by Sheila Connolly
This recipe was one I adapted from The Culinary Lives of John and Abigail Adams,
by Rosana Yin-Ting Wan, published last year.
In case you
didn’t notice, Flag Day was this past Sunday. Don’t worry if you missed it—it’s not one of the
major American holidays. In fact, Pennsylvania is the only state that
celebrates it, but it took the rest of the country thirty years to notice.
On June 14th,
1777, during the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopted a
resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate
stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue
field, representing a new Constellation.” Legend has it that Philadelphia
seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the flag, which consisted of
a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George
Washington. (Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove this
legend.)
 |
| The Star Spangled Banner, immortalized by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, which now resides in the Smithsonian in Washington. |
Flag Day
was officially established by
the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. But it was not
until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress
designating June 14th of each
year as National Flag Day.
Anyway, in
Paris in April 1778, John Adams wrote in his diary about a cake he shared at an
event with, among others, Benjamin Franklin. When the cake was served, it bore
three flags whose inscriptions celebrated the actions of the American Congress in creating its own symbolic flag.
The recipe given
in the book was reported to be from an 1830 transcription of a recipe written in French from
1789. Let me say only that I hope the historical information is more accurate
that the cake recipe as given—I had to make a lot of modifications, or I would have ended up with a sodden mess.
Three Flag Cake
1 package
yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup
warm water (see package
instructions)
2-1/4 cups
all-purpose flour
8 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1/4 cup water
2 Tblsp
rosewater (since I was lacking on rosewater, I substituted orange water, which
also appears in many early recipes)
1/2 cup sugar
12 Tblsp
(1-1/2 sticks) butter
Preheat the
oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cake pan with butter. [Note: the recipe did not specify
what size pan. I used a vintage pan that holds 4 cups of batter and it proved
to be the right size.]
Prepare the
yeast in a small bowl. Make sure it’s fully dissolved.
In a larger
bowl, combine the flour, egg yolks, egg whites, water, rosewater, sugar and
butter. Add the yeast mixture and mix well.
Pour the
batter into the pan. Place the cake pan into the preheated oven and bake for
30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
Let cool on a
cake rack before icing.
The result
was interesting: yeasty, of course (baking soda and beaten egg whites were not
popular as leavening until the early 19th century), and not too
sweet.
And if you should ever happen to try it, raise your glass to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin!
And don't forget Privy to the Dead, which takes place not far from where Betsy Ross's shop may (or may not) have stood, and also close to Benjamin Franklin's grave, where people often leave him offerings (no, not cake!).
Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble
