Ever since I was a little kid I have been enamored with the concept of afternoon tea,
a meal between meals is right up my alley. Also I think I probably thought that it was going to be a lot more
like the Mad Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland,
it's not but it does come with cake
like these Victoria sandwiches from 1861
made with sugar, butter, jam and mustard.
Mustard?!
Okay, no mustard.
So thank you to Hellofresh for sponsoring this video as we enjoy a bit of tea and cake
this time on Tasting History.
There are so many foods that can be present during a traditional afternoon tea:
crumpets, petit fours, cucumber sandwiches, and scones,
though it seems that their association with afternoon tea didn't come along until relatively late around the early 20th century
but the mother or perhaps Queen of all tea time treats has to be the Victoria sandwich
enjoyed by and named after Queen Victoria herself who ate them at her outdoor afternoon teas.
The recipe for which was immortalized in Isabella Beaton's 1861 'Book of Household Management' as
"Victoria Sandwiches. Ingredients: 4 eggs their weight in pounded sugar, butter, and flour, a quarter salt spoon of salt,
a layer of any kind of jam or marmalade. Mode - beat the butter to a cream; dredge in the flour and pounded sugar;
stir these ingredients well together, and add the eggs, which should have been previously thoroughly whisked.
When the mixture has been well beaten for about 10 minutes,
butter a Yorkshire pudding tin, pour in the batter, and bake it in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
Let it cool, spread one half of the cake with a layer of nice preserve, place over it the other half of the cake,
press the pieces slightly together, and then cut it into long finger pieces;
pile them in crossbars on a glass dish, and serve."
So this original recipe has some clear differences from its modern counterpart. First there is no whipped cream,
and that wasn't actually added until well into the 20th century. Also no chemical leavener even though when the recipe was written
baking powder was quite popular throughout England.
In later editions they do add some baking powder but even then it's not all that much, but in this original recipe
they depend entirely on the air trapped in the whisking of the butter and the eggs and that can make a cake rise,
but not nearly as much as chemical leavener is going to do and she has you add the flour early on in the recipe,
and then mix it quite a lot so it's going to work in a lot of gluten which is going to make for a very chewy cake, something you don't usually want
but again in subsequent versions she, or the people who were writing the book at that point,
change it and and add the flour at the very end
and then add some baking powder. So if you want to add a couple teaspoons of baking powder, flour at the end, go right ahead.
But I want to see what this very first recipe tasted like so I'm gonna follow her rules as closely as I can.
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Though while you don't have to do a lot of measuring with Hellofresh if you're following this recipe from 1861 for Victoria sandwiches
you do need to do some measuring. So for this recipe what you'll need is:
four eggs, one cup plus two tablespoons or 225 grams of caster sugar, two sticks or 225 grams of softened butter,
a little less than 2 cups or 225 grams of flour, and a pinch of salt.
Also it's important that all of those ingredients are room temperature or else you're going to have trouble getting them to combine.
You'll also need some jam and you can and buy jam, she actually says buying jam is less work and you should just do that,
but she also has recipes for jam so if you want to make your own strawberry jam
then what you'll need is: one pound or 450 grams fresh hulled strawberries,
one and a half cups or 300 grams of jam sugar. So jam sugar has some pectin added in and that's what she uses for her jam,
and you can make jam without it but it's going to be a lot looser. Delicious but looser,
and it's not going to be great for making this. You want a nice firm jam.
And two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.
So making the jam is very easy but you really do want to make it the day before because it does take a while to set.
So first chop up the berries into small pieces then add them into a medium bowl with the sugar and the lemon juice,
and set the pot over medium heat and mix the ingredients together. Continue to stir until the sugar is fully melted,
then raise the heat a little bit and bring it to a boil mashing the berries as they soften.
Let it continue to simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the jam reaches 220 degrees Fahrenheit or 105 Celcius,
and make sure the entire time that you're stirring the jam every minute or so just to make sure nothing is scorching.
As soon as it hits 220 degrees remove it from the heat and continue to stir for just a minute.
Then pour it into a jar, or as we'll be using pretty much the whole thing to make the cake, you can just put it into a bowl.
Then let it cool completely preferably overnight in the fridge,
and the next day you can start working on your cake.
So first beat the butter until it's nice and fluffy then add the sugar and cream them together.
Then whisk the salt into the flour and if you're adding baking powder add it here as well.
Then stir the flour into the butter until somewhat incorporated. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs until they're nice and frothy.
Then mix them with the butter and flour mixture.
And you need to make sure it's completely mixed and in subsequent recipes she says to add a little bit of milk until you have a nice pourable batter.
Then pour the batter into a buttered or parchment lined rectangular tin.
It's a little confusing here because she says to put it into a Yorkshire pudding tin which if you look that up today looks like this
but in the 1800s and sometimes still today Yorkshire puddings were made in large rectangular tins.
Then smooth the top of the cake and set it in the oven on the middle rack at 350 degrees or 175 Celsius
for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Then take it out of the oven, let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes
and then remove it and let it cool completely. Now as this cake is traditionally enjoyed with a cup of tea
I wanted to do something on the history of tea but it is a huge vast history
and it can actually be quite dark and political at times, so I think it's going to need to be a whole series of videos in the future.
And since our cake I think without the the baking powder
might be a little dense today I figured I would keep the history on the lighter side.
Now nobody knows exactly when tea got to England it was probably in the 1650s
but it was in 1662 that it gained some notoriety
as a large chest of dried tea leaves was part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry.
She was the daughter of King John IV of Portugal and married Charles II, restored King of England,
and lover of little dogs named after him.
As a favorite drink of the new Queen it very quickly became the official drink at Court and was enjoyed
by the super, super wealthy because it was really, really expensive.
Coming all the way from China tea not only cost a great deal of money
but it came with stories of elaborate tea ceremonies in China and Japan.
And the Europeans longed to experience just a little bit of that ceremony, though the Europeans very quickly made it their own
when they started adding milk to it.
Partly to cool it down according to early writings and was also done for its health benefits
as one medical declaration from the 1660s claimed
"[Tea] (being prepared and drink with milk and water) strengtheneth the inward parts, and prevents consumption
and powerfully assuages the pains of the bowels or griping of the guts or looseness."
A time before Pepto-Bismol.
The problem was very few people can still enjoy it because it was still very expensive,
and not long after in the early 18th century it was gaining the reputation as being a drink for ladies,
not because it was particularly feminine but because the more popular at that time coffee was, at least publicly, a man's drink.
As London's coffee houses didn't admit women patrons.
But in 1717 one of the proprietors of those coffee houses Thomas Twining expanded to include tea along with the coffee.
He'd been selling the beverage since 1706 but in this shop The Golden Lion it catered to both men and women.
"Great ladies flocked to Twining's house and Devereaux Court in order to sip the enlivening beverage in small cups
for which they paid their shillings."
Throughout the 18th century the price of tea dropped dramatically so everyone could enjoy it,
and it really did become a meal all of it's own.
And a meal of tea and meat dishes known then as high tea or sometimes the more on the nose "meat tea"
became very popular with the middle and lower classes though the meal actually replaced
the evening meal instead of just adding a fourth meal to the day.
Also to clear up some confusion, at least here in the U.S., many times when we say high tea we mean something very fancy
because I guess the word high is in it and it seems like high and Almighty or whatever but actually high tea was
the more common tea and it was called high tea partly because it was eaten at a high table, a dinner table,
rather than low tea or afternoon tea which was eaten at a low table or like a coffee table today,
but these different combinations of tea and food being served to together
were not necessarily a daily occurrence for most people and it wasn't until the 1840s that afternoon tea
became an established custom and credit for this change is often given to Anna Russell the seventh Duchess of Bedford.
At that time the daily agenda for your average unbelievably wealthy person in England
was a large breakfast and then a smaller less formal lunch and then dinner at 8PM
with nothing to nosh on in between those two meals.
I'm a snacker so I couldn't do it and it seems that the Duchess couldn't either.
For between four and five o'clock she would complain of a sinking feeling
and indulge in a pot of tea and some bread or cakes,
the recognized establishment of the daily afternoon tea.
Now later the practice of afternoon tea would become an established custom for many, many people but
in those early days it seemed that afternoon tea had to be taken rather covertly.
One of the early guests of these afternoon teas was the actress Fanny Kemble
and she wrote in 1842 when visiting Belvoir Castle "I received on several occasions
private and rather mysterious invitations to the Duchess of Bedford's room,
and found her with a 'small and select' circle of female guests of the castle busily employed and brewing and drinking tea,
with her grace's own private tea-kettle."
And she said that those first afternoon teas were a "very private and, I think, rather shamefaced practice of it."
But it didn't stay shame-faced for long because the Duchess Anna Russell was good friends with Queen Victoria,
and so when the Duchess did something it was cool simply because the Duchess did it.
She was the Regina George of 19th century England,
and when I say that she was Regina George I mean it because the Duchess was a mean girl.
See there's a story about another lady at court Lady Flora Hastings and Lady Flora was highly educated and
notorious for her stinging wit something that the other ladies at court didn't seem to enjoy very much.
Well in 1839 she caused a little bit of a scandal when she rode in a carriage unaccompanied
from Scotland to London with Sir John Conroy, tongues began to wag.
And just a few months later Flora went to go see the Queen's own physician with a complaint of nausea and swelling in her lower abdomen,
and without doing a full examination he did declare that she was pregnant
even though she wasn't married... Of course she denied it but it was too late.
The rumor mill was in full swing headed by Baroness Louise Lehzen and the Duchess Anna Russell.
The rumor eventually reached Queen Victoria who by all accounts in those early days of her reign
was kind of a mean girl herself and she treated lady Flora very poorly and very publicly.
It was actually something that later on in life Queen Victoria would say that she great regretted,
so to defend her honor Lady Flora was forced to publish a letter in The Examiner newspaper
but her belly continued to grow and her reputation was beyond repair at that point,
and a few months later she died and they did an an autopsy
only to find the cause to be a large tumor on her liver.
Well now the Queen obviously did have some remorse later on
but as far as I could find there was no remorse on the side of either Baroness Lehzenor Duchess Russel.
Mean Girls like I said.
But they did give England afternoon tea and by the 1870s it had become de rigueur for fashionable ladies of London
to host their own afternoon teas where they would invite people over.
And while it was no longer a shame-faced practice as it was at the beginning
it was still done with a bit of secrecy often not having any servants present
so the ladies and sometimes gentlemen could speak freely.
Now the establishment of the afternoon tea even inspired a new type of garment, the tea gown.
"Everyone knows that a tea-gown is a hybrid between a wrapper and a ball dress.
It has always a train and usually long flowing sleeves; is made of rather gorgeous materials and goes on easily...
It can very properly be put on for tea, and if one is dining at home, kept on for dinner."
So it was less formal than other dresses and could be put on without the help of a maid,
but perhaps the most important thing was that "As its use usually enables ladies to dispense with the corset,
the hygienic value of the tea-gown is apparent... the wearing of it is a fashion which,
it may be hoped for the sake of those who follow it, may be more than just a passing fancy."
And it was more than just a passing fancy as tea gowns were worn from the 1870s all the way through the early 1930s,
and during that period afternoon tea evolved and became very popular with men and women alike.
In fact one of the most eloquent praises of afternoon tea comes from just such a gentleman.
The author George Gissing "Nowhere is the English prodigy of domesticity more notably evidenced than in the festival of afternoon tea.
One of the shining moments of my days is that when, having returned a little weary from an outdoor walk.
I exchange boots for slippers, out-of-doors coat for easy familiar shabby jacket,
and in my deep soft elbowed chair, await the tea tray."
Alas I have no tea tray nor a servant to bring it to me, nor a tea gown to wear for the occasion so
I'm going to have to be a little more casual in my enjoying tea and cake but first
I have to actually finish the cake.
So once it is completely cooled slice the cake into little finger sandwiches.
Now she says to cut the cake in half and then put on the jam and then cut it into fingers and I'll tell you right now
it makes a bit of a mess so it's just better to do it this way.
Slice each of the fingers in half, then spread the cooled jam on one half and place the other half on top,
and she doesn't mention it here but in later editions she does sprinkle on a bit of powdered sugar.
And here we Victoria Victorian sandwiches.
So with the cake you're probably going to want a cup of tea. Now Earl Gray is my usual go-to and Darjeeling was the favorite of that mean girl Duchess,
but today I'm going to try a tea that was actually sent to me by Matt Beige who was the person who designed the opening intro for Tasting History.
Matt and his sister Kendra run Cosplay Cafe and they sent me three blends which you can actually get online.
Fire, grass and water type and since I always choose Squirtle
I'm going to try the water type. The herbs and flowers in the tea actually color the drink so it's a lot of fun to drink.
A perfect accompaniment to the sandwiches. Let's give it a go.
So it's definitely denser than a modern Victoria sponge, I mean there is no chemical leavener and then
adding the flour in that early on in the recipe is just crazy but it is not as dense as I would have thought.
There's actually a really nice crumb to it and the flavor is fantastic.
It's sweet and it's interesting because it almost has like a vanilla quality but there is no vanilla in it.
The jam is fantastic. It is really, really sweet but it still maintains so much strawberry flavor.
I mean I definitely suggest making it yourself if you can find good berries which is not always easy.
So would I make this again? Not this recipe because the modern recipe is just better.
We've just come so far in cake making, so go look at Mary Berry's recipe or any of those on the BBC website they're all fantastic.
And it's just going to be a little bit more to most people's taste.
But this is also really, really good.
So make sure to follow me on Instagram @tastinghistorywithmaxmiller and I'll put a link in the description to where you can go check out Cosplay Cafe
and see about their teas and I will see you next time on Tasting History.
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