Angel Food Cake

Made with beaten egg whites and no butter, Angel Food Cake is a sponge cake NOT a white butter cake (like Silver Cake, Lady Cake, Snow Cake, Snow-drift Cake, or Cornstarch Cake).  And the first printed recipe was in 1878.

A Pyramid of Cakes

Layer cakes became very popular in the 1870s and continued for a century. They featured different colors, flavors, and even a variety of fillings on each layer.  An early description from 1839 is for a special occasion cake - tiered like our wedding cakes.  In 1907 an entire book  One Hundred and One Layer Cakes by May Southworth was published.

Jelly and fruits

Three centuries of fruit in jelly and jelly shaped as fruit.  The early receipts used a base of jelly from calves feet, issinglass or hartshorn.  One jelly using "a Gang of Calf's Feet" from 1769 is given at the end of this posting.  Powdered gelatin, created about 1840, made the process less laborious. 

Fried RED Tomatoes

For those of us who love green fried tomatoes, here is a delicious 1839 recipe for fried red ones with bread crumbs and fried minced onions...

Peach Cobler or Peach Pot Pie

An interesting way to make a peach pot pie or cobbler is to roll out pie crust and line the sides of a stew pot or dutch oven.  Add the peach slices and top with crust.  Put the pot over the fire and the crust will be amazingly crispy.