The Forgotten American Tradition That Deserves a Comeback

As millions of Americans prepare to cast their ballots in the 2024 general election, we’re reminded of a patriotic dessert of yesteryear. Election Cake, a yeasted fruitcake, isn’t quite as popular as it was 200 years ago—but we think it’s high time it made a comeback. 

What Is Election Cake? 

There are tens of thousands of polling places throughout the United States these days, but voting locations were much fewer and farther between in the country’s early days. Colonists had to travel, quite far in some cases, to vote in local and national elections. Women in hosting towns would bake and sell dense, hearty cakes (weighing up to 10 pounds!) to provide sustenance for the voters, according to the Culinary Institute of America. 

The Election Cake first appeared in Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, the first known cookbook written by an American, in 1796. It had become associated with Connecticut by the 1830s and was commonly called “Hartford Election Cake.” 

There are at least a dozen known versions of the classic dessert, per a 1988 The New York Times article—but they have a few things in common:

• Yeast: Election Cake almost always starts with yeast, giving it a bread-like quality. 
• Dried fruit: The original recipe includes raisins, but others call for dried cranberries and blueberries. 
• Warming spices: You’ll almost always find warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice in Election Cake.
• Sherry or brandy: Most recipes call for distilled spirits or fortified wines, such as brandy or sherry.

How to Make Election Cake

Because the first Election Cakes were baked in bulk, Amelia Simmons’s 1796 recipe makes a lot of batter. Like, you’d need 30 quarts of flour and 10 pounds of butter to make it. Here’s how it originally appeared in American Cookery: 

“Thirty quarts flour, ten pounds butter, fourteen pounds sugar, twelve pounds raisins, three dozen eggs, one pint wine, one quart brandy, four ounces cinnamon, four ounces fine colander seed, three ounces ground alspice; wet the flour with the milk to the consistency of bread over night, adding one quart yeast, the next morning work the butter and sugar together for half an hour, which will render the cake much lighter and whiter; when it has risen light, work in every other ingredient except the plumbs, which work in when going into the oven.”

If you want to make just one Election Cake, you’re in luck! The Culinary Institute of America has an authentic recipe you can make at home.