3 large eggs, at room temperature
5 tbsp milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
FROSTING
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 to 3/4 c. powdered sugar
3/4 tsp strawberry extract
1 drops of milk or cream
1 food coloring
OPTIONAL GARNISH
1 small edible flowers - apple blosso, ms or violets
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Beat eggs until thick and fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating well
after each addition. Beat in milk and vanilla.
Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to egg mixture and
beat until smooth. Spread in a greased and floured 12.5 x 10.5"
jellyroll pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. When cool, cut into tiny
squares or circles, decorate with frosting and garnish with flowers,
if desired.
To make the frosting, mix butter and sugar together and add extract
and milk or cream to make a smooth spread. Divide among four small
bowls; add a drop of food coloring (blue, red, green and yellow) to
each bowl. Mix well, and pipe a rosette of frosting onto each tiny
cake.
From "Where the Wild Thyme Grows" article in "The Herb Companion."
April/May 1993, Vol. 5, No. 4. Pg. 57. Posted by Cathy Harned.
Servings: 1 batch
Betsy Williams's Faerie Cakes Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cake; Dessert
The History of Recipes
It is possible to read the history of `recipes` far back into antiquity, certainly as far as ancient Egypt, and quite possibly further than that. Interesting though that maybe, sadly, these early records were just very basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for preparing food.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to academics are a few tablets in Sumerian describing the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making people feel wonderful. Later, we find a couple of cookery books which date from the fourteenth century ; a cookery book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary named `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, these two books have no connection with the indian food that is popular today, but instead accounts of the types of food on the menus of the nobility of that period. For the decades that followed, the powerful and wealthy houses competed to lay on the most exotic meals, and because of this the best cooks and their recipe collections were at a premium. Even so, it was during the 1800s that fine cookery and recipe collections became popular. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the USA, devoted much of their lives to collating, verifying, and recording recipes to help cooks of their time. By the time we get to the 1900s, cook books are highly popular mostly due to higher levels of literacy, more leisure time and having more disposable income. The arrival of television gave us TV cooks and the recipe books that accompanied them. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, permitting everyone to access massive numbers of recipes like the ones you can find on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Betsy Williams's Faerie Cakes recipe.
