Angel Food Cake - History

History

Angel food cakes are a traditional African-American favorite for post-funeral meals.

In Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book, and Companion for Frugal and Economical, published in 1871 by M. E. Porter, has a recipe for Snow-drift Cake. A similar recipe appears in 1881 in a book by Abby Fisher, the first Black American woman and a former slave from Mobile, Alabama, who recorded her recipes in a cookbook called What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc. In her book, the cake is named "Silver Cake".

The Original Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Mrs.D.A. Lincoln, published in 1884, had a recipe for "Angel Cake" mentioning the name for the first time. In Fannie Merritt Farmer's 1896 updated version of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, she uses the same recipe and calls the cake "Angel Food Cake."


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