Food History

Today I have a special treat. I rather suspect that April, another 451 Press blogger, will particularly enjoy this post. It’s from my friend Glenice Whitting, and I used the excuse of her new novel to extract both recipe and story from her.

Glenice is the author of the award-winning novel, Pickle to Pie. The book is about Frederick, a man caught between the pickle and sauerkraut culture of his German grandparents and the meat pie world of Australia.

“Scripture Cake

‘Fredi. Come! Today we make scripture cake,’ says Grossmutter as she ties her large cobbler apron tightly around her waist and hands me the family Bible.

Recipes. What would life be without them? They are ripped out of magazines, scrawled into dog-eared books, stuffed into draws, handed down through generations and my fad is to weave them throughout my novel. In my great Grossmutter’s yellowing, ingredient-spotted cookbook is a recipe for Scripture cake (sometimes known as Divine fruitcake). Every ingredient is linked to a passage in the Bible.

This is a solid fruity cake that will ‘stick to your ribs’ for hours. It will feed a family of seven, plus visitors, and keep fresh in a sealed tin for over a week. It’s no wonder that it was popular in an era that had not heard of household refrigeration, when bread was kept in a crock pot and butter in a Coolgardie safe.

My great Grossmutter was a God fearing, strict Lutheran midwife and all she would need to make the cake is the chapter and verse of each passage of Bible.

I’ve tried to find the origins of where or when the recipe originated, but can only assume that women migrating from Europe bought it with them as part of a prized collection of recipes, a small, treasured bit of ‘back home’. The earliest record I found of Scripture cake was in a Ladies Home Journal dated 1896 and in Dorcas Dishes (many charitable groups were named after Tabitha/Dorcas in the bible). A Little Book of Country Cooking was printed in America in 1911. For my family, it linked back to a time in Australia before two world wars and a depression. A time when children helped grandma in the kitchen and the wisdom of generations was passed down over the flour sifter and the mixing bowl.

To make this historical cake and to play the game as our grandmothers might have played it, hide the ingredients and read only the Biblical list. Write down, to the best of your knowledge the actual food ingredients. Then, to be on the safe side look in the King James version of the Bible to verify your answers.

To make it easy I’ve added the ingredient beside the scripture.

SCRIPTURE CAKE

1 cup Judges 5: 25 butter
3 ½ cups 1 Kings 4: 22 plain flour
2 cups Jeremiah 6: 20 sugar
2 cups 1 Samuel 30: 12 raisins
2 cups 1 Samuel 30: 12 figs
1 cup Genesis 24: 16 warm water
1 cup Genesis 43: 17 chopped almonds
6 eggs Isaiah 10: 14 eggs
1 tbsp Genesis 43: 11 honey
pinch of Leviticus 2: 13 salt
1 tsp 1 Kings 10: 10 mixed spice
2 tsp 1 Corinthians 5: 6 baking powder

Method
Follow Solomon’s advice for making good boys, Proverbs 23: 14, and you have a good cake
Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, then mix in flour, baking powder and spices alternately with water. Add honey, raisins, figs and almonds. Beat well. Place in two 9×5 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle top with slivered almonds and decorate with glace cherries. Bake about an 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Pickle to Pie is dedicated to the children of German descent who lived in Australia during the last century and struggled to come to terms with their opposing worlds.”
Available at Ilura Press.