Election Cake Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Amelia Simmons’s original recipe for Election Cake, as published in American Cookery (1796), calls for massive quantities of ingredients: dozens of eggs, pounds of sugar and flour, and booze by the bottle. While her recipe fed entire townships, most home cooks need only to feed their family and a few friends. This adaptation of the original recipe shrinks the quantities and makes it easier to bake in a modern kitchen.

Election cakes were originally leavened with fresh yeast from breweries or sourdough starters. If you would like to substitute baker’s yeast for the sourdough starter, swap 1 packet of instant yeast for your sourdough starter and add 2 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons flour to the batter.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Rise Time14

Total Time14 50

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: cake (12 servings)

Calories: 257kcal

Author: Jenny

Equipment

9-inch Bundt Cake

Ingredients

The Sponge (Leavening)

2 ¼ cups whole-wheat pastry flour (or substitute all-purpose einkorn flour)
¾ cup buttermilk
¼ cup sourdough starter (active and bubbly)

For Finishing the Cake

4 ounces salted butter
½ cup unrefined cane sugar (such as rapadura or muscovado)
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
2 tablespoons brandy
1 tablespoon white wine
2 eggs
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground Ceylon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup dried currants

Instructions

Prepare the sponge.

In the basin of a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook, beat the flour, buttermilk, and sourdough starter together until it forms a ball. Oil a large mixing bowl, plop the dough into the bowl, and cover it tightly. Allow the dough to rise for 8 to 12 hours (or 2 to 4 hours if using instant yeast).

Mixing the cake batter.

After the dough has doubled in volume, grease a 9-inch Bundt pan.
In the basin of a stand mixer equipped with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, molasses, brandy, and wine until fluffy, then beat in the eggs.
Remove the ball of dough from the bowl, and tear it into ½-inch pieces. Drop them into the bowl with the butter. Add the salt, cinnamon, coriander, allspice, and nutmeg. Beat them all together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed until they form a uniform batter. Fold in the currants.

Final rise.

Spoon the batter into the prepared Bundt pan, and cover it tightly. Allow the batter to rise until it reaches ¾ up the sides of the bowl, about 2 hours.

Bake and serve.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Bake the cakes for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack, and allow them to cool completely before unmolding.
Slice and serve. Store any leftovers in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

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