Once upon a time, a long time ago (so long ago I’m not sure I can remember which one!) I wrote a book that included a reference to a confection called a ‘clear cake’. I’ve had several requests for more details about it, but, naturally, could not put my hand on a recipe for it.

This annoyed me not a little bit. Finally, after much head thumping and hand wringing, I have found not one recipe, but several for these little sugar-covered, jelly confections!

I have not tried making these as sugar work kind of scares me. But reading the recipe suggests these are predecessors to today’s gummy candies, in various fruit flavors, covered with a crunchy sugar topping. They actually sound pretty good all told!

This seems to be a basic, all-purpose recipe for the general clear cake:

739. Clear Cakes.

Peel, core, and boil down four pounds of apples-with one quart of water; put it through the jelly-bag; to every quart of juice take two pounds of loaf sugar; dissolve it in the jelly thoroughly; heat it well, but-not to boil; put it in flat pots in the drying-stove. When it begins to crust, turn it out, cut it in squares, put them on sieves, dusted over with sugar, to dry; when dry turn them on the other side, and repeat the dusting.

Note.—If the stove is too hot, they will melt in-stead of dry. They may be coloured red with cochineal when the sugar is put to them.

Cook, 1824

Currant was a popular flavor for clear cakes, with a number of cookbooks publishing recipes for them.

To make Currant Clear Cake.

STRIP and wash your currants, to four quarts of currants put one quart of water, boil them very well, then run it through a jelly bag, to a pint of jelly put a pound and a half of double refined sugar, pounded and sifted through a hair sieve, set your jelly on the fire, when it has just boiled up, shake in the sugar, stir it well, then set it on the fire again, make it scalding hot to melt the sugar, but do not let it boil, then pour it on clear cake glasses or plates, when it is jellied, before it is candied, cut it in rounds or half rounds, this will not knot; and dry them the same way as you did the apricot paste.

White currant clear cakes are made the same way, but observe, that as soon as the jelly is made, you must put the sugar to it, or it will change the colour.

Raffald, 1786

(Gotta love these recipes that are a single sentence long! I feel out of breath reading them!)

Many recipes for raspberry clear cakes appeared as well.

Raspberry clear Cakes.

Take any quantity of raspberries and white currants; put a very little water to them; boil quick for a quarter of an hour. To every quart of juice allow three pounds of fine sifted sugar; let the juice boil; sift in the sugar; stir it well ; set it again upon the fire, till the sugar melts; strain it into a broad pan, from which fill it into little pots or moulds; when it candies, finish it as other cakes.

Another.

Put the raspberries into a jar, and cover it very close; set it in a boiler of water, and let them boil till they fall; strain the juice, and add as much currant juice as there is raspberry; sift an equal quantity of sugar into the juice, and boil it nearly to candy height, and finish as above.

A Lady, 1817

Orange, lemon, apricot and plum versions also appeared along with these more unusual flavors.

To make Goosberry Clear-Cakes.

Take a Gallon of white Goosberries, nose and wash them; put to them as much Water as will cover them almost all over, set them on an hot Fire, let them boil a Quarter of an Hour, or more, then run it thro’ a Flannel Jelly-Bag; to a Pint of Jelly have ready a Pound and half of fine Sugar, sifted thro’ an Hair Sieve; set the Jelly over the Fire, let it just boil up, then shake in the Sugar, stirring it all the while the Sugar is putting in; then set it on the Fire again, let it scald ’till all the Sugar is well melted; then lay a thin Strainer in a flat earthen Pan, pour in your Clear-Cake Jelly, and turn back the Strainer to take off the Scum; fill it into Pots, and set it in the Stove to dry; when it is candy’d on the Top, turn it out on Glass; and if your Pots are too big, cut it; and when it is very dry, turn it again, and let it dry on the other Side; twice turning is enough. If any of the Cakes stick to the Glass, hold them over a little Fire, and they will come off: Take Care the Jelly does not boil after the Sugar is in: A Gallon of Goosberries will make three Pints of Jelly; if more, ’twill not be strong enough.

To make Quince Clear-Cakes.

Pare, quarter, and boil the Quince with as much Water as will cover it, putting in a little more as it boils, but not too much; let it be a very strong Jelly, and run it through a Jelly-bag; put a Pound and a Half of the finest sifted Sugar to a Pint of Jelly; let the Jelly boil, then put in the Sugar, and let it scald ’till the Sugar is melted; then put it through a Strainer, laid in a broad Earthen Pan; fill it in little Pots, and when it is hard candy’d, turn it on Glasses as other Clear-Cakes: Colour the Jelly, if you wou’d have any Red Quince Clear-Cakes, with the Jelly of black Bullace, and let it boil after the Red is in, before you put in the Sugar.

To make Pomegranate Clear-Cakes.

Make a strong Pippin-Jelly, and slice a Lemmon into it, Rind and all; boil it well, and run it thro’ the Jelly-bag again; then colour it as you like it: To a Pint of the Jelly take half a Quarter of Orange-Syrup, made as for Orange Clear-Cakes; let it have a Boil together, and boil a Pound and a Half of Sugar to a Candy; put your Jelly to the Candy, a little at a Time, ’till the Sugar has done boiling, then put in all the rest; scald it ’till the Candy is well melted, fill it in Pots, and dry it as other Clear-Cakes.

The Colour is made thus: Take as much Carmine as you can have for Half-a-Crown, put to it two Ounces of Sugar, and as much Water as will wet it; give it a Boil, and then colour your Jelly with it.

Eales, 1733

References

A Lady. Domestic Economy and Cookery for the rich and poor. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green. 1827.

Cooke, John Conrade. Cookery and confectionery.   London : W. Simpkin, and R. Marshall, 1824.

Eales, Mary. Mrs. Mary Eales’s Receipts: Confectioner to Her Late Majesty Queen Anne. London: 1733 (first ed. 1718)

Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English Housekeeper for the Use and Ease of Ladies, Housekeepers, Cooks, &c. Written Purely from Practice … Consisting of near Nine Hundred Original Receipts, Most of Which Never Appeared in Print. … The Tenth Edition. … By Elizabeth Raffald. London: Printed for R. Baldwin, 1786.