Revolutionary War Unit Food

Another Liberty Tea Party—with various herbal teas, and a delicious "colonial" pound cake!

Here is the recipe for the pound cake. Since I am finding that many of these links end up broken after several years, and I LIKE this pound cake recipe, I will reproduce it here (it's already in my recipe book):

1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
1 -2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325.
Cream butter and sugar together with your heavy-duty mixer.
Add the sour cream and mix thoroughly.
Sift baking soda and flour together.
Add the flour to the creamed mixture, alternating with one egg at a time (about 1/2 cup of flour each time).
Mix well after each addition.
Add the vanilla and mix well.
Spoon the mixture into a well greased and floured 10 inch tube or bundt pan.
Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in cake tests COMPLETELY clean.
Let cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Invert cake on wire rack, removing from pan and let cool completely.

Things to mention while making the cake:

• Pound cakes became popular in the 1700's.

• Why might they be called pound cakes? Original recipe: 1 pound cake flour (3-1/2 cups), 1 pound butter (2 cups), 1 pound sugar (2-1/4 cups), & 1 pound eggs (9 large).

• We have changed the recipe because we would find this cake dense and not as tasty.

• To make less dense, we add a leavener, which helps things rise. Here we're using baking soda.

• This would have been a very special treat because it used sugar instead of molasses and sugar was very expensive.

We also made Indian Pudding (or Hasty Pudding) one day, which you can find the recipe for here or here. This time we made it in the Instant Pot, which is a great way to cook cheesecakes or puddings. You just wrap the dish securely in foil to keep the water out. Add 1 cup of water to the pot and place the wrapped dish on top of the trivet. Cook on the Manual setting for 30-45 minutes.

And another day, we tried making Maple Cream candy. I didn't love it, but maybe we didn't make it quite right? Anyway the children were happy enough to eat it. Instructions here.

Last time we did this unit, we read a book that told about "Thomas Jefferson's Vanilla Ice Cream." We didn't have that book this time, but we did find the same recipe from Thomas Jefferson on the Monticello website. It's even in his own handwriting! So cool! It made good ice cream, too. We thought it was pretty similar to our usual vanilla bean ice cream, if maybe slightly less sweet.

Here are some other colonial recipes (or "receipts") we had fun looking at, too. 

We found this list of table manners for colonial children (these were written by George Washington) and thought they were pretty great:

“Never sit down at the table till asked, and after the blessing. Ask for nothing; tarry till it be offered thee. Speak not. Bite not thy bread but break it. Take salt only with a clean knife. Dip not the meat in the same. Hold not thy knife upright but sloping, and lay it down at right hand of plate with blade on plate. Look not earnestly at any other that is eating. When moderately satisfied leave the table. Sing not, hum not, wriggle not. Spit no where in the room but in the corner..."

"Eat not too fast nor the Greedy Behavior. Eat not vastly but moderately. Make not a noise with thy Tongue, Mouth, Lips, or Breath in Thy Eating and Drinking. Smell not of thy Meat; nor put it to Thy Nose; turn it not the other side upward on Thy Plate."