queen cake

See also: queencake and queen-cake

English
Queen cakes

Alternative forms

Noun

queen cake (plural queen cakes)

  1. (cooking, dated) A soft, muffin-sized cake, popular particularly in the 1700s, containing currants, mace and sometimes flavoured with orange or lemon marmalade or shredded coconut and chocolate toppings.
    • 1725, Robert Smith, Court Cookery, Queen's cakes, p188 - "Take a Pound of dry'd Flower, a Pound of refined Sugar sifted, and a Pound of Currans washed, picked, and rubbed clean, and a Pound of Butter washed very well, and rub it into the Flower and Sugar, with a little beaten Mace, and a little Orange-Flower Water; beat ten Eggs, but half the Whites, work it all well together with your Hands, and put in the Currants; sift over it double-refined Sugar, and put them immediately into a gentle Oven to bake."
    • 1796, Maria Edgeworth, “Waste Not, Want Not”, in The Parent's Assistant:
      "This bun tastes so bad after the queen cakes, I can't bear it!"
    • 1837, Frances Harriet Green, The Housekeeper's Book, page 131:
      QUEEN CAKE. Beat one pound of butter to cream, with some rose-water, one pound of flour dried, one pound of sifted sugar, twelve eggs, beat all well together; add a few currants washed and dried; butter small pans of a size for the purpose, grate sugar over them; they are soon baked.
    • c. 1885, Louisa May Alcott, The Candy Country:
      "We cook for all the confectioners." . . . Lily was so surprised she sat down on a warm queen’s cake that happened to be near.
    • 1914, Angela Brazil, The Girls of St. Cyprian's, (Google online books):
      "I'm sure my brains work better when they're lubricated with tea," declared Bess Harrison, tilting back her chair at a comfortable though rather dangerous angle, and accepting the queen-cake which Lottie Lowman offered her.
    • 2011, Ann Treistman, Who Put the Devil in Deviled Eggs?, →ISBN, page 27:
      CUPCAKE. It's thought these diminutive cakes were inspired from the British Queen cake. This early cake was similar to the pound cake and was served individually.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.