oven dress with nutmeg and cinnamon.

 Elizabeth Comfort Gerhart 118 

I used half butter and half shortening instead of lard. I melted that on the stove, added the milk and then the yeast. While letting that sit a few minutes, I put the sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Then I added the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mixed in about 4-5 cups of flour to make a yeast dough. 

I let the dough rise (unsuccessfully) for several hours before kneading and  spreading it in a 9X13" cake pan. I let it stand for a few more hours to see if it would rise. 

For the topping I used the modern recipe as a guideline since nutmeg is not traditional.  I then mixed the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon into a syrup and poked holes into the dough.

Next I poured the syrup into the holes and pinched them closed.

I baked it at 375 for 30 minutes. 

Time to Complete: several hours

Total Cost:

I don't know. We had all the ingredients on hand.

How Successful Was It?:
Not very. My dough wouldn't rise at all and the inside of the cake didn't really cook all the way through. It tastes OK thanks to the cinnamon and sugar.


How Accurate Is It?: 
Mostly accurate from the 1907 recipe.