Election Cake: Celebrating Our Right to Vote!

‘Tis the season for election cake!  With the November Midterms upon us, we’re bringing back this historic tradition: serving election cake on voting days. In the early days of the United States, elections were something to celebrate, and this boozy, fruity cake was a popular choice. Actually, the cake is even older than that — before early America had elections, it was served at militia muster days (and called “muster cake”).

History of the Election Cake

In 1776, you couldn’t just run to the store for a cake mix, so the process was a little different. To bake election cakes you needed time, expensive ingredients, and effort — not to mention an oven, which was a luxury. Before baking powder came around, these cakes were leavened with yeast. That means that in addition to soaking the fruit for 8 to 12 hours and mixing all the ingredients, you had to let the cake rise for a few more hours prior to baking! We hunted around, and the oldest recipe we could find for election cake called for 30 quarts of flour, 10 pounds of butter, 14 pounds of sugar, 12 pounds of raisins, 3 dozen eggs, 1 pint of wine, and 1 pint of brandy — and that was just the beginning.

Finding the Right Election Cake Recipe

We’re not feeding a huge election crowd, so clearly, we had to make some adjustments to create an easy election cake recipe for the modern age.

As we looked at different recipes, I couldn’t find one that I liked in its entirety. All of them were missing something, but each one was missing something different. As a solution, I decided to do something really crazy (for me anyway), and create my own recipe using bits and pieces of other recipes. My goal was to take all of the interesting things I found and combine them into one cake — all while staying true to the original idea of election/muster cake

Boozy Fruit + Cake = Delicious

Most election cake recipes call for fruit soaked in cognac. During my research, I discovered that cognac is a type of brandy!  Who knew?  (Well, lots of people, I’m sure, but not me!) The first decision? Picking the dried fruit I would soak in a lovely bath of cognac and white wine.  I chose cherries, cranberries, dates and orange rind. I felt they would complement each other nicely, and go well with the cognac and wine. Booze + cake = the perfect election treat!

Those lovely fruits soaked for almost 24 hours while I got the rest of the election cake ingredients together.  I decided to double up on everything so that I could make one batch with nuts and one batch without.

The first thing I did was set the fruit to drain to remove excess liquid. I collected that liquid in a bowl.

Then I made the sponge for the election cake.  I’ve never done anything like this, so I was so excited to see how it would work.  While the sponge proved, I gathered the spices and flour for sifting.

Once the sponge was done proving, I was ready to mix up the cake batter!

One surprising thing I discovered: this cake recipe is very slow to rise. When it does, the rise isn’t always dramatic.  I ended up proving the election cakes for a little over 4 hours to get the rise I wanted.

I baked the election cakes for 45 minutes total, and I did switch oven positions at about 35 minutes to ensure even baking.  The warm smell of spice filled the house, and I could not wait to try these delightful cakes!!

You can glaze these election cakes if you’d like — I haven’t decided if I want to yet.  Sometimes, it’s just better without the extra sweetness.  One note: these cakes actually taste better a day or two after baking.  The spices and overall flavor of the cake deepens, and the whole thing gets more delicious.  If you can’t wait that long, I don’t blame you!

Easy Election Cake Recipe

Sponge Recipe:

• 3 1/3 t. instant dry yeast
  
• 1 1/2 c. warm water (110 to 115 degrees F.)
  
• 2 t. granulated sugar
  
• 1 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over the water; stir to dissolve.
2. Add sugar and flour; beat 2 minutes either by hand or with your electric hand mixer at medium speed.  I did it by hand, and it was fairly easy to do.
3. Cover and let rise in a warm place until bubbly, approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

Election Cake Ingredients

Makes 3 8×4 loaves or 1 bundt

• 250 g. mixed dried cherries, craisins, dates, fresh orange peel
• 1/3 c. cognac and/or white wine
  
• Sponge (see recipe above)
• 3/4 c. butter, room temperature
• 2 c. brown sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
  
• 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 t. salt
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. cloves
• 1/2 t. mace
• 1/2 t. nutmeg

• Optional: 1/2 c. toasted and chopped nuts, like walnuts or pecans

How to Make an Election Cake

1. Chop the cherries, craisins, dates and peel.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the fruit and cognac/wine.
3. Cover and let soak for 8-24 hours.
4. Make the sponge.
5. Drain the soaked fruits, reserving any liquid for the cake.
6. Cream the butter and brown sugar, until light and fluffy.
7. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is light and shiny.
8. Sift together the flour and spices.
9. Add reserved liquid from the fruits and mix.
10. Add proved sponge to the sugar mixture and beat.
11. Add flour mixture a little at a time, beating well after each addition, until completely smooth.  It will be a bit sticky.
12. Mix in the fruits (and nuts if you’ve chosen to include those).  I found that finishing mixing those in by hand with a spatula made for a more consistent distribution of fruits and nuts.
13. Pour into greased pan(s), and set in a warm, draft-free place to rise.  This rise can take 2-6 hours, depending on the temperature of the space.  Look for the cakes to increase in size by at least 1/3.
14. When the election cake has risen, preheat the oven to 375 F.
15. Bake on the center rack for 40-45 minutes, rotating if needed after 35 minutes.  Cake is done when a toothpick in the center of the cake comes out cleanly, or an instant read thermometer reads 190 F in the center of the cake.
16. Cool in the pan 20 minutes, then cool completely on a rack.
17. Once cooled, you may glaze your cake(s) if you wish with a simple glaze or dust with powdered sugar. 
18. This cake recipe is even better tasting if the loaves are wrapped well and left to “ripen” for a day or two.

The verdict? Delicious! I think it’s time to bring back the election cake tradition. Let me know if you try this easy election cake recipe!