Jane Austen on the Disagreeable Richness of Cake
Quarantine has me on a baking frenzy, and judging by the sudden rarity of flour and yeast on store shelves, I can deduce that so it is with many. I’ve made everything from tiered cakes, to cookies, panna cotta, raspberry delight, and apple squares (don’t worry they don’t go to waste, the neighbours happily acquiesce to indulging in my sweet deliveries). You can see some below:
Left: Ginger Stem Cookies; Middle: Strawberry Panna Cotta and White Chocolate Cake; Right: Raspberry Ripple Delight (all recipes my own).
In times of quarantine, I say sneak a cake or two, steal a cookie from the cookie jar, no one’s watching anyway.
Jane Austen, what with her witty tongue-in-cheek remarks, had something to say about the peculiar and truly outlandish sort of individual who should not enjoy cake. Writing of the Westons’ wedding, Austen describes a scene of great hilarity and much cake:
The compliments of his neighbours were over; he was no longer teased by being wished joy of so sorrowful an event; and the wedding-cake, which had been a great distress to him, was all eat up. His own stomach could bear nothing rich, and he could never believe other people to be different from himself. What was unwholesome to him, he regarded as unfit for anybody; and he had, therefore, earnestly tried to dissuade them from having any wedding-cake at all, and when that proved vain, as earnestly tried to prevent any body’s eating it. He had been at the pains of consulting Mr. Perry, the apothecary, on the subject. Mr. Perry was an intelligent, gentlemanlike man, whose frequent visits were one of the comforts of Mr. Woodhouse’s life; and, upon being applied to, he could not but acknowledge, (though it seemed rather against the bias of inclination,) that wedding-cake might certainly disagree with many — perhaps with most people, unless taken moderately. With such an opinion, in confirmation of his own, Mr. Woodhouse hoped to influence every visitor of the new-married pair; but still the cake was eaten; and there was no rest for his benevolent nerves till it was all gone.
There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrys being seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston’s wedding cake in their hands: but Mr. Woodhouse would never believe it.
To all my readers, I solemnly declare that I should do no such thing “prevent anybody’s eating” all manner of cakes and sweets, nor will I ever presume a thing of such “richness” to be “unfit” for anybody! No, indeed, I will rather put on my apron, get out the butter and eggs, and whip you up a a treat faster than you can say raspberry delight.
If not now, when?
Thought of the Day
In times of quarantine, I say, sneak a cake or two, steal a cookie from the cookie jar, no one’s watching anyway. Jane Austen writes of the outlandish sort of individual who would “earnestly try to dissuade [guests] from having any wedding cake” due it being far too rich a treat. To all my readers, I solemnly declare that I shall do no such thing “prevent anybody’s eating” all manner of cakes and sweets. I will rather put on my apron, get out the butter and eggs, and whip you up a a treat faster than you can say raspberry delight!
-Gabriela Milkova
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