Head of State Cakes

James Madison is one of those presidents best known for the work that he did before he became president. Most of us think of him as the “Father of the Constitution,” it’s author. He thought of himself as one of a team of people whose thoughts gave birth to the Constitution. James Madison was also one of the main authors of The Federalist Papers. The other authors were Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay (who was the answer to a quiz bowl question I answered correctly several years ago. This history thing runs deep!) The Federalist Papers were published in 1787 and 1788 as articles in New York Papers. The aim was order to convince New Yorkers to ratify the proposed constitution. Madison was very good at thinking through an issue from all sides to make sure that he understood it, to make sure that it stood up. This is what made him the right man for the job of drafting the Constitution. This very characteristic is also what made me have a bit of a beef with James Madison. As a part of a class called something like, “The Intellectual History of America,” I was reading parts of the Federalist Papers. What I hadn’t understood going into this reading is that, at times, the Federalist Papers contradicted themselves. So, without this understanding, I read, coffee in one hand, head in the other, not understanding why one thing seemed not to mesh with the other and blaming it all on poor James Madison.

James Madison was a small man, a trait that was often harped upon by his opponents. In addition to being called the father of the constitution, he was at times called, “Little Jemmy.” He stood somewhere between 5’4″ and 5’6″; reports on his height vary. He weighed around 100 pounds. Also, he often complained of various ailments. Anyone who reads history with any frequency knows that sickness is just a part of things. Presidents are not immune to this. Some of what is written about Madison describes him as a bit of a hypochondriac. We do know, however, that when he was out campaigning for the first Congress in 1788, that his nose became frostbitten, and that he carried that scar for life. He suffered from seizures that modern historians believe to be of a psychophysiological nature. He also suffered from bilious fever. Bilious fever is a diagnosis that is no longer used. There are a host of modern problems that in Madison’s time would have been diagnosed as bilious fever. Hypochondriac or not, Madison suffered all sorts of bodily discomfort. This is, combined with his authorship and promotion of the Constitution is what told me that this cupcake would need to be called “The Delicate Constitution.”

The cake:

Originally, I wanted this cake to be composed all of elements and flavors that are known for their soothing properties. I had been thinking ginger, chamomile and mint. However, once I thought about that combination a bit more, I was starting to feel distinctly unwell. I decided to keep the ginger element, but decided that the cake needed something to combat the spiciness of the fresh ginger I intended to use. I went with pineapple. Pineapple sort of represents Dolley Madison, described by even the White House website as “the toast of Washington.” (The White House website also describes her as buxom, for that matter, on James Madison’s biography page, but not her own.) Mrs. Madison complimented James Madison, giving him social cache that he wouldn’t have had otherwise.

The cupcake, here, is flavored with pineapple puree. In the center is whipped cream flavored with (slightly overcooked) pineapple-ginger jam. For the frosting, is ginger buttercream flavored with juiced ginger. There is a piece of candied ginger on top of the cupcake to warn you that you’ll be tasting something spicy. The red sparkling sugar? That’s just there because I think Dolley would like it.

There is so much to be said about Thomas Jefferson. Many people are out there saying it all. I see Jefferson as almost a magic 8 ball. We turn to him looking for something that resembles the answer we most want to hear.

In addition to being the main author of the Declaration of Independence and our third President, Jefferson had many interests. For example he was into architecture, archaeology, wine making, cooking and industrial design.

Jefferson was also what was called a gentleman farmer. These guys had estates of many purposes. I’ve seen the gentleman farmer described as an “intellectual farmer.” This term, like many, fits Jefferson.

At Monticello, Jefferson oversaw the growth of many plants. Monticello had flower gardens, fruit gardens and vegetable gardens. there is much to choose from here toward developing a cupcake for Jefferson. Jefferson called his eight-acre fruit garden “fruitery.” There he grew gooseberries, currants, raspberries and apples.

And there were the peaches. At some point Jefferson planed as many as 38 varieties of this sweet, juicy fruit. With his bounty of peaches, in addition to drying them, he made mobby, a peach cider or brandy (depending on whether or not it was distilled).

In contrast to the success of his peach growing, Jefferson tried with limited success to grow almonds. Since, Jefferson was a man of contrasts, it seemed suitable that his cupcake should combine the flavors of his successes with the flavors of his failure. His failures, after all, were as important in the making of the man as his successes.

The cake:

The Botanist is a peach and almond cupcake. The cake is flavored with peach schnapps, peach preserves and peach puree. There is a bit of ground almond and almond extract in the cake as well. The frosting is a peach-rum buttercream; it was flavored with a bit of almond extract, peach schnapps, peach preserves and spiced rum.

With all of the peach-based ingredients in this cake, I expected the fruit flavor to be stronger than it was. Overall, I would call this cupcake a flavor success. However, there were some elements that weren’t what I was going for. These cupcakes turned out to be softer than I thought it would be, and as you can probably tell from the picture below, they did not rise as much as I expected them to. I may find myself back in the kitchen tweaking this recipe. I’d also love to try the frosting with a brandy instead of the schnapps and rum combination.

Oh, John Adams. It’s the men like Adams whom I most adore. History hasn’t been all that kind to him. He’s probably one of the first people that we learn about in history class more as a secondary character than a primary one. We all know he was the second president (right? right?!?). We know that he was vice president to George Washington. The vice presidency was a position that chaffed him. He described it as, “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived.”

It should be no surprise that the position wasn’t the perfect match for him. John Adams was an opinionated man. He was feisty and fiery. I have never encountered the word cantankerous more than I have reading about John Adams. In fact, at times, Adams comes off as downright cranky.

John Adams wasn’t from Boston, but he was a Massachusetts man. His home was a town then called Braintree (now called Quincy). No doubt, as a man from this region, Adams would have been quite familiar with Boston Baked Beans. This dish was popular throughout Massachusetts and even further throughout New England. Considering both the area’s Puritan heritage, and that Adams himself was a direct descendant of the Puritans that settled in the area, it is likely that John Adams was quite familiar with Boston Baked Beans. The Puritans kept Sunday as the sabbath. As a part of this, they were to do no work on this day. The Boston Baked Beans, slow-cooked over a fire for several hours, allowed them to both obey the Sabbath and to have a hot meal on Sundays.

Molasses was abundant in Massachusetts because of triangular trade, another term likely first introduced to most of us in a basic American history class. The term refers to trade that happens among three ports or regions. The Atlantic slave trade provides an example, perhaps the best known one. In this case the vertices were Europe West Africa and Caribbean or American colonies. Sometimes New England fulfilled the England vertex in the trade triangle.

For example, sugar from the Caribbean would come to New England (or Europe). This sugar was distilled into rum. Here, molasses was a side-product. The profits from the sugar sale were used to purchase manufactured goods which were shipped to West Africa and bartered for slaves. The slaves were brought to the Caribbean to be sold to sugar planters. The profit from this sale was used to buy more sugar which was shipped to Europe (or New England).

The above is the long way to say that molasses was abundant in Massachusetts. Then, people did what people do, and made use of an abundant resource. Because of all of the above, I knew that molasses had to be a star player in Adams’ cupcake. Since rum was the reason for the availability of molasses, rum seemed to be the natural compliment.

The Cake:

The Boston Baked Bean is named after the flavors that inspired it. The cupcake part has molasses, brown sugar and clove. It is topped by a spiced rum buttercream frosting.

Here, the frosting made the cake. When I tasted the cupcake before frosting it, I thought it was okay, but I was preparing myself to write about how when you’re trying something new, that you can’t expect to have success every time or something like that. When I added the frosting, I found myself wondering just how I could justify eating more of these cupcakes. Obscene noises may have been observed.

George Washington is probably the first president most of us remember learning about. There are so many myths that surround him. I was asked about whether this cupcake would feature splinters, a reference to his alleged wooden teeth. Even the Cosby Show got in on the George Washington game in an episode where Cliff pretty much completed his child’s homework on Valley Forge. Then, of course, there is the story about George Washington and the cherry tree.

Confession: Even as interested as I am in the presidents, I don’t know the details of that story. I just know the bullet points:

George cuts down a tree he isn’t supposed to cut
George is asked about it.
George says something like, “I cannot tell a lie,” and admits his wrongdoing.

This story is so much a part of Washington’s mythology that I wanted to include it somehow in Washington’s cupcake.

In Washington’s time, and up through the late 1800s, molasses was the sweetener of choice because it was so much cheaper than refined sugar. Because of this, I knew that I wanted molasses to take part in this cupcake, too.

Regarding appearances, I wanted this cupcake to be dignified, yet not ostentatious. Now, I’m not sure I know how dignified translates over into cupcakes, but I’m trying to channel Washington here. Upon becoming the first President of the United States he understood, very well, that his actions in this office would become the blueprint for the presidency.

“He established precedents that would last for generations and did more to flesh out the skeleton of the presidential office than anyone could have expected or predicted.” -millercenter.org

George Washington could have been an American king, but he forged ahead with something entirely different.

The cake:

Already, in this maiden voyage, I have encountered indecisiveness. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to make a cherry cake with a molasses frosting, or vice versa. So, I made both.

Considering that molasses is just another sweetener, I wanted something special for this cake, a filling. The sweet surprise inside is cherry curd. Clearly, we are a long way from cherry season, so I made this cherry curd from frozen cherries. I would have loved to use tart cherries instead, but alas, that may just give me an excuse to revisit this cupcake in the summer time.

The cupcake with the cherry flavored cake is a fun, blushy pink. This cake has chopped maraschino cherries in it, and a bit of cherry flavoring. The frosting is a basic buttercream-spiked with molasses.

I solicited my son to do a taste test, to which he immediately agreed, understanding that this weeknight would be spiced up by not one, but two, cupcakes. However, he was unable to identify a clear favorite. Disappointing!

However, while both of these cupcakes were successful, I have to call the cherry cake with the molasses frosting the official Cherry Chopper.

This page will be a playground where I combine my love for baking with my love for the US presidents.

For more specifics about what this means, check out my about page.

In the meanwhile, I leave you to imagine what my cupcake tribute to George Washington looks like.

The Delicate Constitution

The Botanist

The Boston Baked Bean

The Cherry Chopper

Welcome to Head of State Cakes